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18.30.270 Yards and Setbacks
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Purpose: This section establishes general rules and exceptions for building setbacks and required yards.

A. Applicability

This section applies to any yard or setback required by this title.

B. Generally

1. Every part of a required yard shall be unoccupied and unobstructed by any portion of a structure from the ground upward, except as provided in subsection D, below.

2. In measuring a yard to determine the width of a side yard, the depth of a front yard or the depth of a rear yard, the least horizontal distance between a lot line and the building applies.

3. Where lots abut a street that is designated as an arterial street on the Major Street Map, all yards abutting the street are measured from a line one-half (½) the proposed right-of-way width from the centerline or from the lot line, whichever provides the greater setback.

4. On other lots, all yards abutting a street are measured from a line twenty-five (25) feet from the centerline, or from the lot line, whichever provides the greater setback.

5. Required yard means that portion of any yard constituting the minimum area required in any zoning district, but excluding that portion of the yard in excess of the minimum required area.

C. Measurement Standards and Yard Types

1. Front yard means a yard across the full width of the lot extending from the front line of the main building to the front lot line. A corner lot has a front lot line on that street on which it has its least dimension.

2. Rear yard means the yard between the rear lot line and the rear line of the main building and the side lot lines.

3. Side yard means a yard between the main building and the adjacent side line of the lot, and extending entirely from a front yard to the rear yard.

4. Corner lots are on the junction of and abutting two (2) or more intersecting streets. Corner lots shall have a side yard of at least twenty (20) feet on the street side.

D. Yard Encroachments

The features designated and as conditioned below may encroach into a required yard:

Feature

Yards Where Encroachment Is Permitted

Maximum Encroachment

Minimum Setback

Arbors (maximum footprint of 80 sf and maximum height of 12 feet)

Front/rear

6 feet into yard

0 feet

Basketball goal

Any yard

No restriction

10 feet (front yard)

3 feet (side yard)

Building projections including window sills, belt courses, cornices, chimneys, buttresses, eaves, spouts/gutters, brackets, pilasters, grill work, projecting windows, trellises, bays, bows, oriels, dormers and similar ornamental architectural features

Any yard

30 inches into yard

--

Canopies, freestanding

Front

6 feet into yard

Residential decks, patios, or porches whether unenclosed, covered or uncovered

Front/rear

6 feet into yard

--

Clothesline (up to 2 poles)

Rear/side

No restriction

10 feet

Driveways

Any yard

No restriction

2 feet

Equipment, ancillary (residential or mixed use districts)

Interior side/rear

No restriction

0 feet

Equipment, ancillary (nonresidential districts)

Interior side/rear

No restriction

0 feet

Fire escape/enclosed outside stairway/handicap ramps required by the building code

Side

½ yard width, up to 5 feet from building

--

Rear

5 feet into rear yard

Flag pole

Any yard

No restriction

10 feet

Garages, attached or detached and loaded from an alley

Rear

No restriction

0 feet

Gates

Any yard

No restriction

0 feet

Greenhouses

Rear/side

No restriction

10 feet

Light poles

Any yard

No restriction

0 feet

Playground equipment, trampolines

Rear yard

No restriction

5 feet

Unenclosed open pools and spas up to 20 feet from a dwelling unit on an abutting lot

Rear/side

No restriction

5 feet

Pier, awnings, steps, structural overhangs or projections enclosing habitable living space, or similar architectural features and awnings

Any

No restriction

0 feet

Ramps for citizens with impairments

Any

No restriction

0 feet

Retaining walls

Any

No restriction

0 feet

Sidewalks

Any

No restriction

0 feet

Signs (subject to Chapter 18.50)

Any

See Chapter 18.50

See Chapter 18.50

Stormwater detention or retention facilities or ditches, unless the Planning Official finds that underground stormwater management facilities are not currently available

Rear (N, C-1 districts)

Any yard (all other districts)

No restriction

0 feet

ATMs

Any

No restriction

10 feet

Wing walls, stoops, landings, balconies, patios, and decks

Any yard

30 inches into yard

--

E. Yard Exceptions or Reductions

1. Platted Setback Lines

If platted setbacks in a plat approved by the City are more restrictive than the yard requirements set forth in this title, the platted setbacks control. Building permits shall not be issued for any building or structure outside of the platted setback.

2. Residential Districts – Front Yards

In residential districts where lots comprising forty (40) percent or more of the frontage on the same side of a street between two (2) intersecting streets (excluding reverse corner lots) are developed with buildings having front yards that vary up to ten (10) feet in depth, the average of those front yards is the minimum front yard depth for the entire block. However, where a recorded plat shows a setback line which otherwise complies with the requirements of this title, but which is less than the established setback for the block as provided here, that setback line controls.

3. Yards in Specific Zoning Districts

The yard requirements may be adjusted by the specific zoning district (such as the “D” Downtown district) or conditions of approval to a planned development rezoning.

F. Rear and Side Yards in Commercial and Industrial Districts

1. Where the rear lot line of a commercial or industrial district coincides with a railroad right-of-way line, the rear yard may be reduced to five (5) feet.

2. Where the rear yard and/or side yard of two (2) or more commercial or industrial storage areas or lots abut each other, the rear yard and/or side yard setbacks of each abutting storage area or lot area only may be reduced to a zero (0) foot setback. The remaining portion of each rear yard or side yard setback not occupied by a storage area or lot shall comply with the height and area regulations and landscaping of the zoning district. However, the storage areas shall comply with the landscaping and buffer requirements of this chapter. If the commercial or industrial storage area or lot is removed as a use from the property, the rear yard and/or side yard setback will revert back to the height and area regulations of the zoning district and landscaping requirements of this chapter.

3. Existing commercial and industrial lots wishing to reduce rear yard and/or side yard setbacks shall follow the City’s administrative review application process established by the Planning Division. Vacant commercial and industrial lots preparing for development and wishing to reduce the rear yard and/or side yard setbacks shall follow the City’s final site development plan application process.

G. Corner Lots

1. Width

Corner lots shall have a minimum width of seventy (70) feet to provide appropriate building setback from both streets.

2. Yards

See subsection C, above, for yard requirements.

3. Sight Distance

Corner lots shall provide traffic sight distance triangles, measured along the edge of the pavement, in accordance with Section 18.30.220. (Ord. 20-40 § 2, 2020; Ord. 17-52 §§ 16, 41, 2017; Ord. 15-16 § 3, 2015; Ord. 02-54 § 2, 2002)