§ 30-523. Screening, landscaping, lighting, storage and outdoor displays  


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  • (a) Screening. All principal and accessory uses, except business signs, which are situated within 50 feet of a residential district, shall be screened from such district by a wall or fence of not less than 90 percent opacity and not less than five nor more than seven feet in height above the level of the residential district property at the district boundary. Walls or fences of lesser heights or planting screens may be permitted by the city council if there is a finding that the nature or extent of the use being screened is such that a lesser degree of screening will as adequately promote and protect the use and enjoyment of the properties within the adjacent residential district, or there is a finding that a screening of the type required by these regulations would interfere with the provision of adequate amounts of light and air to same properties. Loading docks in the C-2 village commercial district shall be screened so as not to be visible from any public street right-of-way within a residential district. All required screening devices shall be designed so that they are architecturally harmonious with the principal structures on the site and they shall be properly maintained so as not to become unsightly, hazardous or less opaque than when originally constructed.

    (b) Landscaping. All exposed ground areas surrounding or within a principal or accessory use in a C-2 village commercial district including street boulevards, which are not devoted to drives, and sidewalks, patios or other such uses shall be landscaped with grass, shrubs, trees or other ornamental landscape materials, in accordance with article XIX of this chapter. All landscaped areas shall be kept neat, clean and uncluttered. No landscaped area shall be used for the parking of vehicles or the storage or display of materials, supplies or merchandise.

    (c) Lighting. All sources of artificial light situated on a C-2 village commercial district site shall be so fixed, directed, designed or sized that the sum total of their illumination will not increase the level of illumination on any nearby residential property by more than 0.1 footcandle on or within 25 feet of a dwelling nor more than 0.5 footcandle on any other part of the property. Glare, whether direct or reflected, as differentiated from general illumination, shall not be visible from beyond the limits of the immediate site from which it originates.

    (d) Storage; displays. All materials, supplies, merchandise or other similar matter not on display for direct sale, rental or lease to the ultimate consumer or user shall be stored within a completely enclosed building within the C-2 village commercial district, and within the confines of a 100 percent opaque wall or fence not less than five feet high. Merchandise which is offered for sale as described heretofore may be displayed beyond the confines of a building in the C-2 village commercial district, but the area occupied by such outdoor display shall not constitute a greater number of square feet than ten percent of the ground floor area of the building housing the principal use, unless such merchandise is of a type customarily displayed outdoors such as garden supplies. No storage of any type shall be permitted within the one-half of the required front or side street setback nearest the street nor within any required interior side or rear setback.

    (e) Performance standards. All business operations and activities including but not limited to, the production, processing, cleaning, servicing, testing or repair of materials, goods or products shall conform to the performance standards established for the planned industrial district, provided that performance standards shall, in each case, be applied at the boundaries of the lot on which such business or activities take place.

(Code 1975, § 450:10)