Article 8 — "C-3" HEAVY COMMERCIAL ZONE

The following uses shall be permitted in the C-3 Heavy Commercial Zone unless otherwise provided in this Chapter.

• (1) Any use permitted in the C-2 zone except convalescent or retirement homes, group homes, congregate housing, orphanages, half-way houses, fraternities or sororities.

• (2) Retail and wholesale sales of merchandise, new and secondhand, when conducted within a fully enclosed building. Exception: Swap meets and flea markets are prohibited.

• (3) Automobile sales and servicing.

  • (a) The retail or wholesale sales of new and used automobiles whether within an enclosed building or not, provided the sale of used automobiles is conducted on a lot not less than one acre in size and subject to Special Use Permit approval. Furthermore, no inoperable or disassembled automobile shall be sold or stored on the sales lot. The sales of commercial trucks, buses and other motorized vehicles not typical for personal or family use transportation is prohibited in the C-3 Zone.

  • (b) Automobile servicing and repair when conducted within a fully enclosed building and subject to Section 12-16.6 . Other automobile services (including painting, body and fender work) when conducted within a fully enclosed building that has no openings (doors or windows) within twenty-five feet of any property zoned R-1, R-1 1/2, R-2, or R-3.

  • (c) Body and fender repair and automobile painting are prohibited in the C-3 Zone, except when conducted within a fully enclosed building as an ancillary use within new car and/or used car dealerships on sales lots of not less than one acre and subject to Special Use Permit approval.

• (4) Automobile rental and leasing (including limousines) and nonambulatory transportation uses, subject to all the following conditions:

  • (a) A rental or leasing office open to the public shall be maintained on the premises; the storage of automobiles without such office is prohibited.

  • (b) The rental, leasing or storage of trucks, trailers, inoperable vehicles and/or buses is prohibited.

  • (c) The sale of used vehicles is prohibited.

  • (d) Only minor, incidental servicing of automobiles and nonambulatory vehicles is permitted on the premises and only when conducted within a fully enclosed building.

  • (e) The site shall be improved and maintained per the parking lot requirements of Article 19 of this Chapter.

  • (f) Automobile storage of rental vehicles in circulation as an ancillary use.

• (5) Delivery and distribution businesses.

• (6) Furniture storage.

• (7) Frozen food locker plants (including wholesale processing or cold storage).

• (8) Hotels or motels, with a minimum of fifty guestrooms per facility.

• (9) Retail and wholesale plant nurseries.

• (10) Pawn shops, subject to Special Use Permit approval. (11) Veterinary offices. (Kennels, pens, runs are prohibited.)

• (12) Auction house, including automobile auctions, subject to the provisions of Article 4 of Chapter 8 of this Code.

• (13) Trade school, when conducted within a fully enclosed building, including the teaching of building trades, automobile repair (body and fender work prohibited) and the operation of fabrication machinery, and subject to Special Use Permit approval.

• (14) Limited light manufacturing uses only when conducted within a fully enclosed building and provided such uses are not obnoxious or offensive by reason of emission of odor, dust, smoke, gas, noise or other similar causes:

  • (a) The assembly of furniture, appliances, or other items from previously manufactured parts.

  • (b) The assembly of electrical appliances, electronic instruments and devices, including the manufacture of small components only, such as coils, condensers, transformers and transistors.

  • (c) The manufacture, compounding, processing, treatment or packaging of such products as bakery goods, candy, cosmetics, dairy products, food products, drugs, perfumes,

pharmaceuticals, soap (cold mix only) and toiletries.

• (d) The manufacture, compounding, treatment or packaging of articles or merchandise from the following previously prepared materials: cellophane, cloth, cork, feathers, fiber, fur, glass, leather, paper, plastics, precious or semiprecious metals or stones, textiles, tobacco, wire, wood (excluding planing mills and cabinetry shops), yarn and paint not employing a boiling process.

• (e) The manufacture of ceramic products, including figurines, using only previously pulverized clay, and kilns fired only by electricity or low-pressure gas.

• (f) Precision machine shops and manufacture of scientific equipment. (Punch presses, drop presses, automatic screw machines, and sheet metal work are prohibited.)

• (15) Uses to be conducted wholly within a building or within an area enclosed on all sides with a solid masonry wall not less than six feet in height:

  • (a) Building materials storage yard and contractors' equipment rental or storage yard.

  • (b) Public utility service yard or electric receiving or transforming station.

• (16) Uses customarily incidental to any of the above uses and accessory buildings, when located on the same lot.

• (17) Mortuaries. Mortuaries shall be subject to Special Use Permit approval when adjacent to a residentially-developed or residentially-zoned property.

• (18) New or expanded self-storage facilities on sites with a minimum of twenty-two thousand squarefeet and subject to Special Use Permit approval.

(Ord. 2346 7-3-79; Ord. 87-7 5-19-87; Ord. 89-4 6-6-89; Ord. 96-17 9-10-96; Ord. 97-21 9-23-97; Ord. 00-02 1-25-00; Ord. 04-22 9-28-04; Ord. 04-28 12-15-04; Ord. 11-03 4-19-11; Ord. 19-04 1-819; Ord. 21-03 12-8-20)

No building hereafter erected or structurally altered shall exceed six stories or seventy-five feet in height.

No front yard shall be required, except as necessary to provide landscaped buffers along a street. (Ord. 2346 7-3-79)

No side yard shall be required, except as necessary to provide landscaped buffers along a street. (Ord. 2346 7-3-79)

No rear yards shall be required, except to provide necessary loading space as provided for in Section 12-59 .

No new residential structure shall be constructed nor any existing residential structure enlarged in the C-3 Zone.

(Ord. 2346 7-3-79)

It shall be unlawful, after the effective date hereof, to erect or structurally alter any sign, or to maintain any sign which has been erected or structurally altered after said effective date, in the C-3 Heavy Commercial Zone, except as permitted in Article 23 of this Chapter. (Ord. 1957 8-30-68; Ord. 2119 9-1-72; Ord. 1588 5-23-61)

Those C-3 (Heavy Commercial) properties within the area defined by Transit Oriented Development Plans shall be subject to the development standards and Design Guidelines contained therein. In the event of a conflict between the TOD plan provisions and the C-3 zone provisions, the TOD plan shall govern.

(Ord. 22-03 12-14-21)