§ 58-77. Commercial (C-3A) district.

(a)

Purpose and intent. Certain areas of the city that are close to residential areas are commercially zoned so as to meet the retail and service needs of the neighboring area. These neighborhood commercial areas have smaller market areas with businesses that predominantly cater to the needs of the immediate area versus depending upon the trade area of the entire community or larger area. As such, the types of businesses and the sizes of buildings permitted within this commercial zone must be sensitive to the adjacent residential environment and, thus, exclude those uses and building sizes which can negatively impact the surrounding residential area with traffic generation, parking, deliveries, noise and such.

(b)

Permitted uses. All business uses and activities shall be conducted exclusively and wholly within an enclosed building except those uses permitted which are customarily conducted in the open such as off-street parking, plant and landscape garden sales and outdoor patio dining. Storage shall be limited to accessory storage of commodities sold at retail on the premises and storage shall be within a completely enclosed building. Some minimal display of bulk merchandise for sale within the business may be permitted outside and adjacent to an enclosed building but only if under a permanent covered building canopy but not to include vending machines.

(1)

Retail businesses involving the sale of merchandise on the premises within enclosed buildings and excluding resale items (except for clothing) or pawn shops and liquor stores. Convenience stores but specifically excluding such stores that offer fuel sales;

(2)

Establishments involved in the rendering of a personal or business service, including banks or similar financial institutions, barber shops, beauty and nail salons, cosmetic treatments, day care/schools, dry-cleaning establishments, theaters, and travel agencies. Tattoo, body art or fortune-telling businesses are prohibited;

(3)

Funeral homes or mortuaries without incinerators;

(4)

Business, financial, governmental, medical and professional offices, agencies and clinics;

(5)

Off-street parking lot except not involving the parking or storage of construction equipment, trucks, drill rigs, etc., or for use by truck/van rental companies;

(6)

Permanent recreational facilities within enclosed soundproof buildings but excluding adult video arcades;

(7)

Blueprinting, photocopying and printing offices;

(8)

Uses customarily incidental and accessory to the permitted uses, including the repair of goods of the types sold in stores, permitted. Such repair must be carried on within a completely enclosed building, may not be carried on as a separate business, and provided further that there shall be no manufacturing, assembling, compounding, processing or treatment of products, other than that which is clearly incidental and essential to the permitted uses;

(9)

Churches, nonprofit organizations' halls/lodges and schools less than 5,000 square feet in size (see parking requirements for limitations).

(c)

Conditional uses. The following uses may also be permitted as conditional uses following review by the planning and zoning commission and approval by the city commission in accordance with the provisions of this article. See section 58-90, conditional uses.

(1)

Restaurants but excluding bars, taverns, cocktail lounges and liquor package stores.

(2)

Office/showroom/warehouse use.

(3)

Drive-in components of any business.

(4)

Buildings over 10,000 square feet or any addition over 500 square feet to an existing building over 10,000 square feet or additions over 500 square feet to existing buildings that result in a building over 10,000 square feet in size.

(5)

Any conditional use provided in the R-3 or R-4 districts if limited to the site and improvement regulations of this district.

(6)

Any building with residential units as a component of the building. However, time shares are not permitted.

(7)

Churches, nonprofit organizations' halls/lodges, and schools 5,000 square feet or larger in size. (See parking requirements for limitations).

(d)

Minimum building site. There shall be no minimum lot area; however, the lot must have a minimum frontage of 50 feet on a street.

(e)

Development standards.

(1)

Any building constructed within this district shall adhere to the following minimum or required setbacks for front, rear and side yards. The front setback from all streets shall be a minimum of ten feet from the property line. Side yard setbacks shall be a minimum of five feet from each property line unless the parcel shares a common line with a residentially-zoned parcel, then a 15-foot setback shall be observed. The rear setback shall be a minimum of 30 feet from the property line. However, within the Hannibal Square Neighborhood Commercial District, as set forth in this section, new buildings shall have a required ten-foot front setback and may be permitted zero-foot side setbacks unless the parcel shares a common line with a residentially-zoned parcel, then a 15-foot setback shall be observed. For any required front setback, the distance may be increased upon the determination by the public works director and police chief that a traffic sight distance safety problem may exist to the extent necessary to correct the problem.

(2)

If a person constructing a building within this district desires to combine the minimum side yard setbacks and provide them on only one side of the lot, a site plan showing the locations of the proposed building as well as the location of existing adjacent building must be submitted to the planning and zoning commission for approval prior to the issuance to a building permit to ensure sufficient compatibility with adjacent properties. This reduction to the required side setback, however, shall not be permitted if adjacent to a residentially-zoned parcel.

(3)

The maximum floor area ratio and building lot coverage shall be 45 percent. The floor area ratio shall include the floor area of any attached or detached above-grade private parking garage. The 45 percent floor area ratio and building lot coverage may be increased by an additional five percent if the parking for the increased five percent floor area ratio is located entirely underground beneath the building's footprint or if the building's upper floor(s) are cantilevered over such parking.

(4)

Exclusively residential buildings are not permitted. Residential units are not permitted on the first or ground floor. When residential units are included on the second floor or above, the floor area ratio of the project may be up to 60 percent FAR, but the maximum floor space that can be devoted to nonresidential (office) uses is 45 percent floor area ratio. Limited residential use of the first or ground floor of such buildings may be permitted when limited to the functions of entrance lobby/elevator/stair access, leasing or management office or residential amenity spaces such as health/fitness, meeting/activity room or storage. However, in no case shall more than 15 percent of the first or ground floor be devoted to these ancillary residential uses (not counting the area of parking garages).

(5)

The maximum floor area ratios outlined above are not an entitlement and are not achievable in all situations. Many factors may limit the achievable floor area ratio, including limitations imposed by the maximum height map, concurrency management/level of service standards, physical limitations imposed by property dimensions and natural features as well as compliance with applicable code requirements such as, but not limited to, parking and internal circulation, setbacks, landscaping requirements, impervious lot coverage, design standards and on-site and off-site improvements and design amenities required to achieve land use compatibility. Land located across a street and/or separated from the building site shall not be included in the floor area ratio calculations.

(6)

The maximum residential density shall not exceed 17 units per acre.

(7)

Building heights (in stories) shall not exceed two stories, and shall not exceed a 30-foot height limit.

(8)

Parapet walls, or mansard roofs functioning as parapet walls, may be added to the permitted building height but in no case shall extend more than five feet above the height limits in this subsection. Mechanical penthouses, mechanical and air-conditioning equipment, elevator/stair towers and related nonoccupied structures may be permitted to extend up to ten feet above the height limits in this subsection. Architectural appendages, embellishments and other architectural features may be permitted to exceed the roof heights specified in this section, on a limited basis, encompassing no more than 30 percent of the building roof length and area, up to eight feet of additional height, upon approval of the city commission, based on finding that said features are compatible with adjacent projects.

(9)

Terracing and articulation requiring additional setbacks are required to create relief to the overall massing of the building facades. Such design features of building facade articulation are required at least every 60 feet, on average, along the primary building facades facing streets or the building frontage onto its primary parking lot area.

(10)

Whenever the rear or side property lines within this district share a common property line with parcels zoned residential, either a solid wall or fence (other than wood) shall be provided along the entire common line. The wall or fence shall be six feet in height; except that such wall or fence shall be only three feet in height from the front setback line of the adjoining parcel to the front property line of the adjoining parcel.

(11)

The maximum impervious coverage shall be 85 percent of any property.

(12)

Other code sections related to development that should be referenced include, but are not limited to, off-street parking regulations, maximum height map, general provisions, definitions, sign regulations (article IV), environmental protection (article V) (this section includes division 1, stormwater; division 6, tree preservation; division 8, landscape regulations; division 9, irrigation regulations; and division 10, exterior lighting), subdivision regulations (article VI), historic preservation (article VIII) and concurrency management regulations (article II).

[(f)

Reserved.]

(g)

Hannibal Square Neighborhood Commercial District .

(1)

The Hannibal Square Neighborhood Commercial District (HSNCD) area in this context shall be restricted to the following areas:

a.

Properties abutting Morse Boulevard between Capen Avenue and Virginia Avenue;

b.

Properties abutting New England Avenue between Pennsylvania and New York Avenues;

c.

Properties abutting Pennsylvania Avenue between Lyman and Garfield Avenues, including those existing commercial properties just north of Garfield Avenue; and

d.

Properties abutting Hannibal Square East.

(2)

In order to implement the comprehensive plan and the community redevelopment area (CRA) plan, there are established special provisions for the development of buildings and other improvements in this area which shall take precedence over other provisions of this article as henceforth specified.

(3)

In this HSNCD area, third floors shall be restricted and limited to residential use only, and a deed restriction to that effect, enforceable by the city, shall be required as a condition of obtaining a building permit for the construction of a third floor.

(4)

Building heights on the north end of Pennsylvania Avenue shall be two stories maximum when transitioning to residential.

(5)

Development approvals must ensure that compatible land use relationships occur, particularly between land uses within perimeter areas of the HSNCD and areas 500 feet outside this area so as to protect the surrounding residential areas and institutional uses.

(6)

In this HSNCD area, all new buildings and building additions over 500 square feet shall require site and building plan approval by the city commission at a public hearing. Prior to that hearing, the planning and zoning board shall also review such site and building plans at a public hearing and shall provide their recommendation.

(7)

Notwithstanding the limitations otherwise imposed by this C-3A district, for any lots fronting on New England Avenue from Virginia to New York Avenues, development may be permitted with enhanced density and intensity up to a maximum 100 percent floor area ratio (FAR), provided the following development standards are complied with:

a.

No parking garages would be permitted.

b.

The street front building setback shall be ten feet.

c.

The redevelopment plans would require rear alley access out to Virginia Drive or provisions shall be made for that rear-alley access to be phased in over time as the properties individually redevelop.

d.

The maximum building width along New England Avenue shall be 125 feet before a 15-foot separation is required to break up the mass and create a separate building.

e.

The redevelopment plans on the north and south side of New England Avenue require a 50-foot rear setback from the center lot line of the block as a buffer protection to adjacent residential properties. The 50 feet also provides room for parking along the alley as outlined above.

f.

There shall be a one-foot setback for each one foot of floor height for any third floor and building corner visibility setbacks as deemed necessary.

(k)

Central business district area facade review.

(1)

In addition to the other requirements and regulations of the C-3A zoning district, and prior to the issuance of a building permit for the construction, renovation or remodeling of any building exterior facade fronting on a street within the central business district, an applicant is required to obtain approval of the plans by the planning department.

(2)

For purposes of this subsection, replacements, renovations or changes to canopies or awnings and to signage on walls, canopies or awnings shall be considered remodeling of the building facade.

(3)

Building elevation drawings and other plans shall be submitted with sufficient detail to indicate the building materials, composition, color, etc., so that the visual appearance of the resultant work is readily apparent.

(4)

The planning department shall render a decision on all applications for building permits for building facade construction, renovation or remodeling. The decision of the planning department shall be made within ten working days, excluding holidays, of the receipt of a complete set of plans and application materials, unless referred to the planning and zoning commission for review as outlined below.

(5)

The planning department's decision shall be either an approval, an approval with conditions or denial. Any applicant for building facade approval may elect to appeal a decision of the planning department to the planning and zoning commission for their consideration.

(6)

Decisions by the planning department and/or the planning and zoning commission shall be made based on the conformance of plans and application materials to design guidelines and criteria adopted by the city commission.

(7)

The decision of the planning and zoning commission shall be the final decision of the city except where a building project also requires conditional use or other land development approval by the city commission. In that case, the decision of the planning and zoning commission shall be a recommendation with the final decision made by the city commission.

(g)

Morse Boulevard design guidelines.

(1)

The Morse Boulevard designated area is defined as those properties fronting Morse Boulevard between New York Avenue and Denning Drive and additionally the properties in the blocks bounded by Morse Boulevard, Denning Drive, Canton Avenue and Harper Street.

(2)

In addition to the other requirements and regulations of the C-3A zoning district and prior to the issuance of a building permit for the construction, renovation or remodeling of any building or building exterior facade fronting on a street within the Morse Boulevard designated area, an applicant is required to obtain approval of the plans by the planning department.

(3)

Building elevation drawings and other plans shall be submitted of sufficient detail to indicate the building materials, composition, color, etc., so that the visual appearance of the resultant work is readily apparent.

(4)

For purposes of this subsection, replacements, renovations or changes to canopies or awnings and to signage on walls, canopies or awnings shall be considered remodeling of the building facade.

(5)

The planning department shall render a decision on all applications for building permits for building facade construction, renovation or remodeling. The decision of the planning department shall be made within ten working days, excluding holidays, of the receipt of a complete set of plans and application materials, unless referred to the planning and zoning commission for review as outlined below.

(6)

The planning department's decision shall be either an approval, an approval with conditions or denial. Any applicant for building facade approval may elect to appeal a decision of the planning department to the planning and zoning commission for their consideration.

(7)

Decisions by the planning department and/or the planning and zoning commission shall be made based on the conformance of plans and application materials to the Morse Boulevard design guidelines and criteria adopted by the city commission.

(8)

The decision of the planning and zoning commission shall be the final decision of the city except where a building project also requires conditional use or other land development approval by the city commission. In that case, the decision of the planning and zoning commission shall be a recommendation with the final decision made by the city commission.

(Ord. No. 2332, § 5, 10-26-99; Ord. No. 2551-03, § 4, 11-24-03; Ord. No. 2646-05, § 6, 9-12-05; Ord. No. 2796-10, § 1(Exh. A), 2-22-10; Ord. No. 2849-11, § 8, 9-12-11)