For the purpose of this chapter, the following words and terms as used are defined to mean the following:

     Accessory building or use. A detached subordinate building having a use customarily incident to and located on the lot occupied by the main building; or a use customarily incident to the main use of the property.

     Adult day care home. A group home designed to provide care and supervision to meet the needs of five (5) or more functionally impaired adults for periods of less than twenty-four (24) consecutive hours but more than two (2) hours per day in a place other than the adult's home.

     Alley. A public right-of-way which is used primarily for vehicular service access to the back or side of properties otherwise abutting on a street.

     Amusement game machine. A coin-operated machine or device which, whether mechanical, electrical or electronic, shall be ready for play by the insertion of a coin, token or other type of fee and may be operated by the public for use as a game, entertainment or amusement, the object of which is to achieve either a high or low score, which, by comparison to the score of other players, whether playing concurrently or not, demonstrates relative skill or competence, or indicates in any other way competitive advantage of one player or team over another, regardless of skill or competence. It shall include devices such as pinball machines or any device which utilizes a video tube to reproduce symbolic figures and lines intended to be representative of real games or activities. Any machine of this type shall be considered an accessory use to the commercial establishment in which it is located.

     Bed and breakfast establishment. A residential building containing not more than five (5) guest rooms which provides sleeping units and meals for transient guests, and which is managed and occupied by the owner of the property.

     Block. A parcel of land entirely surrounded by public highways or streets, other than alleys. In plats which are incomplete or disconnected, the director of public works shall determine the outline of the block.

     Board. The board of adjustment of the city.

     Boardinghouse or lodging house. A building occupied as a single housekeeping unit, where lodging or meals are provided for five (5) or more persons for compensation, pursuant to previous arrangements, but not for the public or transients; or a building occupied as a group home by five (5) or more persons, each of whom is either a recovering alcoholic or a recovering drug addict.

     Channel. A natural or artificial watercourse with a definite bed and banks which confine and conduct the normal continuous or intermittent flow of water.

     City. The City of Columbia, Missouri.

     Clinic. A building used solely as a place for the treatment and diagnosis of out-patients.

     Commission. The planning and zoning commission of the City of Columbia, Missouri.

     Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC).  A large scale facility (or integrated group of facilities) that has a primary purpose of providing housing and continuing care for retirement-age persons, and that consists of CCRC independent living units, CCRC assisted living facilities and CCRC support facilities.  Such facilities may also include a CCRC skilled care nursing facility.  “Continuing care” means the provision of lodging, nursing, medical or other health related services at the same community.

     Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) independent living unit. A dwelling unit within a CCRC containing living area(s), bedroom area(s), kitchen area and bathroom(s), including apartments, detached homes, or attached townhomes, which houses one or more people in a manner in which they may live independently and may receive one or more meals per day in a congregate setting.

     Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) assisted living facility (also licensed as a residential care facility). A facility located within a CCRC that provides a residential living environment, including congregate meals, housekeeping, and personal services for retirement-age persons and spouses, who have temporary or periodic difficulties with one or more essential activities of daily living, such as feeding, bathing, dressing or mobility, or memory care issues, but do not require services generally offered in a long-term care facility or nursing facility.  A CCRC assisted living facility or residential care facility includes dwelling units, dining room(s), bathing area(s), common area(s), offices and other spaces necessary to provide the above services.

     Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) skilled care nursing facility.  A facility located within a CCRC that provides board, shelter and twenty-four (24) hour skilled nursing and medical care to chronic or convalescent patients.  A CCRC skilled care nursing facility includes nursing beds or individual rooms, dining rooms, bathing areas, common areas, offices, clinics, therapy areas, medical facilities and other space necessary to provide the above services.  Such facilities are accessory to the principal functions of the CCRC and are subordinate in size and area occupied on the site.

     Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC) support facilities. Facilities and amenities located within a CCRC intended to support the lifestyles of the residents and their visitors.  Such facilities may include arts-and-crafts rooms, automatic teller machines (ATMs), chapels, studios, gardens and wellness clubs, small on-site commercial facilities intended for residents, visitors and staff that are owned or operated by the CCRC owner or operated under direct contract with the owner such as general stores, hair salons, postal centers, medical services that may include therapy, home health care, private duty nursing, hospice care, pharmacies, circuit health and dental care which are intended to provide for continuity of care to CCRC residents (past or current), shuttle bus services, and regular programs that take advantage of local cultural and educational activities.

     Cooperative. A development in which individual ownership is a share of the overall development.

     Cooperative house. A building used for living quarters by a group or groups of persons sharing the costs of operation.

     Council. The city council of the City of Columbia, Missouri.

     Court. An open space, other than a yard, on the same lot with a building or buildings and which is bounded on two (2) or more sides by the walls of such building or buildings.

     Court apartment building. An apartment building constructed around a court.

     Curb level. The mean elevation of the curb in front of the lot, or along any abutting street where the median curb elevation is the highest.

     Development. Any man-made change to all real estate, including but not limited to building, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavating or drilling operations.

     Dormitory. A building devoted exclusively to living facilities, in which each person residing in each living unit shall be a duly registered student in any accredited school, college or university, the spouse of such student, or a management employee. Such living facilities may contain sleeping rooms for use of one or more persons, provided that there is at least one hundred fifty (150) square feet of floor space for the first occupant thereof and at least one hundred (100) additional square feet of floor space for every additional occupant thereof, the floor space to be calculated on the basis of total habitable room area.

     Driveway. An area established or used for ingress and egress of vehicles from a street or thoroughfare to any point on private property.

     Dwelling, multiple-family. A building containing three (3) or more dwelling units.

     Dwelling, one-family. A building containing one dwelling unit.

     Dwelling Unit.  A building or portion thereof, designed to house a family.

     Family:

     (1)    An individual or married couple and the children thereof and no more than two (2) other persons related directly to the individual or married couple by blood or marriage, occupying a single housekeeping unit on a nonprofit basis. A family may include not more than one additional person, not related to the family by blood or marriage; or

     Family day care homes, day care centers, preschool centers, nursery schools, child play centers, child education centers, child experiment stations or child development institutions. A place for reception, care, training or instruction of five (5) or more children, not of common parentage, residing therein, regardless of sex, under the age of eighteen (18) years, for compensation or otherwise, provided that nothing herein contained shall be construed as applying to the regularly established public or parochial schools, colleges, universities, academies or seminaries, or other schools or institutions organized under and by virtue of the laws of the United States or the State of Missouri, and under the supervision of the duly constituted authorities thereof.

     Flood boundary floodway map (FBFW). An official map delineating the floodway, floodway fringe, one hundred-year floodplain, and five hundred-year floodplain. The FBFW is prepared in conjunction with the flood insurance study (FIS).

     Floodproofing. Any combination of structural and nonstructural additions, changes or adjustments to structures, including utility and sanitary facilities, which would preclude the entry of water. Structural components shall have the capability of resisting hydrostatic and hydrodynamic loads and the effect of buoyancy.

     Game arcade. Any commercial building in which there are more than three (3) amusement game machines on the premises which are available to the public. An arcade may contain commercial recreational machines or games other than amusement game machines.

     Garage, private. A building designed for storage of motor vehicles.

     Garage sales. The sale or offering for sale to the general public of over five (5) items of personal property on any portion of a lot in a residential zoning district, whether within or outside any building. Sales of programs and food and beverage items at school athletic events shall not be deemed to constitute garage sales.

     Group care home for mentally retarded children. A facility which provides care, treatment or custody for four (4) to nine (9) mentally retarded children under the age of sixteen (16) years and affords the opportunity for utilization of community educational, recreational and health facilities and which is licensed as a group care home under Chapter 202, RSMo., 1969.

     Group home for foster care. Any private residence licensed by the division of family services or department of mental health to provide foster care to one or more but less than seven (7) children who are unrelated to either foster parent by blood, marriage or adoption.

     Group home for mentally or physically handicapped. Any home in which eight (8) or fewer mentally or physically handicapped persons reside, and may include two (2) additional persons acting as houseparents or guardians who need not be related to each other or to any of the mentally or physically handicapped persons residing in the home.

     Halfway house. A residential facility primarily for persons who have been institutionalized for various reasons and released, and require the temporary protection of a group setting to facilitate the transition to society.

     Halfway house for young offenders. A not-for-profit institution which primarily serves individuals between the ages of seventeen (17) and twenty-five (25) who have not been imprisoned (except for "shock probation" terms) and have not been convicted of adult or juvenile violent crimes (as defined by the Missouri Department of Corrections), which has 24-hour on-duty staff, and which is designed to provide an alternative to prison for young offenders.

     Height of buildings. The vertical distance measured from the highest of the following three (3) elevations:

    (1)    From the street curb elevation.

    (2)    From the established or mean street elevation if the curb has not been established.

    (3)    From the average finished ground elevation of the portion of the lot adjoining and within ten (10) feet of the building where it sits back from the street line ten (10) feet or more, to the elevation of the highest point of the roof beams of flat roofs or roofs inclining not more than one inch to the foot, and to the mean elevation of the top of the main plate and highest ridge for other roofs.

     Hotel. A building occupied or used as a temporary abiding place of individuals or groups of individuals who are lodgers, with or without meals, and in which there are more than twelve (12) sleeping rooms.

     Hundred-year flood. The base flood having a one percent chance of annual occurrence.

     Landscaping. The improvement of a lot, parcel or tract of land with a combination of grasses, trees, ground cover, shrubs, flowerbeds, ornamental gravel and statuary, and other objects designed and arranged to produce an aesthetically pleasing effect.

     Lot. A tract or parcel of land which:

    (1)    Is set forth as a lot on an approved recorded plat; or

    (2)    a.    Is zoned A-1, R-1 or R-2, or any combination thereof, and was described by a metes and bounds description accurately describing the location, boundaries and size of the tract on a recorded instrument prior to annexation into the city or prior to October 5, 1964; or

        b.    Is zoned A-1, R-1 or R-2, or any combination thereof, and was described by an accurate written description, recorded prior to annexation into the city or prior to October 5, 1964, that referred to an existing recorded subdivision or existing land survey; or

        c.    Is zoned any district and contains less than one (1) acre of land area and is partially or fully developed with an existing principal building(s) at the time of application for a development permit and was described by a metes and bounds or other written description accurately describing the location, boundaries and size of the tract on a recorded instrument prior to annexation into the City or prior to October 5, 1964; or

    (3)        Is zoned A-1, R-1 or R-2, or any combination thereof, and was described by a recorded survey prior to annexation; or

    (4)        Was platted as a lot in a recorded subdivision plat prior to October 5, 1964, or described by a recorded survey prior to October 5, 1964; or

    (5)    Is a portion of one (1) or more platted lots in a recorded subdivision plat prior to annexation or prior to October 5, 1964; and was described on a recorded instrument prior to annexation or prior to October 5, 1964  and the director, after having consulted with the director of public works and all applicable utility providers, has certified that no additional easements or right-of-way dedications relating to the property are needed .

When a portion of a tract of land is acquired for highway or other public purposes, such division of ownership shall not affect the remainder of the tract in meeting the definition of a lot so long as the original tract met the definition of a lot under one of the above provisions.

For purposes of this definition, the term “recorded” means recorded in the office of the Boone County Recorder of Deeds.  

     Lot depth. The median horizontal distance from the front property line to the rear line.

     Lot, front of. The front of a lot shall be considered to be that part of a lot which abuts and has access to a public street, except for corner lots.

     Lot, interior. A lot whose side lines do not abut any streets.

     Lot line, front. The boundary between a lot and the street on which it fronts.

     Lot line, rear. The boundary line which is opposite and most distant from the front property line or that boundary line of an irregularly shaped lot that the director of public works shall determine to be the rear lot line.

     Lot line, side. Any lot boundary line not a front or rear line.

     Lot lines. The lines bounding a lot as defined herein.

     Lot, through. An interior lot having frontage on two (2) streets.

     Lot width. The mean horizontal distance between side lines measured at right angles to the depth at the building line.

     Manufactured home. A factory-built structure which in the traveling mode is eight (8) body feet or more in width or forty (40) body feet or more in length, or when erected on site contains three hundred twenty (320) or more square feet, which is equipped with the necessary service connections and made so as to be readily movable as a unit on its own running gear and designed to be used as a single-family dwelling unit with or without a permanent foundation.

    The phrase "without a permanent foundation" indicates that the support system is constructed with the intent that the manufactured home placed thereon may be moved from time to time at the convenience of the owner.

    The term "mobile home" shall be included in, and shall be synonymous with, the term "manufactured home."

     Manufactured home park. A parcel of land which has been planned and improved for the placement of manufactured homes for nontransient use.

     Manufactured home space. A parcel of land for the placement of a single manufactured home and the exclusive use of its occupants.

     Manufactured home stand. Improvement on a manufactured home lot constructed for the purpose of providing a structural base for the manufactured home.

     Motel. One or more buildings containing individual sleeping or living units, designed for or used temporarily by automobile tourists or transients, with garage attached or parking space conveniently located to each unit.

     Nonconforming use, building, or yard. A use, building or yard which does not, by reason of design, use or dimensions, conform to the regulations of the district in which it is situated.

     Overlay district. A district which acts in conjunction with the underlying zoning district or districts.

     Parking space. A parcel of land or floor space as specified in Section 29-30 Off-Street Parking and Loading Regulations containing a minimum area of eight and a half (8½) by eighteen (18) feet and designed for accommodating the temporary storage of a motor vehicle.

     Place. An open, unoccupied space, a minimum of fifty (50) feet in width, other than a street or alley, permanently established or dedicated as the principal means of access to property abutting thereon.

     Private club. An organized group of people not open to or intended for, or controlled by the public, or for the use of the public.

     Residential care facility. A residential institution, whether operated for profit or not, which provides personal care, custody, or treatment for five (5) or more individuals not related to the operator who, for reasons of illness, mental retardation, advanced age, or physical handicaps, are unable to care for themselves.

     Scenic roadway. A street designated by the city council as a scenic roadway following the procedure outlined in section 29-21.2(e).

     Scenic roadway area. The area of land lying within two hundred (200) feet and on each side of the right of way of a scenic roadway.

     Self service storage facility. A building, or group of buildings, with controlled access containing separate storage spaces or compartmentalized units of varying sizes, with no unit exceeding six hundred (600) square feet, that are rented or leased to tenants, with no tenant leasing more than two thousand (2000) square feet, for the storage of goods.

     Solar energy system. A complete design or assembly consisting of a solar energy collector, an energy storage facility (where used), and components for the distribution of transformed energy.

     Stormwater management plan. A detailed design in conformance with the standards on file with the public works department signed and sealed by an engineer licensed to practice in the State of Missouri.

     Street. A public thoroughfare or place which affords principal means of access to property abutting thereon.

     Structure. Anything constructed or erected, which requires location on the ground, or attached to something having a location on the ground; including, but not limited to, advertising signs, billboards and poster panels, but exclusive of customary fences or boundary or retaining walls. (As used for the floodplain overlay district, a walled and roofed structure including a gas or liquid storage tank, that is principally above the ground.)

     Structural alterations. Any change in the supporting members of a building, such as bearing walls, columns, beams or girders.

     Substantial improvement. Any repair, reconstruction, or other change of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds fifty (50) percent of the market value of the structure either:

    (1)    Before the improvement is started; or

    (2)    If the structure has been damaged and was being restored, before the damage occurred.

    In the case of a nonconforming structure, restoration of damage is considered a "substantial improvement" which the cost equals or exceeds fifty (50) percent of the structure's market value. For the purposes of this definition "substantial improvement" is considered to occur when the first alteration of any wall, ceiling, floor or other structural part of the building commences, whether or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the structure. The term does not, however, include any alteration to comply with existing state or local health, sanitary, building, or safety codes or regulations.

     Testing Laboratory - A facility primarily engaged in performing physical, chemical, and other analytical testing services, such as electrical, environmental, geotechnical,  industrial, mechanical, radiation, thermal, vibration or other similar testing.

     Travel trailer.

    (1)    A vehicular, portable structure built on a chassis and designed for temporary occupancy for travel, recreational or vacation use; and when factory-equipped for the road, being of any weight, provided its overall length is less than forty (40) feet or is less than three hundred twenty (320) square feet in floor area;

    (2)    A structure designed to be mounted on a truck chassis for use as a temporary dwelling for travel, recreation, and vacation;

    (3)    A portable, temporary dwelling to be used for travel, recreational and vacation purposes, constructed as an integral part of a self-propelling vehicle; or

    (4)    A canvas, folding structure, mounted on wheels and designed for travel, recreation and vacation use.

     Travel trailer park. A parcel of land which has been improved for the placement of travel trailers.

     Travel trailer space. A parcel of land for the placement of a single travel trailer.

     Variance. A modification or variation of the provisions of this chapter, as applied to a specific piece of property, as distinct from rezoning.

     Watercourse. A natural running stream of water flowing in a particular direction and having a definite channel with a bed or banks. A watercourse may be intermittent, but shall be considered more than mere surface drainage over the entire fall of a tract of land.

     Yard. An open space between a building and the adjoining lot line.

(Code 1964, § 19.110; Ord. No. 9958, § 1, 10-3-83; Ord. No. 11373, § 2, 2-16-87; Ord. No. 11398, § 1, 3-2-87; Ord. No. 11702, § 1, 12-7-87; Ord. No. 12856, § 1, 2-4-91; Ord. No. 13169, § 1, 11-18-91; Ord. No. 13526, § 1, 12-7-92; Ord. No. 13543, § 1, 2-21-92; Ord. No. 14334, § 1, 1-3-95; Ord. No. 14347, § 1, 1-17-95; Ord. No. 14363, § 1, 2-6-95; Ord. No. 14777, § 1, 3-4-96; Ord. No. 15180, § 1, 3-17-97; Ord. No. 15828, § 2, 12-7-98; Ord. No. 16816, § 1, 3-5-01; Ord. No. 17116, § 1, 12-17-01; Ord. No. 17667, § 1, 5-5-03; Ord. No. 17860, § 2, 10-6-03; Ord. No. 18841, § 1, 1-3-06; Ord. No. 19748, § 1, 12-3-07; Ord. No. 19816, § 1, 2-18-08; Ord. No. 20237, § 1, 4-20-09; Ord. No. 20835, § 1, 1-3-11)

     Cross reference(s)--Definitions and rules of construction generally, § 1-2.