Dimensional standards
Lot
Uses
Permitted by right57
- Food, beverages, and groceries
- Nursery, plant
- Outdoor vending, fresh fruits, and vegetables
- Retail art studio
- Retail bakery
- Retail sales, goods, and merchandise
- Seasonal sales
- Certified farmers' market, small
- Neighborhood agriculture
- Child day care center located on an existing School Site or as an incident to a permitted on-site church/religious assembly use involving no building additions or changes to the site
- Instructional art studios
- Private instruction, personal enrichment
- School, driving (class C & M license)
- School, post-secondary
- Arcade, amusement game
- Health club, gymnasium
- Performing arts rehearsal space
- Poolroom/billiards establishment
- Recreation, commercial indoor
- Caterer
- Commercial kitchen
- Drinking establishments interior to a full-service hotel or motel that includes 75 or more guest rooms
- Public eating establishments
- Public eating establishment or retail establishment with incidental outdoor dining
- Public eating establishment in conjunction with a winery, brewery, or distillery
- Bail bond establishment - outside main jail area
- Bail bond establishment - within main jail area
- Bed and breakfast Inn
- Dry cleaner
- Hotel or motel
- Laundromat
- Maintenance and repair, small household appliances
- Messenger services
- Mortuary and funeral Services
- Personal services
- Photo processing and developing
- Printing and publishing
- Animal boarding, indoor
- Animal grooming
- Office, medical
- Veterinary clinic
- Automatic teller machine
- Business support
- Financial services
- Office, general business
- Retail bank
- Museums, libraries, parks, playgrounds, or community centers (publicly operated)
- Emergency residential shelter outside of Airport Influence Area (150 beds or fewer)
- Low barrier navigation center
- Mixed use residential/commercial within Neighborhood Business District Overlay
- Residential service facility for seven or more persons
- Wireless communication antenna, building mounted
- Fuel cells
- Solar photovoltaic system
- Temporary stand-by/backup
- Auto dealer, wholesale - no on-site storage
- Sale, vehicle parts
Conditional / special use50
- Alcohol, off-sale - beer and/or wine only
- Alcohol, off-sale - full range of alcoholic beverages
- Alcohol, off-sale - as incidental to a winery, brewery, or distillery
- Pawn shop/broker
- Aquaculture, aquaponics, and hydroponics
- Certified farmers' market
- Drive-through uses in conjunction with any use
- Day care center
- School, elementary and secondary (public or private)
- School, trade and vocational
- Private club or lodge
- Recreation, commercial outdoor
- Stadium, 2,000 seats or fewer
- Theater, indoor
- Banquet facility
- Drinking establishments
- Single room occupancy (SRO) hotel
- Social service agency
- Emergency ambulance service
- Hospital/in-patient facility
- Historic landmark structure reuse
- Use
- Cemetery
- Church/religious assembly
- Museums, libraries, parks, playgrounds, or community centers (privately operated)
- Emergency residential shelter within Airport Influence Area
- Emergency residential shelter outside of Airport Influence Area (more than 150 beds)
- Hotel supportive housing
- Live/work uses
- Mixed use residential/commercial outside Neighborhood Business District Overlay
- Residential care facility for seven or more persons
- Single room occupancy, living unit
- Common carrier depot
- Community television antenna systems
- Parking establishment, off-street
- Utility facilities, excluding corporation yards, storage or repair yards and warehouses
- Wireless communication antenna
- Wireless communication antenna, slimline monopole
- Co-generation facility
- Private electrical power generation facility
- Stand-by/backup facilities that do exceed noise or air standards
- Accessory installation, passenger vehicles and pick-up trucks
- Car wash, detailing
- Fuel service station or charge station, no incidental service or repair
- Fuel service station or charge station with incidental service and repair
- Glass sales, installation, and tinting
- Leasing (rental) passenger vehicles, pick-up trucks not exceeding twenty-five feet in length, and motorcycles
- Sale, brokerage, or lease, commercial vehicles
- Sale or brokerage, passenger vehicles, pick-up trucks not exceeding 25 feet in length, and motorcycles
- Tires, batteries, lube, oil change, smog check station, air conditioning servicing of passenger vehicles and pick-up trucks
Accessory5
- Outdoor vending
- Taproom or tasting room with off-sale of alcohol
- Reverse vending machine
- Small collection facility
- Stand-by/backup facilities that do not exceed noise or air standards
Extracted standards
24 individual requirements pulled out of this section’s prose, each with the sentence it came from.
Height
- HeightMaximum heightThe tallest a building may be, given in feet, in storeys, or both — whichever binds first. exception for SRO and mixed projects
In any commercial district, the maximum height restrictions shall not apply to SRO residential hotels, SRO living unit facilities and mixed commercial/residential projects.
Lighting
- Light fixture heightMaximum heightThe tallest a building may be, given in feet, in storeys, or both — whichever binds first. adjacent to residential8 ft
Light fixture heights should not exceed eight feet when adjacent to residential uses unless the setback of the fixture from property line is twice the height of the fixture.
- Lighting direction near riparian areas
Any lighting located adjacent to riparian areas shall be directed downward and away from riparian areas.
- Lighting shielded from residential
Any and all lighting facilities hereafter erected, constructed, or used in connection with any use conducted on any property situate adjacent to a site or lot used for residential purposes shall be arranged and shielded that all light will be reflected away from any residential use so that there will be no glare which will cause unreasonable.
- Maximum ground mounted light fixture heightMaximum heightThe tallest a building may be, given in feet, in storeys, or both — whichever binds first.25 ft
No ground mounted light fixture shall exceed twenty-five feet in height.
Noise
- Maximum noise level adjacent to commercial60 dB
Table 20-105: Commercial or PQP use adjacent to a property used or zoned for commercial or other non-residential purposes: 60.
- Maximum noise level adjacent to residential55 dB
The sound pressure level generated by any use or combination of uses on a property shall not exceed the decibel levels indicated in Table 20-105 at any property line, except upon issuance and in compliance with a special use permit. Table 20-105: Commercial or PQP use adjacent to a property used or zoned for residential purposes: 55.
Other
- Air emissions threshold
Total emissions from any use or combination of uses on a site shall not exceed the emissions and health risk thresholds as established by the director of planning.
- Short-term bicycle parking front setbackSetbackThe distance a building must be held back from a lot line.5 ft
Short-term Bicycle Parking Facilities that meet the following requirements: ... Maintenance of a minimum of a five (5) foot Front Setback Area that is open, unobstructed, and unoccupied.
- Hours of operation restriction
No establishment other than office uses, in any commercial district shall be open between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 6:00 a.m. except pursuant to and in compliance with a conditional use permit.
- Maximum fence heightMaximum heightThe tallest a building may be, given in feet, in storeys, or both — whichever binds first. in street setbackSetbackThe distance a building must be held back from a lot line.4 ft
any portion thereof situate in the required setback area from abutting public streets shall be not more than four feet.
- Minimum lot areaMinimum lot areaThe smallest parcel on which the district allows anything to be built. exception for subdivision lots
In all commercial districts, the minimum area of a lot, whose area as shown on a final subdivision map approved by the city, is less than the minimum required but not less than five thousand square feet, shall be the area shown for such lot or parcel on such subdivision map.
- Minimum screening heightMaximum heightThe tallest a building may be, given in feet, in storeys, or both — whichever binds first.5 ft
The screening required hereby shall be a masonry wall or a solid wooden fence five feet in height.
- Outdoor activity hours restriction
No outdoor activity, including loading, sweeping, landscaping or maintenance shall occur within one-hundred fifty feet of any residentially zoned property between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 6:00 a.m. except pursuant to and in compliance with a conditional use permit.
- Outdoor use within 150 ft of residential requires special use permitConditional useAllowed only after a discretionary approval — usually a public hearing and a board vote.
No use, which in whole or in part, consists of, includes, or involves any outdoor activity or sale or storage of goods, products, merchandise or food outdoors shall occur on any lands if any part of such lands or any part of the lot on which such buildings are located is situated within one hundred fifty feet of residentially zoned property situate within or outside the city except with a special use permit.
- Permanent structure required
No use shall be deemed to be a permitted use on a site in any commercial district unless it is being conducted as part of a business which maintains on that site a permanent, fully enclosed building erected pursuant to a valid building permit issued for that site, excepting only those uses specifically permitted, under this part or this title, to operate without a permanent building on site.
- Residential use cannot serve nonresidents
No residential use which includes the provision of service to residents may offer services to nonresidents.
- No perceptible vibration
There shall be no activity on any site that causes ground vibration that is perceptible without instruments at the property line of the site.
Setback
- Architectural features projection2 ft
Sills, eaves, belt courses, cornices, canopies, and other similar architectural features may project horizontally for a distance of not more than two (2) feet into the air space above the surface of the ground in any Setback Area.
- Basement window projection2 ft
In addition to projection into the Setback Area allowed under Subsection B., wells for Basement windows or stairs of up to ten (10) feet in length each, not occupying in the aggregate more than twenty percent (20%) of the length of the side of the Building on which they are located, may project horizontally for a distance of not more than two (2) feet into the Side and Rear Setback Area, provided that such extensions maintain a minimum Setback of three (3) feet.
- Bay window projection2 ft
Any portion of a building (including but not limited to bay windows, chimneys, or architectural elements that project out from the primary surface of the Building Facade) not occupying in the aggregate more than twenty percent (20%) of the length of the side of the Building, may project horizontally for a distance of not more than two (2) feet into any Setback Area, provided that such extensions maintain a minimum Setback of at least three (3) feet.
- Front setbackSetbackThe distance a building must be held back from a lot line. from adjacent residential districtZoning districtA mapped area with one set of rules, identified by a code like R-1 or B-2.
Where lots situate on one side of a street between two intersecting streets are situate partly in a commercial district and partly in a residence district, the front setback requirements applicable to such residence district shall apply to all lots in the Commercial District, except that where a lot or lots situate within a Commercial District are located on one side of a street between an intersecting street and a lot located in a Residence District, the front setback requirements of the Residence District shall apply only to that portion of the lot or lots situate in the Commercial District that is located within twenty feet of the lot situate within a Residence District.
- Rear setbackSetbackThe distance a building must be held back from a lot line. when abutting commercial0 ft
there shall be no rear setback for property situate in any commercial district whenever the entire rear property line of such property abuts property situate in any commercial district or less restrictive district.
- Tankless water heater projection2 ft
Tankless water heaters, heat pumps, and power inverters may project horizontally for a distance of not more than two (2) feet into any Setback Area provided such extensions maintain a minimum side setback of three feet.
From the ordinance
Commercial district exceptions and standards.