Part 5. Glossary
Chapter 17.160
GLOSSARY Revised 4/23
Sections:
17.160.020 Definitions. Revised 4/23
17.160.010 Purpose.
This chapter provides definitions of terms and phrases used in the zoning code that are technical or specialized, or which may not reflect common usage. If any of the definitions in this chapter conflict with others in the municipal code, these definitions shall control for only the provisions of this zoning code. If a word is not defined in this chapter or in other chapters of the zoning code, the community development director shall determine the appropriate definition. (Ord. 1043 § 2 (Att. 2), 2020)
17.160.020 Definitions. Revised 4/23
A. “A” Terms.
1. “Abutting” or “adjoining” means having a common boundary, except that parcels having no common boundary other than a common corner shall not be considered abutting.
2. “Accessory dwelling unit” means a self-contained living unit, either attached to or detached from, and in addition to, the primary residential unit on a single parcel.
a. “Accessory dwelling unit, attached” means an accessory dwelling unit that shares at least one common wall with the primary residential unit.
b. “Accessory dwelling unit, detached” means a secondary dwelling unit that does not share a common will with the primary residential unit.
3. “Accessory structure” means a structure that is incidental and subordinate to a primary structure or use located on the same parcel. Includes garages, sheds, hot tubs, pergolas, and other similar structures.
4. “Accessory use” means a land use which is incidental and subordinate to a primary land use located on the same parcel.
5. “Addition” means any development or construction activity that expands the footprint or increases the floor area of a building.
6. “Adjacent” means directly abutting, having a boundary or property line(s) in common or bordering directly, or contiguous to.
7. “Alcoholic beverage sales” means the sale of alcoholic beverages for on-site consumption at a restaurant, bar, nightclub or other establishment, or the retail sale of alcoholic beverages for off-site consumption.
8. Alteration. See “Modification.”
9. “Applicant” means any person, firm, partnership, association, joint venture, corporation, or an entity or combination of entities which seeks city permits and approvals.
10. “Arbor” means a freestanding unenclosed structure with vertical latticework on two sides for climbing plants and crossbeams or lattice forming a covering connecting the sides. The space between the vertical latticework may be open or contain a bench for sitting.
11. “Assumed ground surface” means a line on each elevation of an exterior wall or vertical surface which connects those points where the perimeter of the structure meets the finished grade.
12. “Average slope” means the average slope of a parcel calculated using the formula: S = 100(I)(L)/A, where:
a. S = Average slope (in percent);
b. I = Contour interval (in feet);
c. L = Total length of all contour lines on the parcel (in feet); and
d. A = Area of subject parcel (in square feet).
B. “B” Terms.
1. “Balcony” means a platform that projects from the wall of a building thirty inches or more above grade that is accessible from the building’s interior, is not accessible from the ground and is not enclosed by walls on more than two sides.
2. “Banks” means a commercial establishment providing retail banking services. Includes only establishments serving walk-in customers or clients, including banks, savings and loan institutions, check-cashing services, and credit unions.
3. “Base zoning district” means the primary zoning, as distinguished from an overlay zone, that applies to a parcel of land as shown on the zoning map.
4. “Basement” means that portion of a building between floor and ceiling, which is partly or all below grade, and where more than the vertical distance from grade to ceiling is below the average ground contact level of the exterior walls of the building.
5. “Bay window” means a window or series of windows serving as an important element of the building’s architecture, forming an alcove in a room and projecting outward from the wall in a rectangular, polygonal, or curved form.
6. “Block” means the property abutting on one side of a street and lying between the two nearest intersecting streets.
7. “Bluff” or “cliff” means the scarp or steep face of rock, decomposed rocks, sediment or soil resulting from erosion, faulting, folding or excavation of land mass and exceeding ten feet in height, and includes what are commonly known as “cliffs.” See also the definition of “coastal bluff” in Section 17.44.030.
8. “Building” means any structure used or intended for supporting or sheltering any use or occupancy.
9. “Building coverage” means the land area covered by all buildings and accessory structures on a parcel.
10. “Building face” means and includes the general outer surface of a main exterior wall of a building. For example, a building with a rectangular plan has four main exterior walls and four building faces.
11. “Building height” means the vertical distance measured from the assumed ground surface of the building to the highest point of the roof, ridge, or parapet wall.
12. “Business services” means an establishment that provides services to other businesses on a fee or contract basis. Includes computer rental and repair, catering, printing and duplicating services, outdoor advertising services, package delivery services, equipment rental and leasing, and other similar land uses.
13. “By right” means permitted without any form of discretionary approval.
C. “C” Terms.
1. “California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)” means California state law (Public Resources Code Section 2100 et seq.) requiring government agencies to consider the environmental consequences of their actions before taking action on a proposed project.
2. “Capitola Village” means the central core of Capitola generally bounded by the Monterey Bay shoreline to the south, the railroad trestle to the north and west, and Cliff Avenue and Depot Hill to the east.
3. “Car wash” means a commercial facility for the washing, waxing, or cleaning of automobiles or similar light vehicles.
4. “Caretaker quarters” means a residence that is accessory to a nonresidential primary use of the site, where needed for security, or twenty-four-hour care or supervision.
5. “Carport” means an accessory building to a residential structure, open on two, three or four sides and attached to, or detached from, a dwelling and established for the loading or unloading of passengers or the storage of an automobile.
6. “Coastal zone” means the area of land and water extending from the state’s outer seaward limit of jurisdiction inland to the boundary as shown in Capitola’s local coastal program (LCP) as certified by the California Coastal Commission.
7. “Colleges and trade schools” means institutions of higher education providing curricula of a general, religious or professional nature, typically granting recognized degrees. Includes junior colleges, business and computer schools, management training, vocational education, and technical and trade schools.
8. “Community assembly” means a facility that provides space for public or private meetings or gatherings. Includes places of worship, community centers, meeting space for clubs and other membership organizations, social halls, union halls, banquet centers, and other similar facilities.
9. “Community benefit” means a public amenity offered by a project applicant that advances general plan goals but is not required by the zoning code or any other provision of local, state, or federal law.
10. “Commercial entertainment and recreation” means an establishment that provides entertainment or recreation activities or services for a fee or admission charge. Includes bowling alleys, electronic game arcades, billiard halls, pool halls, sports clubs, commercial gymnasiums, dancehalls, and movie theaters.
11. “Community development director” means the community development director of the city of Capitola or his or her designee.
12. “Construction and material yards” means storage of construction materials or equipment on a site other than a construction site. Includes public utility buildings and service yards used by a governmental agency.
13. “Cultural institution” means a public or nonprofit institution that engages in cultural, scientific, and/or educational enrichment. Includes libraries, museums, performing art centers, aquariums, environmental education centers, nonprofit art centers and galleries, botanical gardens, and other similar uses.
14. “Curb-side service” or “drive-up service” means service provided by a commercial establishment while a customer remains waiting within a vehicle.
15. Custom Manufacturing. See “Manufacturing, custom.”
D. “D” Terms.
1. “Dark sky compliant” means a lighting fixture that meets the International Dark Sky Association’s (IDA) requirements for reducing waste of ambient light.
2. “Day care center” means a facility that provides nonmedical care and supervision of minors for periods of less than twenty-four hours. Includes nursery schools, day nurseries, child care centers, infant day care centers, cooperative day care centers, and similar uses.
3. “Daylight plane” means the imaginary line beginning at a height of twenty feet at the setback from a property line and extending into the parcel at an angle of forty-five degrees.
4. “Deck” means an outdoor platform, either freestanding or attached to a building, which is supported by pillars or posts.
5. Demolition, Substantial. “Substantial demolition” means the removal or replacement of either fifty percent or more of the lineal footage of existing interior and exterior walls or fifty percent or more of the area of existing floor, ceilings, and roof structures.
6. “Density” means the number of dwelling units per acre of land, excluding street rights-of-way, public easements, public open space, land under water, and certified wetlands and floodplains.
7. “Design review” means that process for the city to review and act on a design permit application.
8. Designated Historic Resource. See Section 17.84.020(A) (Designated Historic Resources).
9. “Development” means any human-caused change to the land or a structure that requires a permit or approval from the city, including construction, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. See Section 17.44.030 for the definition of “development” that applies in the coastal zone.
10. “Development standards” means regulations in the zoning code that limit the size, bulk, or placement of structures or other improvements and modifications to a site.
11. “Discretionary approval” means an action by the city by which individual judgment is used as a basis to approve or deny a proposed project.
12. “Drive-through facility” means a facility where a customer is permitted or encouraged, either by the design of physical facilities or by the service procedures offered, to be served while remaining seated within a vehicle. Includes drive-through restaurants, coffee shops, pharmacies, banks, automatic car washes, drive-up windows, and other similar land uses and services.
13. “Duplex home” means a residential structure that contains two dwelling units, each with its own entrance. Each unit within a duplex home provides complete, independent living facilities for one or more persons, including permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation.
14. “Dwelling unit” means a building or a portion of a building containing one or more habitable rooms used or designed for occupancy by one family for living and sleeping purposes, including kitchen and bath facilities.
E. “E” Terms.
1. “Eating and drinking establishments” means businesses primarily engaged in serving prepared food and/or beverages for consumption on or off the premises.
a. “Bars and lounges” means a business devoted to serving alcoholic beverages for consumption by guests on the premises and in which the serving of food is only incidental to the consumption of such beverages. Includes cocktail lounges, nightclubs, taverns, and other similar uses. Also includes tasting rooms with more than one hundred sixty square feet of floor area accessible to the public.
b. “Restaurants and cafes” means a business establishment serving food and beverages to customers where the food and beverages may be consumed on the premises or carried out and where more than one hundred sixty square feet of public area is open to customers. Includes full service restaurants, fast-food restaurants, coffee shops, cafes, and other similar eating and drinking establishments.
c. “Take-out food and beverage” means establishments where food and beverages may be consumed on the premises, taken out, or delivered, but where the area open to customers is limited to no more than one hundred sixty square feet. Includes take-out restaurants, take-out sandwich shops, limited service pizza parlors and delivery shops, and snack bars. Also includes catering businesses or bakeries that have a storefront retail component and tasting rooms with one hundred sixty square feet or less of floor area accessible to the public.
2. “Elderly and long-term care” means establishments that provide twenty-four-hour medical, convalescent or chronic care to individuals who, by reason of advanced age, chronic illness or infirmity, are unable to care for themselves, and are licensed as a skilled nursing facility by the state of California, including but not limited to rest homes and convalescent hospitals, but not residential care, hospitals, or clinics.
3. “Emergency shelter” means housing with minimal supportive services for homeless persons that is limited to occupancy of six months or less by a homeless person, as defined in Section 50801 of the California Health and Safety Code.
F. “F” Terms.
1. “Farmers’ market” means a market held in an open area or in a structure where groups of individual sellers offer for sale to the public such items as fresh produce, seasonal fruits, fresh flowers, locally produced arts and crafts items but excludes second-hand goods. Food and beverages dispensed from booths located on site is permitted as an accessory use.
2. “Financial institution” means a professional office conducting businesses within the financial industry. Excludes commercial establishments providing retail banking services to walk-in customers or clients (see “Banks”).
3. “Fence” means a structure connected by boards, masonry, rails, panels, or other similar permanent building material for the purpose of enclosing space or separating parcels of land. This definition includes gates but excludes hedges and other living plants.
4. “Floor area” means the sum of the horizontal areas of all floors of an enclosed structure, measured from the outside perimeter of the exterior walls as described in Section 17.48.040 (Floor area and floor area ratio).
5. “Floor area ratio” means the gross floor area of all of the buildings on the parcel divided by the net parcel area.
6. “Food preparation” means businesses preparing and/or packaging food for off-site consumption, excluding those of an industrial character in terms of processes employed, waste produced, water used, and traffic generation. Includes catering kitchens, and small-scale specialty food production.
7. “Frontage” means that portion of all property abutting a street.
G. “G” Terms.
1. “Garage” means an enclosed structure or a part of a building designed or used for the storage of automobiles and other motor vehicles.
2. “Garage sale” means a temporary sale for the purpose of selling, trading or otherwise disposing of household furnishings, personal goods or other tangible properties of a resident of the premises on which the sale is conducted.
3. “Gas and service stations” means a retail business establishment supplying gasoline and oil and minor accessories for automobiles. Included in this definition are incidental food and beverage and car wash facilities.
4. “Group housing” means shared living quarters without separate kitchen or bathroom facilities for each room or unit, offered for rent for permanent or semi-transient residents on a weekly or longer basis. Includes rooming and boarding houses, single-room occupancy housing, dormitories, and other types of organizational housing, and extended stay hotels intended for long-term occupancy (thirty days or more). Excludes hotels, motels, bed and breakfasts, and residential care facilities.
5. “Geological hazard” means a threat to life, property or public safety caused by geological or hydrological processes such as faulting and secondary seismic effects, including but not limited to: liquefaction, landsliding, erosion, flooding, tsunami or storm wave inundation.
6. “Government offices” means a place of employment occupied by governmental agencies and their employees. Includes offices for administrative, clerical, and public contact functions but excludes corporation yards, equipment service centers, and similar facilities that primarily provide maintenance and repair services and storage facilities for vehicles and equipment.
7. “Grading” means any and all activities involving earthwork, including placement of fill and/or excavation.
8. “Ground floor” means the first floor of a building other than a cellar or basement that is closest to finished grade.
H. “H” Terms.
1. “Habitable space” means an area within a building that is conditioned (heated or cooled) with a finished floor and a ceiling height of at least seven feet six inches. Excludes unfinished attics, cellars, crawl spaces, and other similar utility areas.
2. Height. See “Building height.” For structures other than buildings, “height” means the vertical distance from grade to the highest point of the structure directly above.
3. “Home day care” means a facility providing daytime supervision and care for up to fourteen children located in the provider’s own home. Includes both small and large home day care facilities as defined in California Health and Safety Code Sections 1597.44 and 1597.465.
4. “Historic resource” means either a designated historic resource or a potential historic resource as defined in Section 17.84.020 (Types of historic resources).
5. “Historic alteration permit” means the city permit required to alter the exterior of a historic resource in accordance with Section 17.84.070 (Historic alteration permit).
6. “Home occupation” means the conduct of a business within a dwelling unit or residential site, with the business activity being subordinate to the residential use of the property.
I. “I” Terms.
1. “Impervious surface” means any surface that does not permit the passage of water. Impervious surfaces include buildings, parking areas, and all paved surfaces.
J. “J” Terms. None.
K. “K” Terms.
1. “Kitchen” means any room or part of a room used or intended or designed to be used for cooking or the preparation of food for a single dwelling unit, and distinct from a “mini-bar/convenience area” which is intended as a supplemental food preparation area within a single-family home.
L. “L” Terms.
1. “Land use” means an activity conducted on a site or in a structure, or the purpose for which a site or structure is designed, arranged, occupied, or maintained. The meaning of the term “use” is identical to “land use.”
2. “Landscaping” means the planting and maintenance of living plant material, including the installation, use, and maintenance of any irrigation system for the plant material, as well as nonliving landscape material (such as rocks, pebbles, sand, mulch, walls, fences, or decorative paving materials).
3. “Liquor store” means a business selling alcoholic beverages for off-site consumption with the sale of alcoholic beverages constituting its primary source of revenue.
4. “Local coastal program (LCP)” means the city’s land use plan and implementation plan which includes portions of the municipal code, portions of the zoning code, zoning map (as more specifically identified in Chapter 17.44 (Coastal Overlay Zone) and actions certified by the Coastal Commission as meeting the requirements of the California Coastal Act of 1976.
5. Light Manufacturing. See “Manufacturing, light.”
6. “Lodging” means an establishment providing overnight accommodations to transient patrons for payment for periods of less than thirty consecutive days.
a. “Bed and breakfast” means a residential structure that is in residential use with one or more bedrooms rented for overnight lodging and where meals may be provided.
b. “Hotel” means an establishment providing overnight lodging to transient patrons. Hotels and motels may provide additional services, such as conference and meeting rooms, restaurants, bars, or recreation facilities available to guests or to the general public. Includes motor lodges, motels, extended-stay hotels, and tourist courts, but does not include group housing or bed and breakfast establishments, which are separately defined and regulated.
M. “M” Terms.
1. “Maintenance and repair services” means businesses which provide construction, maintenance and repair services off site, but which store equipment and materials or perform fabrication or similar work on site. Includes off-site plumbing shops, general contractors, contractor’s storage yards, appliance repair, janitorial services, electricians, pest control, heating and air conditioning, roofing, painting, landscaping, septic tank service, and other similar uses.
2. “Manufacturing, custom” means establishments primarily engaged in on-site production of goods by hand manufacturing or artistic endeavor, which involves only the use of hand tools or small mechanical equipment and the incidental direct sale to consumers of only those goods produced on site. Typical uses include ceramic studios, candle making shops, woodworking, and custom jewelry manufacturers.
3. “Manufacturing, light” means the manufacture, predominantly from previously prepared materials, of finished products or parts, including processing, fabrication, assembly, treatment, and packaging of such products, and incidental storage, sales and distribution of such products, but excluding basic industrial processing and custom manufacturing.
4. “Material change” means any significant alteration, by private or public action, in the external appearance or surface of an improvement, landscape or vista. This shall not include ordinary maintenance which does not require a permit.
5. “Ministerial action” means a city decision on a planning permit which involves only the use of fixed standards or objective measurements and does not require the exercise of discretion.
6. “Mini-bar/convenience area” means a supplemental food preparation area within a single-family home subject to the standards in Section 17.16.030(B)(9) (Mini-Bar/Convenience Areas).
7. “Medical offices and clinics” means a facility where medical, mental, dental, or other personal health services are provided on an outpatient basis using specialized equipment. Includes offices for physicians, dentists, and optometrists, diagnostic centers, blood banks and plaza centers, and emergency medical clinics offered exclusively on an out-patient basis. Hospitals are excluded from this definition.
8. “Mixed use” means two or more different land uses located in one structure or on one parcel or development site.
9. “Mobile food vendors” means businesses selling food or drinks from temporary and semi-permanent structures or mobile equipment such as food trucks or pushcarts.
10. Mobile Home Park. See Section 17.100.030 (Definitions).
11. “Modification” means any construction or physical change in the internal arrangement of rooms or the supporting members of a structure, or a change in the external appearance of any structure, not including painting.
12. “Multifamily dwelling” means a building that contains three or more dwelling units, with each unit providing complete, independent living facilities for one or more persons, including permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation.
N. “N” Terms.
1. “Nonconforming parcel” means a parcel that was lawfully established but that no longer conforms with the parcel size or dimension standards of the zoning district in which it is located.
2. “Nonconforming structure” means a structure which does not meet the current development standards for the district in which the structure is located. Development standards include, but are not limited to, setbacks, height or lot coverage regulations of the zoning district, but do not include standards contained in the uniform codes, such as the building code.
3. “Nonconforming use” means a use that lawfully occupied a building or land at the time the use was established, but that no longer conforms with the use regulations of the zoning district in which it is located.
O. “O” Terms.
1. “Open space, private” means open areas for outdoor living and recreation that are adjacent and directly accessible to a single dwelling unit, reserved for the exclusive use of residents of the dwelling unit and their guests.
2. “Open space, common” means areas for outdoor living and recreation that are intended for the use of residents and guests of more than one dwelling unit.
3. “Outdoor kitchen” means an outdoor space used or intended or designed to be used for cooking or the preparation of food for a single dwelling unit subject to the standards in Section 17.16.030(B)(10). Outdoor pizza ovens are included in the definition of an outdoor kitchen.
4. “Overlay zone” means an additional zoning district as shown on the zoning map that prescribes special regulations to a parcel in combination with the base zoning district.
P. “P” Terms.
1. “Parcel” means a lot, tract, or area of land whose boundaries have been established by a legal instrument such as a deed or map recorded with the county of Santa Cruz, and which is recognized as a separate legal entity for purposes of transfer of title, except public easements or rights-of-way. The meaning of “lot” is identical to “parcel.”
2. Parcel Area, Gross. “Gross parcel area” means the total horizontal area included within the parcel lines of the parcel, including one-half the width of any alley or portion thereof abutting a parcel line.
3. Parcel Area, Net. “Net parcel area” means the gross parcel area excluding: (a) any recorded easements to allow others to use the surface of the property for necessary access to an adjacent property or other similar use such as a shared driveway or public access agreement (excludes utility easements), and (b) any area under the high water mark that extends into a waterway.
4. Parcel, Corner. “Corner parcel” means a parcel situated at the junction of two or more intersecting streets, with a parcel line bordering on each of the two or more streets.
5. “Parcel depth” means the average distance from the front parcel line to the rear parcel line, measured in the general direction of the side parcel lines.
6. “Parcel line” means the lines bounding a parcel.
7. Parcel Line, Front. “Front parcel line” means that dimension of a parcel or portion of a parcel, abutting on a street except the side of a corner parcel. On a corner parcel the narrowest street frontage is considered the front parcel line. The community development director has the authority to determine and designate the front parcel line based on existing conditions and function of the lot.
8. Parcel Line, Rear. “Rear parcel line” means, ordinarily, the line of a parcel which is generally opposite the front parcel line of said parcel. The community development director has the authority to determine and designate the front parcel line based on existing conditions and function of the lot.
9. Parcel Line, Interior Side. “Interior side parcel line” means any boundary line not a front line or a rear line shared with another parcel.
10. Parcel Line, Exterior Side. “Exterior side parcel line” means any boundary line not a front line or a rear line adjacent to a street.
11. Parcel, Reversed Corner. “Reversed corner parcel” means a corner parcel, the side street line of which is substantially a continuation of the front line of the parcel upon which it rears.
12. “Parcel width” means the average distance between the side parcel lines, measured at right angles to the parcel depth.
13. “Parking lot” means an open area of land, a yard or other open space on a parcel other than a street or alley, used for or designed for temporary parking for more than four automobiles and available for public use, whether free, for compensation, or as an accommodation for clients or customers.
14. “Parking space” means land or space privately owned, covered or uncovered, laid out for, surfaced, and used or designed to be used for temporary parking or storage of standard motor vehicles.
15. “Parks and recreational facilities” means noncommercial public facilities that provide open space and/or recreational opportunities. Includes parks, community gardens, community centers, passive and active open space, wildlife preserves, playing fields, tennis courts, swimming pools, gymnasiums, and other similar facilities.
16. “Pergola” means an unenclosed structure with vertical posts or pillars that supports crossbeams and/or an open lattice. A pergola may be freestanding or attached to a building.
17. “Personal services” means an establishment that provides services to individuals and that may provide accessory retail sales of products related to the services provided. Includes barber shops and beauty salons, nail salons, dry cleaning establishments, self-service laundromats, tailors, tanning salons, state-licensed massage therapists, fitness studios, yoga studios, dance studios, pet grooming services, veterinary clinics, and other similar land uses. Also includes establishments that primarily offer specialized classes in personal growth and development such as music, martial arts, vocal, fitness and dancing instruction. This does not include professional offices that offer classes in addition to the professional office spaces.
18. “Planning permit” means any permit or approval required by the zoning code authorizing an applicant to undertake certain land use activities.
19. Potential Historic Resource. See Section 17.84.020(B) (Potential Historic Resource).
20. “Primary use” means the main purpose for which a site is developed and occupied, including the activities that are conducted on the site a majority of the hours during which activities occur.
21. “Primary structure” means a structure that accommodates the primary use of the site.
22. “Professional office” means a place of employment occupied by businesses providing professional, executive, management, or administrative services. Includes offices for accountants, architects, advertising agencies, insurance agents, attorneys, commercial art and design services, nonretail financial institutions, real estate agents, news services, photographers, engineers, employment agencies, and other similar professions. Also includes research and development facilities that engage in research, testing, and development of commercial products or services in technology-intensive fields.
23. “Public safety facility” means a facility operated by a governmental agency for the purpose of protecting public safety. Includes fire stations and other fire-fighting facilities, police stations, public ambulance dispatch facilities, and other similar land uses.
Q. “Q” Terms. None.
R. “R” Terms.
1. “Recreational vehicle (RV)” means a motor home, travel trailer, truck camper, or camping trailer, with or without motive power, originally designed for human habitation for recreational, emergency, or other occupancy, which meets all of the following criteria:
a. Contains less than three hundred twenty square feet of internal living room area, excluding built-in equipment, including wardrobe, closets, cabinets, kitchen units or fixtures, and bath or toilet rooms;
b. Contains four hundred square feet or less of gross area measured at maximum horizontal projections;
c. Is built on a single chassis; and
d. Is either self-propelled, truck-mounted, or permanently towable on the highways without a towing permit.
2. “Reycling collection facility” means a center for the acceptance by donation, redemption, or purchase, of recyclable materials from the public.
3. “Remodel” means a change or alteration in a building that does not increase the building’s net square footage.
4. “Residential care facility” means a state-licensed residential facility providing social and personal care for residents. Includes children’s homes, homes for the elderly, orphanages, self-help group homes, and transitional housing for the homeless. Excludes facilities where medical care is a core service provided to residents, such as nursing and convalescent homes.
a. “Residential care facility, large” means a residential care facility for seven or more persons.
b. “Residential care facility, small” means a residential care facility for six or fewer persons.
5. “Residential mixed use” means one or more structures on a single parcel that contains both dwelling units and nonresidential uses such as retail, restaurants, offices, or other commercial uses. Different land uses may be within a single structure (vertical mixed use) or in separate structures on a single parcel (horizontal mixed use).
6. “Residential use” means any legal use of a property as a place of residence, including but not limited to dwelling units, group housing, and the residential component of a mixed-use residential building.
7. “Retail” means stores and shops selling merchandise to the general public. Includes drug stores, general merchandise stores, convenience shops, pet stores, department stores, grocery stores and other similar retail establishments.
8. “Review authority” means the city official or city body that is responsible, under the provisions of the zoning code, for approving or denying a permit application or other request for official city approval.
9. “Roof deck” means a walkable exterior floor system located above and supported by the roof of a building.
S. “S” Terms.
1. “Salvage and wrecking” means storage and dismantling of vehicles and equipment for sale of parts, as well as their collection, storage, exchange or sale of goods including, but not limited to, any used building materials, used containers or steel drums, used tires, and similar or related articles or property.
2. “Schools, public or private” means public or private facilities for education, including elementary, junior high, and high schools, providing instruction and study required in public schools by the California Education Code.
3. “Setback” means the minimum allowable distance from a given point or line of reference such as a property line to the nearest vertical wall or other element of a building or structure as defined in this chapter, or from a natural feature such as a bluff edge or an environmentally sensitive habitat area. Setbacks for buildings or structures shall be measured at right angles from the nearest property line establishing a setback area line parallel to that parcel line. Where a property line is located within a street, the setback shall be measured from the edge of the right-of-way containing the street.
4. Sign. See Chapter 17.80 (Signs).
5. “Single-family dwelling” means a residential structure designed for occupancy by one household. A single-family dwelling provides complete, independent living facilities for one or more persons, including permanent provisions for living, sleeping, eating, cooking, and sanitation.
6. “Single-room occupancy” means housing consisting of a single-room dwelling unit that is the primary residence of its occupants. A single-room occupancy must include either food preparation or sanitary facilities (or both) and must be four hundred square feet or less.
7. “Site” means a parcel or adjoining parcels that are under single ownership or single control, and that are considered a unit for the purposes of development or other use.
8. “Site area” means the total area included within the boundaries of a site.
9. “Self-storage” means a structure or group of structures with controlled access that contains individual and compartmentalized stalls or lockers for storage of customers’ goods.
10. “Split zoning” means a parcel on which two or more zoning districts apply due to zoning district boundaries crossing or otherwise not following the parcel boundaries.
11. “Story” means that portion of a building included between the upper surface of any floor and the upper surface of the floor next above, except that the topmost story shall be that portion of a building included between the upper surface of the topmost floor and the ceiling or roof above. If the finished floor level directly above a basement, cellar or unused under-floor space is more than six feet above grade as defined in this chapter for more than fifty percent of the total perimeter or is more than twelve feet above grade as defined in this chapter at any point, such basement, cellar or unused under-floor space shall be considered as a story.
12. Story, Half. “Half story” means a partial story under a gable, hip or gambrel roof, the wall plates of which are at least two opposite exterior walls and which are not more than four feet above the floor plate of the second floor, and may include shed or dormer projections from those walls. Dormers may constitute not more than one-third of the length of the wall upon which they are located, whether as a single unit or multiple dormers.
13. “Street” means a public way more than twenty feet in width which affords a primary or principal means of access to abutting property. “Streets” includes private roads and highways.
14. “Structural alterations” means any change in the supporting members of a building, such as bearing walls, columns, beams, girders, floor, ceiling or roof joists and roof rafters, or change in roof exterior lines which would prolong the life of the supporting members of a building.
15. “Structure” means anything constructed or erected that requires attachment to the ground, or attachment to something located on the ground. Pipelines, poles, wires, and similar installations erected or installed by public utility districts or companies are not included in the definition of “structure.” In the coastal zone, “structure” includes, but is not limited to, any building, road, pipe, flume, conduit, siphon, aqueduct, telephone line, and electrical power transmission and distribution line.
T. “T” Terms.
1. “Tandem parking” means an arrangement of parking spaces such that one or more spaces must be driven across in order to access another space or spaces.
2. “Tasting room” means a room or rooms, open to the general public, primarily used for the retail marketing of winery, brewery, distillery, and/or food products.
3. “Temporary structure” means a structure that is erected for a limited period of time, typically no longer than one hundred eighty days, and that does not permanently alter the character or physical facilities of a property.
4. “Temporary use” means a short-term activity that may or may not meet the normal development or use standards of the applicable zone, but that occurs for a limited period of time, typically less than twelve months, and does not permanently alter the character or physical facilities of a property.
5. “Trellis” means a structure made from an open framework or lattice of interwoven or intersecting pieces of wood, bamboo or metal made to support and display climbing plants. A trellis may be freestanding or attached to a building wall or other structure.
U. “U” Terms.
1. “Upper floor” means any story of a building above the ground floor.
2. “Urban agriculture” means activities involving the raising, cultivation, processing, marketing, and distribution of food in urban areas.
a. “Home garden” means the property of a single-family or multifamily residence used for the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, plants, flowers, or herbs by the residents of the property, guests of the property owner, or a gardening business hired by the property owner.
b. “Community garden” means privately or publicly owned land used for the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, plants, flowers, or herbs by multiple users. Community gardens may be divided into separate plots for cultivation by one or more individuals or may be farmed collectively by members of the group and may include common areas maintained or used by group members.
c. “Urban farm” means privately or publicly owned land used for the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, plants, flowers, or herbs by an individual, organization, or business with the primary purpose of growing food for sale.
3. Use. See “Land use.”
4. “Utilities, major” means generating plants, electric substations, solid waste collection, including transfer stations and materials recovery facilities, solid waste treatment and disposal, water or wastewater treatment plants, and similar facilities of public agencies or public utilities.
5. “Utilities, minor” means infrastructure facilities that are necessary to serve development within the immediate vicinity such as electrical distribution lines and underground water and sewer lines.
V. “V” Terms.
1. “Vacation rental” means the occupancy for hire of residential property or a portion thereof for a period of less than thirty consecutive calendar days. See Section 17.40.030 (Vacation rental use (-VRU) overlay zone). “For hire,” for purposes of this section, does not include:
a. The owner or long-term lessee of the property, without consideration, allowing family or friends to use the property;
b. An arrangement whereby the owner or long-term lessee of the property agrees to a short-term trade with another property owner or long-term lessee whereby the sole consideration is each concurrently using the other’s property.
2. “Valet parking service” means a parking service provided to accommodate patrons of one or more businesses that is accessory and incidental to the business and by which an attendant on behalf of the business takes temporary custody of a patron’s motor vehicle and moves, parks, stores or retrieves the vehicle for the patron’s convenience.
3. “Vehicle repair” means an establishment for the repair, alteration, restoration, or finishing of any vehicle, including body repair, collision repair, painting, tire and battery sales and installation, motor rebuilding, tire recapping and retreading, and towing. Repair shops that are incidental to a vehicle sales or rental establishment on the same site are excluded from this definition.
4. “Vehicle sales and rental” means an establishment for the retail sales or rental of new or used vehicles. Includes the sale of vehicle parts and vehicle repair; provided, that these activities are incidental to the sale of vehicles.
5. “Vehicle sales display room” means an establishment for the retail sales of new vehicles conducted entirely within an enclosed building. Outdoor storage and display of vehicles are not permitted.
W. “W” Terms.
1. “Wall” means a permanent upright linear structure made of stone, concrete, masonry, or other similar material.
2. “Warehousing and distribution” means an establishment used primarily for the storage and/or distributing of goods to retailers, contractors, commercial purchasers or other wholesalers, or to the branch or local offices of a company or organization. Includes vehicle storage, moving services, general delivery services, refrigerated locker storage facilities, and other similar land uses.
3. “Wholesaling” means indoor storage and sale of goods to other firms for resale. Wholesalers are primarily engaged in business-to-business sales, but may sell to individual consumers through mail or internet orders. Wholesalers normally operate from a warehouse or office having little or no display of merchandise, and are not designed to solicit walk-in traffic.
4. “Wireless communications facility” means a facility that transmits or receives electromagnetic signals for the purpose of transmitting voice or data communications. See Chapter 17.104 (Wireless Communications Facilities).
X. “X” Terms. None.
Y. “Y” Terms.
1. “Yard” means an open space, other than a court, on the same parcel with a building, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward, except for such encroachments allowed by the zoning code.
2. Yard, Front. “Front yard” means a yard extending across the full width of the parcel, the depth of which is the minimum horizontal distance between the front line of the parcel and the nearest line of the main building or enclosed or covered porch. On a corner parcel the front line of the parcel is ordinarily construed as the least dimension of the parcel fronting on a street.
3. Yard, Rear. “Rear yard” means a yard extending across the full width of the parcel, and measured between the rear line of the main building or enclosed or covered porch nearest the rear line of the parcel; the depth of the required rear yard shall be measured horizontally.
4. Yard, Side. “Side yard” means a yard on each side of the main building extending from the front yard to the rear yard, the width of each yard being measured between the side line of the parcel and the nearest part of the main building or enclosed or covered porch. (Ord. 1057 § 2 (Att. 1), 2022; Ord. 1043 § 2 (Att. 2), 2020)