§ 2. Definitions.
For the purposes of these regulations, certain terms or words used herein shall be defined as follows:
2-1. Interpretation of Certain Terms and Words. Words used in the present tense include the future tense. Words used in the singular include the plural, and words used in the plural include the singular.
The word "person" includes a firm, partnership, company, corporation or association.
The word "lot" includes the word "plot" or "parcel."
The word "building" includes the word "structure."
The word "shall" is always mandatory, and not merely discretionary.
The word "used" or "occupied" as applied to any land or building, shall be construed to include the words "intended," "arranged" or "designed to be used or occupied."
Accessory Building. A detached, subordinate structure, the use of which is clearly incidental to, customarily associated with, and related to the principal structure or use of the land; and which is located on the same lot as the principal structure or use, including residential swimming pools.
Administrator, Land Development. The person, officer, or official and his authorized representative, whom the County Commission has designated as its agent for the administration of these regulations. (See Section 11-1.)
Adult Entertainment. Performances by topless and/or bottomless dancers, strippers or similar entertainers, where such performances are characterized by the display or exposure of anatomical areas.
Adult Entertainment Establishments. A commercial establishment, which has as its primary purposes or business the offer for sale, rent, or distribution of any book, publication, tape, CD, DVD, or any media that depicts nudity, or sexual conduct or engages in services such as bath houses, massage parlors, wrestling parlors or like activity, including a night club, restaurant, cabaret, lounge, or other establishment which features adult entertainment.
Agriculture. The production, keeping or maintenance, for sale, lease or personal use, of plants and animals useful to man, including, but not limited to: forages and sod crops, grains and seed crops; dairy animals and dairy products, poultry and poultry products; livestock, including beef cattle, sheep, swine, horses, ponies, mules, goats, or any mutations or hybrids thereof, including the breeding and grazing of any or all such animals; bees and apiary products, fur animals; trees and forest products; fruits of all kinds, including grapes, nuts and berries; vegetables; nursery, floral, ornamental and greenhouse products; or lands devoted to a soil conservation or forestry management program. Retail selling of products raised on the premises shall be considered a normal accessory activity provided that space adequate for the parking of customer's vehicles shall be provided off the public right-of-way.
Ambulatory. In respect to a person, the ability to move from place to place by walking, either unaided or aided by prosthesis, brace, crutches or hand rails, or by propelling a wheelchair; and can recognize an emergency situation or condition, whether caused by fire or otherwise and escape without human assistance, using the normal means of egress.
Boarding or Rooming House. A building dedicated to the lodging or feeding or both of five or more non-transient persons or separate families as defined herein for compensation.
Buffer Area; Buffer Strip. That portion of a given lot, not covered by buildings, pavement, parking, access and service areas, established as landscaped open space for the purposes of screening and separating properties with incompatible land uses, the width of which is measured from the common property line and extends the developed portion of the common property line. A buffer consists of trees, shrubs, and other natural vegetation undisturbed by grading or site development and replanted where sparsely vegetated or where disturbed for approved access and utility crossings.
Building. Any structure, except a manufactured home or mobile home, which has a roof and which is for the shelter, support or enclosure of persons, animals, or property of any kind.
Building Height. The vertical distance of a building measured from the average elevation of the finished lot grade along the front of the building to the highest point of the building.
Care Home. An ordinance, rest home, nursing home, convalescent home, or similar use established to render domiciliary care, but not including facilities for the care of mental patients, alcoholics, drug addicts and not including nursery schools.
Church. A building in which persons regularly assemble for religious worship intended primarily for purposes connected with such worship, or for propagating a particular form of religious belief.
Club, or Lodge, Private. An incorporated or unincorporated association for civic, social, cultural, religious, fraternal, literary, political, recreational, or like activities, operated for the benefit of its members and not open to the general public.
Comprehensive Plan. The 2015 Greater Lanier Comprehensive Plan, as duly adopted and subsequently amended by the respective member governments of Lanier County. This plan includes Future Land Use Plans and Short-Term Work Programs for each respective local government, including Lanier County.
Curb Cut. The providing of ingress and/or egress between property and an abutting public street.
Density. The overall intensity of land use for the total project. When referring to residential areas, density is defined as the number of housing units permitted per acre in the respective land development district involved in accordance with the terms of this land development ordinance or as authorized under the development standards of this ordinance.
District. Within the concept of land development, a delineated section or sections of Lanier County for which the land development regulations governing the use of buildings and premises, the height of buildings, the size of yards and the intensity of use are uniform.
Dwelling, Single-Family. A detached building used and either designed or constructed for one dwelling unit.
Dwelling, Manufactured Home. A manufactured home is a detached structure transportable in one or more sections, which is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling unit with or without a permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities and includes the plumbing, heating, air conditioning, and electrical systems contained therein. For the purpose of the administration of this ordinance, the term "manufactured home" shall not be interpreted to include mobile homes.
Dwelling, Manufactured Housing Park. An area, under single ownership and not subdivided into customary lots planned for individual ownership, containing three or more manufactured homes used as living facilities having a defined space, or an area containing three or more spaces designed or intended for parking of manufactured homes to be used as living facilities for rent or lease.
Dwelling, Mobile Home. A manufactured home built before June 15, 1976. They do not meet current building codes.
Dwelling, Two-Family, or Duplex. A building either designed, constructed, altered, or used for two adjoining dwelling units that are connected by a fire-rated common wall and/or if two stories in height by a fire-rated common floor.
Dwelling Unit. An enclosure of one (1) or more rooms, including kitchen and bathroom facilities, designed or constructed as a unit for residential occupancy by one (1) family.
Family. One or more persons occupying a premises and living as a single housekeeping unit, as distinguished from a group occupying a boarding house, lodging house, hotel, or fraternity or sorority house.
Farm. A tract of land at least ten (10) acres in size devoted to agricultural purposes.
Flea Market. An outdoor and/or indoor facility established for the purpose of selling at retail such new or used items as household goods, tools, crafts or any other combination of new or used goods. These markets, sales and displays are those that occur continuously or frequently, and specifically more than two times per year, normally at a fixed location where a proprietor, partnership, or corporation leases to vendors a booth, commercial staff or designated area from which the vendor markets his/her goods.
Floor Area, Gross. The total number of square feet of floor area in a building determined by horizontal measurements between the exterior faces of walls, excluding basement areas, attic, porches, carports, and garages.
Garden, Private. A non-commercial private garden which is an accessory use to the primary use of the land development district. The primary use must be present at the same location as the garden in any land development district with the exception of agricultural land development districts.
Good Moral Character. A person is of good moral character if that person has not been convicted of a drug-related or alcohol-related felony or sex-related crime in the past five (5) years.
Guest or Servant Quarters. A detached, subordinate building, located within the rear yard, designed to provide living accommodations for either domestic help in the employment of the property owner, or for guest facilities. Guest or servant quarters shall not exceed seventy-five percent (75%) of the required minimum gross floor area per dwelling unit for the respective land development district in which they are allowed.
Home Occupation/Home Based Business/Rural Home Occupation. An occupation for gain or support customarily conducted on the premises by a person or family residing therein. These uses are governed by the requirements of Sections 9-1, 9-2 and 9-3. Home occupations/Home Based Business/Rural Home Occupations are permitted uses as a matter of right in certain districts pursuant to the schedules of use under Section 5-1.1 and are permitted in other districts only after special review and approval by the Board of County Commissioners as Special Exceptions. (See Sections 9-1, 9-2 and 9-3.)
Hospital. Any institution receiving in-patients, or a public institution receiving out-patients, and authorized under Georgia law to render medical, surgical, and/or obstetrical care. The term "hospital" shall include a sanitarium for the treatment and care of senile psychotics or drug addicts, but shall not include office facilities for the private practice of medicine or dentistry.
Industrialized Building. Industrialized building describes certain manufactured buildings which are regulated by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs. Georgia law defines an Industrialized Building as "any structure or component thereof which is wholly or in substantial part made, fabricated, formed, or assembled in manufacturing facilities for installation or assembly on a building site and has been manufactured in such a manner that all parts or processes cannot be inspected at the installation site without disassembly, damage to, or destruction thereof." Industrialized buildings are constructed and regulated in accordance with the "Industrialized Buildings Act", Georgia Law 1982 (Official Code of Georgia Annotated, Title 8, Chapter 2, Article 2, Part 1.) An industrialized building must meet all requirements of the District in which it is located. Industrialized buildings designed for residential uses are often referred to as "modular homes." For the purposes of enforcement of this ordinance, industrialized residential homes shall be subject to the same standards as site-built homes.
Junk Yard. Use of property for outdoor storage, keeping, abandonment, sale, or resale of junk, including scrap metal, rags, paper or other scrap materials, used lumber, salvaged house wrecking, and structural steel materials and equipment, or for the dismantling, demolition, or abandonment of automobiles or other vehicles or machinery or parts thereof. For the purposes of enforcement of this ordinance, junk yard means anywhere three (3) or more vehicles not in running condition, or the parts thereof, or household appliances are stored in the open or in open buildings. Buffers are required for all junk yards. (See Section 9-9.)
Kennel. Any location where boarding, caring for, and keeping of more than a total of three dogs or cats, or other small animals or combination thereof (except litters of animals of not more than six months of age) is carried on for compensation, and also raising, breeding, caring for, or boarding of dogs, cats, or other small animals for commercial purposes.
Kennel, Non-Commercial. Any location where the boarding, caring for and keeping of more than three but not more than ten dogs or cats or other small animals or combination thereof (except litters of animals of not more than six months of age) is carried on, not for commercial purpose, but as a hobby such as the raising of show and hunting dogs.
Licensed Day Care Center. A day care center licensed by the State of Georgia and/or Lanier County that provides care, training, education, custody, treatment or supervision for children under fourteen (14) years of age, where such children are not related by blood, marriage or adoption to an owner or operator of the facility.
Lot. A lot of record, held in a single ownership by one person, or in common ownership by more than one, which has both lot area and lot dimensions equal to or greater than the lot width and lot area requirements established by this ordinance for the land development district in which such tract of land is located and for the use proposed for the tract of land. (See Section 3-21.)
Lot, Corner. A lot having frontage on two (2) or more public streets at their intersection. (See Section 3-11.)
Lot of Record. A lot which is part of a subdivision recorded in the office of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Lanier County, or a parcel described by metes and bounds, the description of which has been so recorded prior to the adoption of this ordinance. (See Section 3-21.)
Lot, Through. A lot other than a corner lot, having frontage on more than one (1) intersecting street; or a corner lot having frontage on three (3) or more streets.
Lot Width. The distance between the side lot lines, measured along the front yard setback line as established by this ordinance, or if no setback line is established, the horizontal distance between the side lot lines measured along the street right-of-way line.
Minor. Any person under eighteen (18) years of age.
Newspaper or Periodical Production, Sales, and Distribution. The operation of newspaper or periodical business, including the production, sales, and distribution thereof, including all necessary presswork. Such term includes but is broader than newspaper or periodical publishing.
Newspaper or Periodical Publishing. This term is narrower in scope than newspaper or periodical production, sales and distribution. The term does not include presswork, sales or distribution and is limited to the composition, layout and non-presswork printing of a newspaper or periodical.
Night Club (Lounge). A place of entertainment open at night, usually serving food and alcoholic beverages and providing music and space for dancing.
Nursery School. An agency, organization, or individual providing daytime care of seven or more children, where a State license is required, not related by blood or marriage or not the legal wards or foster children of the attendant adult.
Open Space. That required portion of a lot at ground level, unoccupied by enclosed buildings and available to all occupants of the project. This space shall not be devoted to driveways or off-street parking but shall be usable for green space, recreational use and other leisure activities normally carried on outdoors.
Operator. The manager or other person principally in charge of an adult entertainment establishment.
Owner(s). If a sole proprietorship, the proprietor, if a partnership, all partners (general and limited); if a corporation, all officers, directors and persons holding at least ten percent (10%) of the outstanding shares.
Personal Care Home. A building or group of buildings, a facility or place in which is provided two or more beds and other facilities and services, including room, meals and personal care for non-family ambulatory adults for compensation.
a)
"Family Personal Care Home" means a home for adults in a family-type residence, noninstitutional in character, which offers care to two through six persons.
b)
"Group Personal Care Home" means a home for adult persons in a residence or other type building, noninstitutional in character, which offers care to seven through fifteen persons.
c)
"Congregate Personal Care Home" means a home for adults which offers care to sixteen or more persons.
Planned Development District. The PD district is intended to allow flexible site planning and building arrangement for residential, commercial, or mixed-use developments under a unified plan. The district allows for the utilization of innovative land planning methods, which foster natural resource conservation, neighborhood cohesiveness, interconnectivity, and a reduction in traffic congestion while creating a unique sense of place.
Planning Commission. As utilized in this ordinance, the Planning Commission shall mean the Greater Lanier Planning Commission as duly appointed by the member governments of Lanier County, Georgia.
Principal Building. The building containing or to contain the principal use of a lot.
Principal Use. The principal purpose for which a lot or the main building thereon is designed, arranged, or intended, and for which it is or may be used, occupied, or maintained.
Public Street. Right-of-way dedicated to the city, county, state or federal government or owned by the city, county, state or federal government for public street purposes.
Residential. Pertaining to the use of land, means premises such as homes, townhomes, patio homes, manufactured homes, duplexes, condominiums or apartment complexes or single room rental units, which contain habitable rooms for non-transient occupancy and which are designed primarily for living, sleeping, cooking, and eating therein.
School. A facility where persons regularly assemble for the purpose of instruction or education including any playgrounds, stadiums, or other structures and grounds used in conjunction therewith. This shall include, but not be limited to, public and private schools used for primary, secondary, or post-secondary education.
Setback. The shortest distance between the centerline of a street and the principal building or structure on a lot.
Shopping Center. Two (2) or more commercial establishments planned and managed as a single unit with off-street parking and loading facilities provided on the property.
Special Exception. A special exception is a use which within certain districts specified by this ordinance is not permitted as a matter of right but may be permitted within these districts by the Lanier County Commission after the Planning Commission and County Commission have: (1) reviewed the proposed site plans for the use, its location within the county, its arrangement and design, its relationship to neighboring property and other conditions peculiar to the particular proposal which would determine its desirability or undesirability; (2) has found the proposal not to be contrary to the intent of this ordinance; and (3) has approved the use as specified.
Street. A thoroughfare which affords traffic circulation and principal means of access to abutting property, including avenue, place, way, drive, lane, boulevard, highway, road, and any other thoroughfare except an alley. A public street is a street accepted by dedication or otherwise by the governing body. A private street is a street not so accepted.
Structure. Anything constructed or erected with a fixed location on or in the ground, or attached to something having a fixed location on the ground. Among other things, structures include buildings, manufactured homes, billboards, swimming pools, and fall-out shelters but does not include walls or fences.
Tourist Home (Bed and Breakfast). A dwelling in which sleeping accommodations are provided or offered to transient visitors for compensation.
Trailer, Travel Type. A vehicular portable structure designed as a temporary dwelling for travel, recreation, and vacation uses, which is identified on the unit by the manufacturer as a "camper" or "travel" trailer.
Variance. A variance is a relaxation of the dimensional and/or development standards of the land development ordinance that will not be contrary to the public interest and where, owing to conditions peculiar to the property and not the result of the intentional actions of the applicant, a literal enforcement of the regulations would result in unnecessary and undue hardship. (See Section 12-6.2.)
Yard, Front. That area of a lot lying between the abutting street right-of-way line and the principal building of the lot and extending across the front of a lot from side lot line to side lot line. (See illustration.)
Yard, Rear. That area of a lot extending across the rear of a lot from side lot line to side lot line and lying between the rear lot line and the principal building on the lot. (See illustration.)
Yard, Side. That area of a lot between the side lot line and the principal building on the lot extending from the front yard to the rear yard. (See illustration.)
