Fowler Municipal Code Art. 12 C-3—GENERAL Commercial District

This district is intended to provide commercial locations that, due to space requirements or the product or service rendered, are not compatible with and are usually not located within the downtown business district.

All uses shall be subject to the provisions of Article 21.

A. Retail and service establishments:

1. Automobile repair;

2. Auto washes, mechanical and self serve;

3. Bakeries, retail and wholesale;

4. Building material sales;

5. Bowling alleys;

6. Bottling works;

7. Bus depots;

8. Cabinet and carpenter shops;

9. Canvas shops;

10. Electrical and motor rebuilding shops;

11. Electrical distribution substations and communication equipment buildings;

12. Entertainment centers;

13. Equipment rentals and sales;

14. Exterminators;

15. Factory outlet stores;

16. Feed, seed, and fertilizer sales;

17. Food lockers, sales, and services;

18. Furniture warehouse and van services;

19. Garden supplies and nurseries;

20. Glass shops;

21. Grocery stores;

22. Hatcheries;

23. Heating and air conditioning shops;

24. Household appliance repair shops;

25. Ice and food products dispensing machines;

26. Ice manufacturing;

27. Laboratories;

28. Laundry plants;

29. Mini-storage facilities;

30. Parcel delivery services;

31. Photographic and blueprint processing and printing;

32. Plumbing and sheet metal shops;

33. Post offices, public and private;

34. Poultry and rabbit butcher shops for retail sales on the premises, including live storage; such use shall not be established closer than five hundred (500) feet from any residential zone;

35. Railroad freight and passenger services;

36. Refrigeration sales and services;

37. Restaurants;

38. Service stations;

39. Sign shops;

40. Stone and monument yards, retail;

41. Tire recapping and sales;

42. Upholstery shops;

43. Veterinarians' offices, small animal boarding and hospitals, and kennels; provided however such use shall not established closer than five hundred (500) feet from any residential district and shall be completely enclosed in a building of soundproof construction;

44. Warehouses and mini-storage uses;

45. Wholesale establishments.

B. Offices and retail stores incidental to and on the same site with a permitted use.

C. Incidental and accessory uses and structures located on the same site as a permitted use.

(Ord. No. 2020-06, § 5, 11-17-2020)

The following uses shall be permitted, subject to the provisions of Article 24:

A. Communication equipment buildings, gas regulator stations, and utility pumping stations;

B. Incidental and accessory structures and uses located on the same site as a use permitted by administrative approval, or conditional use;

C. Subdivision signs—Off-site;

D. Sidewalk sales and use of the public right-of-way for the display and sales of merchandise, or for outdoor dining;

E. Murals subject to Article 21;

F. Expansion or remodeling of an existing nonconforming use of a structure or land, up to fifty (50) percent or less of the value of the structure, or reestablishment of a nonconforming use that has been damaged, except nonconforming signs and outdoor advertising structures, nonconforming uses occupying a structure with an assessed valuation of less than one hundred dollars ($100.00), and nonconforming fences, walls, and hedges.

(Ord. No. 2013-01, § 6, 9-3-2013)

A. Uses permitted subject to a conditional use permit shall be as follows (see Article 25):

1. Any use selling or serving alcohol, including liquor stores;

2. Auto body and fender repair, rebuilding and service;

3. Automobile sales, new and used, including repair within an enclosed building;

4. Bars and cocktail lounges;

5. Book, magazine, and stationery stores;

6. Boat sales with incidental repair;

7. Contractors storage yards;

8. Drive-in theaters; golf driving ranges; pony riding rings; racetracks; recreation parks; riding stables; skating rinks, sport arenas, and sports stadiums; and other similar, open, unenclosed commercial recreation facilities;

9. Drive through facilities;

10. Electrical distribution substation, microwave relay stations;

11. Farm machinery sales and service;

12. Farmer's markets (permanent) including indoor and outdoor facilities;

13. Gaming and entertainment centers;

14. Gasoline sales as part of a convenience store, excluding automotive repair service;

15. Indoor shooting range: An indoor shooting range is an indoor establishment equipped with targets for practice with firearms so constructed, safeguarded, equipped and used as to prevent any bullet, shot or missile from being projected beyond the confines of such range. Such indoor shooting range shall comply with all noise regulations of the City and is also permitted to provide firearm training and education programs, to manufacture and sell ammunition, and to sell firearms as authorized and regulated by the Federal Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the City, or any other agency with regulatory control;

16. Lumber yards;

17. Mobilehome sales;

18. Motels and apartment hotels;

19. Motorcycle sales with incidental service;

20. Planned Unit Development subject to provisions of Article 28;

21. Smoking bars and hookah lounges;

22. Tattoo parlors;

23. Theaters and auditoriums;

24. Travel trailer and motor home sales, rentals, and service;

25. Truck terminals;

26. Welding shops and blacksmithing, except drop hammer.

(Ord. No. 2013-01, § 7, 9-3-2013)

A. Where a site adjoins or is located across a street or alley from a residential district, a decorative masonry wall six (6) feet in height, or such other height or type of screening device as may be required by the Director, shall be located on the property line common to such districts, except in a required front yard.

B. Open storage of materials and equipment attendant to a permitted use or conditional use shall be permitted only within an area surrounded or screened by a solid wall or fence six (6) feet minimum in height, except as may be modified under Site Plan Review. Said storage shall not be visible above said fence or wall.

A. All businesses and processes shall be conducted within a completely enclosed structure, except for off-street parking and loading areas, service stations, outdoor dining areas, nurseries, garden shops, signs, Christmas tree sales lots, bus depots, and transit stations, public utility stations, and car sales.

B. No use shall be permitted and no process, equipment or materials shall be used that are found by the City to be objectionable to persons living or working in the vicinity be reasons of odor, fumes, dust, smoke, cinders, dirt, refuse, water-carried waste, noise, vibration, illumination, glare, or unsightliness or to involve any hazard of fire or explosion.

The minimum site area shall be ten thousand (10,000) square feet.

A. The minimum front yard shall be fifteen (15) feet of which a minimum of ten (10) feet shall be landscaped.

B. Except as specified hereunder, no side yards or rear yards shall be required.

1. The minimum side yard abutting any residential district shall be ten (10) feet and shall be landscaped.

2. The minimum rear yard abutting any residential district shall be ten (10) feet and shall be landscaped.

The minimum distance between a dwelling unit and another structure shall be ten (10) feet.

The maximum height shall be fifty (50) feet, except as may be allowed in under provisions of Article 27.

Off-street parking facilities and off-street loading facilities shall be provided for each use as prescribed in Article 20.

No sign shall be provided except as prescribed in Article 22.

A site plan shall be submitted and approved pursuant to the provisions of Article 26.

Commercial projects within the C-3 zone district shall be subject to the design review provisions of Article 16.