HomeMy WebLinkAbout1978-09-05 Y
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GROTON TOWN PLANNING BOARD MEETING
Held at the Town Hall
Groton , N . Y .
Tuesday - September 5th , 1978
8 : 00 PM
PRESENT : R . Gleason - Chairman* G . Evans - Tompkins County Planning
G . Totman - Vice - Chairman Department*
M . Adams *
J . MacNeil*
L . Raymond*
Co Twigg*
D . Payne* J . Bell - Recording Clerk*
* - Denotes those present .
Mr . Gleason called the meeting to order at 8 : 10 PM and passed
out copies of the minutes of the July llth meeting to all present .
R . Gleason : You all have a copy of the minutes - - are there any additions or
corrections ? If not , they stand approved as presented .
I think that the minutes, in a way , are a report on our last meeting
and we are going to get into the continuation of the discussion of
our zoning ordinance .
I have something here on a meeting of the New York Planning Federation
to be held in October . It starts on Sunday , October 15th and is to be
held at Kutsher ' s in Monticello , New York . Would anyone be interested
in attending ? Don , did you find the sessions interesting ?
D . Payne : They were very good . I went four years ago .
C . Twigg : Is that the one they usually have in the City?
D . Payne : No , this is pretty much for planning boards .
R . Gleason : This is a different sort of thing . It ' s an organization , - - I guess , we
belong to it .
D . Payne : Yes ,
R . Gleason : And we are eligible . Do you get any money from the Town to attend ?
D . Payne : Yes , the Town pays for any of our members that want to go and if you
take your wives there are programs and entertainment in the evenings
for them .
R . Gleason : Would any of you people possibly like to take it in ?
G . Evans ; I went last year and had a really good time and the sessions they had
- - they will pick up some subject and have you work on that subject and
will tell you as much as they can in a short time on what you need to know
and do and how you should approach it and so on .
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_ e R . Gleason : This year they will have several concurrent sessions in the afternoons
• and so on . Are you interested , Lyle ?
L . Raymond : I might be but some of it is at the same time as the Finger Lakes Con-
ference I ' m involved in which will take a lot of my time so I ' m re -
luctant to get engaged in anything else at the present time because of
that .
R . Gleason : Cecil , are you interested at all ?
C . Twigg : Maybe , if I ' m to be part of this Planning Board ought to be better in-
formed . I ' m not sure what my schedule is - - would have to look it up .
J . MacNeil : How soon do you have to know ?
R . Gleason : Reservations received by October lst will be confirmed . All other
reservations are subject to availability - - there ' s a $ 35 . reserva-
tion fee which is refundable if you give them 72 hours notice , - - so
that would be 3 days so I suppose you could have up to the 12th to
cancel it . I would love to go but right then , - -no way .
C . Twigg : That ' s half a day on the 15th?
R . Gleason : It starts Sunday 15th , - - registration is from 3 - 6 PM and a dinner at
7 : 30 PM - - cocktail party at 6 : 30 PM . Actually if you arrive the
next morning I suspect you wouldn ' t miss any of the real meeting .
D . Payne : There ' s no real business on Sunday .
R . Gleason : The first real session is at 10 AM Monday morning .
C . Twigg : All day Monday ?
R . Gleason : Monday and Tuesday and that ' s it .
C . Twigg : How far into Tuesday does it go ?
R . Gleason : A luncheon at 1 PM and except for a Board of Directors meeting after -
wards that ' s it .
D . Payne : I think you should check with the Town Board and make sure they still
make money available .
Some discussion was held on past conferences by L . Raymond ,
G . Evans , R . Gleason and others .
R . Gleason : So I take it the sooner we can send in reservations the better . I can
ask Teresa about the money .
D . Payne : I think when George and I went only three members were paid for at that
time . I don ' t know what it is now .
R . Gleason : 0 . K .
C . Twigg : I ' ll check and see what my schedule is .
R . Gleason : Jim , is there any chance of your being able to go ?
J . MacNeil : It sounds like a good opportunity but I don ' t think I can go through
the week .
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R . Gleason : Lyle ?
L . Raymond ; As I said other events will be going on .
R . Gleason : Mary ?
M . Adams : No .
R . Gleason : Don ?
D . Payne : No .
R . Gleason : I ' ll check with George and see if there ' s any chance that he ' ll be able
to go . Cecil let me know as soon as you can . If the weather is lousy
at the time I might be able to get there for a day or so .
CO Twigg : Monticello , - -how far away is that ? About 3 hours ? 16
D . Payne : It ' s at least as far as the other side of Binghamton as we are this side .
R . Gleason : About 2 to 22 hours ' drive . 0 . K . , does anybody else have anything to
report ? I have no old business .
G . Evans : I have something maybe I could report to you . We received in our office
petitions for Agricultural District to be formed somewhere in the Town
of Groton or Town of Dryden . I have mapped the properties owned by the
petitioners and if I had my head on would have brought the map with me
tonight but I didn ' t . I didn ' t know if you had any contact with this
process .
R . Gleason : I ' m on the Agricultural District Advisory Committee ,
G . Evans : Are you aware of this one ?
R . Gleason ; No , I ' m not - - would this be in the Cobb Street area ?
G . Evans : Yes , - - there are properties in the northwest of Dryden and a separate
group of petitions from the eastern third of the Town of Dryden and
we got them all at once so there ' s going to be agricultural district
activity in the Town of Groton .
R . Gleason ; Now with the agricultural assessment against regular assessment it ' s quite
an advantage being in an agricultural district . Under the new appraisals
of the County Assessment Department the values . placed on farm land are
higher than the State has set as agricultural value so if you are in Bnk
and have at least $ 10 , 00 0 gross you may apply up to May 1 to be assessed
on the basis of agricultural use and with the present assessment they are
now using it ' s quite an advantage for a farmer to do this . You can do it
if you ' re not in an agricultural district but there ' s a tremendous amount
of red tape - - to you up for 8 years and have to renew each year and
there ' s a m- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - .
M . Adams : Where do you apply for this ? Would that bring school taxes down?
R . Gleason : Yes , but would have to wait until next year , - -had to do it by May 1st .
Some discussion was held on this by L . Raymond , M .
Adams , C . Twigg , R . Gleason and others .
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R . Gleason : Is there any other old business ?
C . Twigg : Who was this talking about SEQUA last time , - - talking about
some changes ?
G . Evans : They are still coming . It got postponed a couple of months be-
cause they are sending some new guidelines , - - they must have gotten
lost because we haven ' t received them yet . Once we do will try to
translate them into English and send everybody copies of them .
C . Twigg : That will be in the future aways yet , then ?
J . MacNeil : November 1st .
C . Twigg : When he was here at the last meeting , - - is it two months from when
he said it would be ?
G . Evans : Effective date now is November 1st . It ' s already in effect for
public agencies . For instance , if the Town were to undertake
some project it ' s in effect now but for things that the Town
issues a permit for it doesn ' t go into effect until the 1st of
November .
R . Gleason : 0 . K . , - - open for new business . I have no particular new business .
I have no subdivisions or anything that I know of so unless some -
body else has - -
L . Raymond : You mentioned a month or so ago about activity across from the
Country Club .
R . Gleason : Haven ' t heard a word more about that so if we have no other new
business we ' ll go right into the review of the Groton Town Planning
with Gary Evans .
G . Evans ; 0 . K . , - - I came prepared to talk about the zoning ordinance so hope
that is what you expect me to talk about . The last time I was here
I handed out a little booklet called Modern Zoning Classifications
- - I hope all of you brought that with you .
R . Gleason : I have mine .
G . Evans : See if you can find it , - - I think we ' ll be referring to it a lot and
it will be very useful at these meetings . The question is , - - is
there a system of classifying things in the zoning ordinance that
is a little more flexible and doesn ' t bind you into a corner too
often . And I said yes of course there is and what I would like to
do now is hand out an item here which will attempt to explain some
of the basic examples or theory or what -have - you about this classi -
fication system .
(Mr . Evans handed out several papers concerning the zoning
( classification system he would be referring to , - - copies of
(which are attached and made a part of these minutes . )
G . Evans : In answer to the basic question of why do you do it that way , I
have prepared this which tries to explain the general idea behind
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G . Evans : the system of classification which I have been using with some
success for awhile now . The basic assumption is that zoning
is interested in three broad categories of things , - -we can call
these whatever we want but the names I cooked up for them are on
the first page - Site - Site Development and Site Activity .
The categories are all open- ended , - -we do not try to include
every possible thing that might be in that category , so that
other things as yet undreamt of will fit into the different
categories .
L . Raymond ; How do you define a site ? You speak of main lot size ,
frontage and so on , - - is a farm included in this as a site ?
G . Evans : Yes , - - a piece of land , - - it ' s location , type of soil , - - these
type of things .
Now a zoning ordinance typically contains some regulations
that relate to each of these categories . This is dividing
the zoning universe into three dimensions . Now going into a
little more detail on the site traditionally this has been
fairly cursory .
(Mr . Evans went on to explain about site as explained
in the attached handouts . )
L . Raymond ; You mention the Health Code and Environmental Conservation- -
you don ' t mean it ' s limited to that , do you ?
G . Evans : The zoning law comes from the Town law . It ' s concerned with
control of site development , the State Health Code also is with
regard to waste disposal and the Environmental Conservation Law
is with regard to wild life species , erosion and so on .
L . Raymond ; The one I was thinking of was economics , - -because one of the
first things you hear is we don ' t want this or that because of
property values .
G . Evans : I was talking about certain State laws that hinge on this .
Now if you look at this other hand- out I gave you "Permitted
FFacilities " -- this table is from the Town of Groton ordinance .
We pick up with site development and will find those 5 categories
on the first pages of this table .
(Mr . Evans went on to explain these to all present . )
J . MacNeil : How do mobile homes fall into your definition of structures ?
G . Evans ; It ' s one .
J . MacNeil : It can be sitting on a site not permanent;ly .. fixed ?
G . Evans : 0 . K . will have to talk about permanence - - I think we have to
start with the assumption that nothing is permanent . Something
which is on a concrete block foundation which is bolted down or
supported by poles stuck in the ground or something of that sort
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G . Evans : will have to say they are permanent . Permanence in terms of
activities is particularly arbitrary . If you live in a place
over a month you ' re a permanent resident there . Mobile homes
are a difficult situation because some of them look like they
were about to be towed away any minute . We have to say that
if it is there , if it ' s level , on blocks or tied down , it ' s a
permanent structure .
Some discussion was held on this by G . Evans , J . MacNeil ,
D . Payne , R . Gleason and others .
G . Evans ; 310 . 4 - Accessory facilities - - under each of the 7 items
there are explanations of what is meant by these terms .
Now , if I can recap just a little bit as to why these three
distinctions are made . The site development is what is
generally covered by what we call a building permit . It is
the category of things that are regulated by the State
Building Code and State Codes adopted by locality which deals
with how they are located , number of components and so on .
The site activity , the next category , we ' re looking at is
more traditionsl , - - what is thought of when you talk about
zoning . What you can do here and what you cannot do here .
Zoning regulations address a full range of activities which
can be tied to a specific type - - getting back to mobile homes , - -
zoning talks about them once they stop moving and relate to a
specific site . But the scope of zoning is restricted to the
health and welfare of the community . This is the only justifica -
tion for them .
Now let me give you a little bit of history - - zoning in New
York State started in 1916 - - New York City and the whole city
was divided into 4 categories , - - residential , commercial , industrial
and unrestricted and that was the extent of the categories and it
was difficult to see what they were talking about . As the zoning
became a little bit more finely tuned it recognized more definitions
in these activities and started describing them in more detail
in terms of the activity and in terms of what function was taking
place in this business and so on . For instance in a store they
would talk about whether it was retail or wholesale . In a building
they would talk about whether it was family occupied or a rooming
house and so on . In other words specifically what is going on in-
side .
In the last 15 - 20 years there has been a greater emphasis on not what
is going on inside but on the external effect that activity has on
its surroundings . This is best described by a rather tiresome term , - -
the environmental effect . When you talk about that you ' re talking
about the effect it has on the surroundings . So in effect human
activity is what regulations and zoning are increasingly being
limited to .
(Mr . Evans went on explaining site activities as
described in attached material . )
G . Evans : This tabulation I did from your existing ordinance - - it was
done very quickly and I may have made some errors in it
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G . Evans ; but basically it represents your existing regulations in terms of
this classification system I have presented . You may find some
surprises in here . You may find things permitted here you didn ' t
realize were permitted or in places you didn ' t realize they were
permitted so look over this - - it may be a convenient way of
finding oversights or something .
L . Raymond ; You said , as I recall , that each one of these classifications were
not exclusive so if someone comes in with a new type of activity
you can fairly flexibly decide which one it could go into . So then ,
as our present zoning ordinance doesn ' t specify ones that decide
which major category it goes into - - say .commercial for instance -it goes under agricultural - - what ' s the procedure from there ?
If there ' s no procedure for giving a special permit or regular
permit for it , would that entail a change ?
G . Evans ; What it says is it ' s not permitted and if the Town Board wishes to
permit it then it would require a change in the ordinance .
L . Raymond ; 0 . K . , - - I wasn ' t sure of this blank area . That means it ' s not
permitted .
G . Evans ; Where it ' s blank it ' s not permitted .
L . Raymond ; Then where does the flexibility come in ?
G . Evans ; There are some things you don ' t want to permit in certain districts
and those things will show up here if not permitted . That ' s not an
oversight , it ' s a deliberate decision of the Town Board . The
flexibility is that when something comes up chances are it does fit
into one of those categories and there will be a fairly clear state -
ment somewhere in here that it is in ;-- this category or not .
L . Raymond ; The recent trouble we had here in the agricultural district was with
auto repair shops . It was not something that was specifically
listed as being permitted . O . K , we handled that by amending the
zoning ordinance but I was wondering if this could not be handled
differently .
G . Evans ; 0 . K . - - vehicle repair shops - - O . K .
(Mr . Evans read from 311 . 3 of the booklet he handed out
at the last meeting . )
R . Gleason ; I have a question , - - I thought you said this here is a listing from
that booklet .
G , Evans ; It ' s merely a summary ,
R . Gleason ; And you have taken these and listed them down and then taken our
present ordinance and put in what we have here .
G . Evans ; In your ordinance - - 311 . 3 Vehicle Repair and Care is . permitted in
medium intensity but is not permitted in the agricultural area .
L . Raymond ; Until we changed it just recently ,
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G . Evans : There should not be any confusion at all on whether they fit into
these categories or not .
J . MacNeil : The problem was motor vehicle where we had it written automobile
and we had to change it so he could repair everything .
Some discussion was held on this by C . Twigg , R .
Gleason , J . MacNeil and others .
R . Gleason : You ' re trying to classify our list against this classification you
have .
C . Twiggt 0 . K . so if we were going to put this into effect we would go down
through and say this is what we want to put in under special permit .
G . Evans : The proposal I ' m making is not anything to do with the specifics of
your regulations . It ' s simply a system of classifying and talking
about your regulations . When it comes to making proposals of what you
want to regulate and what you don ' t want to I ' m going to be pretty
quiet about that but will be glad to tell you if it ' s required by the
State law or if you ask for a recommendation about something I ' ll
cook up something but I ' m not going to be making any suggestions about
the specifics of the regulations . If you have trouble I might be able to
suggest how it could be dealt with . I ' m not an advocate for any
particular design as to how Groton is to grow or not grow .
C . Twigg : So if we got really interested you would go through the whole thing
and categorize it like this ?
G . Evans : This deals with your districts and fire regulations . What this permits
you to do is to look at zoning from the other end of the gun . You take
this list of things and go down through it and see where you want to
permit this and where you do not want to . It allows you to go
through a fairly comprehensive panoramic view of things for your in -
tents and purposes .
L . Raymond : 312 . 2 - - we have nothing in our ordinance covering that so I assume
you have come up with this from some other source .
G . Evans : Yes and no . It ' s something that got cooked up , I think , originally
or at least the first contact I had with it was in California in the
mid �1960 ' s and over the last 12 - 13 years I have gradually adjusted it
and added to it and so on .
L . Raymond : So you just sort of developed this list of group categories ?
G . Evans : Right , and every time I work with a group like this it gets added to
or juggled around a little . Eventually it will settle down and maybe
I ' ll get it published or something !
Let me talk a little bit about how this system of classification has
developed . Item 310 . 3 Residential Buildings , - -
(Mr . Evans went on to discuss what was
written out in the booklet . )
By permitting a recreational cabin that complies with the health re -
quirements this could be permitted .
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R . Gleason : On this type of thing , would you have a 200 ft . frontage on it ? Would
that come into that category ?
G . Evans : That would be strictly up to you . What ' s the definition for this ?
(Mr . Evans read the definition aloud . )
The translation of zoning from urban to rural has created these
problems . It was originally to allow adequate space between
buildings . There ' s really no issue as far as spacing buildings
if you have the room . The question is do you really have any function
- have a minimum function to perform , - - and if you decide you do not
then you ' re probably talking about minimum of 15 - 20 ft . for an emergency
exit .
C . Twigg : A person could say I can build a recreation building on that lot and
then they would live there year round so you would have to define
what a recreational building is a little closer as far as use .
G . Evans : Yes , that is possible . In your general regulations you can say
recreational building may be occupied no more than so many months
in a year or something like that . Otherwise would have to conform
with the requirements of other residential type buildings .
Some discussion was held on this by R . Gleason , G .
Evans , C . Twigg and others .
G . Evans : This brings up another point , - - there ' s some frontage needed on a
Town Road . It ' s required on Town or County or State highways . If it ' s
a lot that is not maintained year round this may be a situation where
you would permit recreational one but not a permanent residence .
You have to decide .
R . Gleason : So what we ' re saying is the next step really is to take this list ,
go down through and look "at each category and make a determination
on what we want to do with it .
G . Evans : Exactly ,
C . Twigg : And we ' re still keeping our A , L and M zones .
G . Evans : This is one of the questions that I had . In this process that we are
commencing now , do you contemplate any re- drawing of boundary lines
or new districts or that sort of thing ?
C . Twigg : That ought to be probably , our number one step .
G . Evans : This is something I can ' t help you with at all . This system works very
much like a Chinese menu . Go in and run through it all and it fits
nicely in certain parts of the Town but not over here and you may wind
up developing some ideas that a new district designation would be necess -
ary or called for .
R . Gleason : I guess my personal feeling is , - -we hadn ' t really thought about changing
the districts too much but there ' s a problem and maybe we should con-
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R . Gleason : sider it and I guess that ' s - - you say you can ' t help us and yet I
guess we do need some help .
G . Evans : If you have a dews plan and you ' re fairly happy with it , I can take
that and review your district boundaries in conjunction with that
and tell you where I think there ' s any dissidence but I can ' t tell
you where you have problems because I don ' t know .
R . Gleason : The problems crop up when some issue comes up and I don ' t know - -
perhaps in a lot of cases so far - - if we had had this type of. a
classification a lot of the problems wouldn ' t have occurred .
D . Payne : You ' re probably right .
G . Evans : One of the possible types of problems might be something like I ' m
experiencing - - I own a house in the City of Ithaca , - -very small - -
in a good neighborhood with two units in it and all others have 3
or more but mine is in the same classification as Fairview Heights
if it should burn down I could replace it with a 6 -unit house
completely out of character with what is there now . In my opinion
it should not be in that district category . They don ' t realize it
but they have a problem and I ' m their problem and I ' m going to do what
I can to get it changed . Now if you ' re having a problem of a
certain type of activity that is causing trouble then there ' s a
possibility a new district should be set up or maybe a boundary ad -
justed . Reason I ' m asking this is because I don ' t know whether this
is an issue you intend getting into or not .
R . Gleason : I guess we really don ' t know .
C . Twigg : We wouldn ' t have run into the problem with the repair shops , under
this system , because repair shops were only allowed in the medium .
R . Gleason : Yes , - -which would be essentially a commercial area .
C . Twigg : So under this system we could eliminate that irregularity or problem
that we had without having to change the boundaries of our A , L and M ' s .
R . Gleason : Again that means we have to come up with where something may happen but
do we know ?
L . Raymond : The only thing can do is look at the trends of the town , land use of
the town since the town has looked at it the last time .
C . Twigg : But if we change some of these categories and put the special permit
mark on some of those other zones . Say manufacturing sales and
service establishments - - can ' t have any in agricultural now but let ' s
say can have one with special permits - say John Deere wanted to put one
in on Licke Street ,
R . Gleason : That ' s allowed , - -we ' re contradictory on some things .
Some discussion was held on this by D . Payne , C .
Twigg , R . Gleason and others .
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G . Evans ; There ' s more satisfaction with special permits in rural areas than
trying to carve out a little district where all of these things could
take place . So the special permit technique gives you a lot of flexi -
bility as to where things can take place but you have a hold on how
to regulate it so it ' s not right on the road and so on .
R . Gleason : 0 . K . , - -we ' ve covered quite a lot , - - it ' s getting close to ten o ' clock
- - are there any questions that have to be answered right now ? If
not , we should wind it up for tonight . I ' m not just sure , - -perhaps
we have a little homework to do here and everybody should study this .
C . Twigg : That thing didn ' t mean quite so much until tonight .
G . Evans : Do you know how much time I had to prepare for that ? About 12 hours .
C . Twigg ; It makes more sense now . It has a place .
G . Evans : That was the idea , - - if you take the things I gave you this evening
and read through it and go through the booklet I think you can then
decide if you want to go with it or not . If you see flaws in it you
want to adjust . If you agree that it ' s a reasonable thing to do then
I would think the next step would be to go through it with your
different districts and see what you want to permit .
R . Gleason ; 0 . K . Would you think we should go through this first by ourselves
or would it be well to have you here to explain things ?
G . Evans : I think it would probably be better for you to read through it
thoroughly to see if you spot anything you think is weird and at
the next meeting could bring these things up and iron them out . And
then , I should think it could be ironed out fairly quickly at the
beginning of the meeting and then go right into specific districts .
R . Gleason : What we should figure out before the next meeting with you is whether
we are in favor of this generally speaking . Is this the direction we
want to go ?
G . Evans : That ' s right .
R . Gleason : Will a month ' s time be enough to have Gary back for the October
meeting , which will be on October 3rd ?
C . Twigg : We could handle any questions we have at a meeting he ' s at . It
shouldn ' t take - - if we do our homework between now and the next
time we meet should be ready for him at our next meeting .
R . Gleason : 0 . K . , - - any other comments ?
G . Evans : While you ' re doing that I suggest a useful thing for me to do is
this . The use of this system and related definitions and so on
requires a certain nomenclature which is not always used in existing
ordinances and I suggest I rgo , through existing ordinance and make
those adjustments in the nomenclature as I discover them and go through
them quickly at the next meeting . I may even have something on SEQUA
for the next meeting .
R . Gleason : Very good .
- 11 -
Jo MacNeil made a motion that the
meeting be adjourned which was seconded
by C . Twigg and motion carried .
The meeting adjourned at 10 : 00 P . M .
Respectfully submitted ,
C
Jo ephine Bell
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Structure of a Zoning Classification System
The range of concerns in the zoning field is ,ildivided into three
broad categories :
1 . Site : land characteristics such as location , size and shape of
lot , soil types , ownership , flora and fauna , etc .
2 . Site Developments that which is done to or built on the site
to make it more useful , safer , more attractive , etc . : structures ,
drainageways , landscaping , paving , etc .
3 . Site Activity : that which is done on the site on an ongoing
basis , as some form of human activity : residing , commerce , agri -
culture , etc .
A zoning ordinance contains regulations relating to ' each of these
categories .
1 . Sites mapping of districts , minimum lot size and frontage , etc ,
2 . Site Developments permitted building types , maximum mass or
height of structures on the site , required facilities ( e . g . , for
sewage disposal ) , etc .
• 3 . Site Activity@ permitted activity types , maximum intensity of
activity on site , etc .
For each of these three broad categories of regulation there is .
a set of detailed classes appropriate to the regulatory purposes
of zoning .
Site
Traditionally the site dimension of zoning regulations is
limited to placing each lot into a district classification ( e . g . ,
Residential , Commercial , etc . ) adn - imposing requirements as to
minimum lot size and frontage , which are uniform within each district
but may differ from one district to the next .
More recent developments , particularly in rural areas , suggest
that a number of site conditions ( soil types , depth to water table ,
erosion suceptibility , wildlife species , etc ., ) should be considered .
A ' carrying capacity ' for various types of development would be a
more satisfactory , although more complex , guide to the distribution
and spacing of development .
Since the issues related to the site are partly health and
partly environmental conservation the State Health Code , the
Environmental Conservation Law , the Agriculture and Markets Law ,
and others are involved in the regulation of the site dimension
in parallel with local zoning regulation .
In general , regulations will be different for each of the
following site types :
1 . Agricultural land ( several classes )
• 2 . Vacant land
3 . Developed land ( public water and sewer )
4 . Land in urbanizing fringe
5 . Fragile natural resource areas
6 . Forested areas ( plantation , regrowth , virgin , etc . )
7 . Wetlands
8 . Aquifer recharge areas .
9 . Flood prone areas
10 . Steep lands
11 . Historical sites
12 . Etc .
Site Development
The kinds of site development , or facility types , in
this classification system are the followings
1 . Site Improvements
2 . Nonresidential Facilities
3 . Residential Buildings
4 . Accessory Facilities
5 . Signs .
These five facility types can be grouped as :
Site Improvements ( number 1 above ) : surface or subsurface
modifications drainage tiles , septic system , paved parking
area , ditch , earthen dam , etc . ) which usually ° do not have
any above - surface structures and
Structures ( numbers 2 through 5 above ) : objects which are
permanently affixed to the ground , directly or indirectly ,
usually including underground parts , such as foundation , and
aboveground parts .
• Item 5 , Signs , is a structure or part of a structure
which carries or conveys a message or symbol .
Item 4 , Accessory Facility , is a facility which is not
directly or frequently occupied by human activity , : but is
accessory to human activity ( fence , tank , tower , etc . ) .
Items 2 and 3 , Nonresidential Facilities and Residential
Buildings are both usually buildings : a structure which is
entered and occupied by human activity ( house , barn , ware
house , . - shop , etc . ) . Some Nonresidential Facilities do not
qualify as buildings since there is no structure that is
entered and occupied . These are referred to as Open Nonres -
idential Facilities .
The formulation building is made up of constituent
as follows :
A building can be either residential or nonresidential and
can comprise one or more units of useable pace within it ,
Therefore a building can be described as :
one-unit
two-unit
• A residential building
nonresidential - i
n-unit
This description is based on the number of units and the
type of building . For example , a two-unit residential
® building contains two hou��sinp� units ; a three-unit nonresi-
dential building contain�Firee�1screte spaces designed
for nonresidential activity .
One residential building type that does not fit into the
above is the groLj2 quarters residential building ( dormatory ,
monastary , etc . ) in which parts of the living accomodations
are discrete units and parts . are not .
' Housing unit ' is a unit of residential space as defined by
the U . S . Bureau of the Census . Housing units are sub-
divided into dwelling units and rooming units as described
below .
Dwelling Unit
A dwelling unit can be an apartment , a mobile home , a one-
unit house , or anything which complies with the following :
A dwelling unit always has its own kitchen ;
- it always has a separate entrances
- it usually has its, own bathrooms and
- .:.. it usually has more than one room :
Rooming Unit
• A rooming unit is usually found in rooming houses , hotels ,
and motels , but regardless of its location it . complies with
the following :
- A rooming unit never has its own kitchen ;
- it may have its own bathroom ;
- it usually has only one room ; and
- it is usually found in the same building with other
residential facilities .
Site Activity
Zoning regulations address the full range of human
activity which is tied to specific sites . But , since the
scope of zoning is restricted to matters of health , safety ,
and general welfare the community , the regulations in zoning
are limited to the external effect of site - specific human
activity .
This classification system groups activities according
to similar external effects similar economic function ,
locational needs , traffic generation characteristics ;
parking needs , and operational impact on other activities .
Site Activities are arranged into the following classes :
1 . Residential
2 . Civic
3 . Commercial
4 . Industrial
• 5 . Agricultural
6 . Extractive
Within each of these Site Activity classes there are
a number of Activity Groups , more specifically described
groups of site activities which have similar external effects
and economic function characteristics . Different Activity
Groups within each Site Activity Class will have different
characteristics in terms of function , locational needs ,
parking needs , etc .
If
r Site
Site
Improvement
_Nonresidential
Building
Nonresidential
Facility
Other Non-
residential
Facility
Site
Modification p Dwelling
• ( Facility ) Housing Unit
Residential Unit
Building Rmoinirag
_ Zoning Unit
Field
Group
Quarters
Accessory
Facility ^
Sign
Residential
s
Civic
Commercial
Site Industrial
Activity
Agricultural
Extractive
Town of Groton 5 Sep 78
Permitted Facilities
Zoning Permit +
Cd
Special Permit # 0
4-31 d H
W o a�
310 . 1 Site improvements :
a . Public utility
b . Private utility
C . Surface modification
310 . 2 Nonresidential facilities :
a . Enclosed +=
b . - Open #
C . Drive -in # #
• 310 . 3 . Residential buildings :
a . One -unit # + +
b . Two -unit # + +
Multiple -unit # + +.
d . Rooming units + +
e . Mobile homes +
f . Experimental
g . Group quarters
h . Recreational cabin
Town of Groton 5 Sep •78
Permitted Facilities ( cont )
Cd a:
14 m +�
Zoning Permit + �+
Special Permit # H
or4 ari
WO
tto o 4)
� a �
310 . 4 Accessory facilities :
a . Material storage
b . Household production
c . Landscaping
d . Utility service
e . Recreation
f . Access
g . Parking + + +
310 . 5 . Signs :
a . Residential + + +
b . Special + + +
c . Development + + +
d . Realty
e . civic + + +
f . Business + : + -=+
g . Advertising # # #
Town of Groton 5 Sep 78
Permitted Activities >,
4-3
403
Zoning Permit + c c
Special Permit # 4 4-2 H
U -H
4D o aD
� a
_ w 1 w w
311 . 1 Resiarm
dential activities : 4 a
a . Household
b . Group '
c . Semitransient
311 . 2 Civic activities :
a . Essential service
b . Limited child - care
c . Nursing home + +
11 . Community assembly
• -e Community education + + +
f . _ . . Nonassembly cultural
g . Administrative + + +
; th . _ Major medical + +
-1 . Vehicular civic +, +. +
j . Extensive impact ,
k . Utility and communication
1 . Recreational camping _ ♦�_ :
m . Educational , .trainingo or religious camp .
311 . 3 Commercial activities :
a . Food sales and service +
b . Convenience sales and service + = +
c . Medical service
d . General retail sales + _
e . General :personal service
• f . Consultative and financial service
g . Cleaning and repair service
h . Group - assembly + +
i . Administrative
J . Business and communication service +
Town of Groton 5 Sep 78
Permitted Activities ( coast )
� � c
Zoning Permit +
Special Permit # +, H
� c
U H
wo o a�
4C4 a
311 . 3 Commercial activities : ( cont ) a
k . Retail business supply,
1 . Research service
m . General wholesale sales #
-n . Transient habitation
o . Construction sales and service +
p . Vehicle sales ' or rental +:
q . Vehicle servicing t
r . Vehicle repair and cleaning +
s . Vehicle fee parking
t . Transport and warehousing
u . Animal care + ; #
v . Undertaking service + +
w : Agriculture service + #
•311 . 4 Manufacturing activities :
a . Custom manufacturing + + ,
b . Light manufacturing +
c . General manufacturing +
d . . Heavy. manufacturing
es Salvage and scrap processing ...#
311 . 5 Agricultural activities :
a . Household livestock production
b . Homestead food production
c . Commercial food production + . -+ +
d . Retail agricultural sales + + +
311e6 Extractive activities :
a . Limited
b . Commercial #
Town of Groton 5 Sep 78 '
Permitted Activities ( cunt )
4-31
Zoning Permit . +
4-2
Special Permit
40 o a)
� a �
4 a �
312 . 1 Home occupations :
a . Medical service +. + +
b . General personal service + +
c . Consultative and financial service + + +
d . Cleaning and repair service + +
e . Custom manufacturing + + +
312 . 2 Restricted - impact activities :
a . General personal service
b . Cleaning and repair service
c . Custom manufacturing
d.. Light manufacturing
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