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Township of Bethlehem, PA
Northampton County
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Code
New Laws (4) Index
[Amended 6-17-2013 by Ord. No. 02-13]
The purpose of this district is to:
A. 
Provide areas for a variety of educational, medical and health uses.
B. 
Establish an overall maximum level of nonresidential development to avoid excessive traffic on residential streets and to avoid worsening of existing traffic safety hazards.
The IN District is an overlay zoning district to the existing underlying zoning districts, as shown on the Zoning Map. The provisions of the underlying zoning district shall remain in full force, except that the IN District provides alternative regulations that an applicant may choose to develop within. An applicant may choose to comply with all of the permitted uses and regulations of this IN District or all of the permitted uses and regulations of the underlying zoning district. If an applicant chooses to develop under the IN District regulations, such action shall not affect the need to comply with all other regulations of this chapter other than the underlying regulations.
Only the following principal or accessory uses shall be permitted by right in the IN District, and such uses shall only be permitted if all other requirements of this chapter are complied with:
A. 
College or university instructional uses and closely related nonresidential accessory support uses.
B. 
Public or private primary or secondary school and closely related nonresidential accessory support uses.
C. 
Recreational or restaurant facilities clearly primarily intended to serve the employees, staff, faculty or residents of a permitted institutional use.
D. 
Automatic financial transaction machine as an accessory use to a permitted institutional use.
E. 
Public library.
F. 
Noncommercial community center.
G. 
Day-care center/nursery school.
H. 
Nursing home.
I. 
Nonresidential accessory uses that are clearly customarily incidental to a permitted-by-right or special exception use.
J. 
Group home.
K. 
Personal-care center.
Only the following principal or accessory uses shall be permitted by right in the IN District, and such uses shall only be permitted if all other requirements of this chapter are complied with:
A. 
Hospital.
B. 
(Reserved)[1]
[1]
Editor’s Note: Former Subsection B, which listed a dormitory as an accessory use to a permitted public/private primary or secondary school, was repealed 6-17-2013 by Ord. No. 02-13.
C. 
Life-care center.
[Added 6-17-2013 by Ord. No. 02-13]
Only the following uses are permitted conditional uses in the IN Institutional Overlay District, provided that the requirements for specific uses in Article XX are met:
A. 
Dormitories serving a lawful college, university, or primary or secondary school.
The following regulations shall apply to all uses in the IN District, unless a more restrictive requirement is stated elsewhere in this section or for a particular use in Article XX or elsewhere in this chapter:
A. 
Minimum lot area: two acres.
B. 
Minimum lot width: 200 feet, except 300 feet at the existing right-of-way line of an arterial street or connector street that the use will have a driveway entering onto.
C. 
Minimum lot depth: 200 feet.
D. 
Lot coverage: 30% maximum building coverage; 65% maximum total impervious coverage.
E. 
Paved area setback.
(1) 
All paved areas, other than sidewalks and approved driveway entrances, shall be set back a minimum of 50 feet from any abutting lot line of an existing dwelling or lot granted final subdivision approval for a dwelling.
(2) 
A strip of land with a minimum width of 25 feet from all curblines of public streets (or the existing street right-of-way line if no curb exists or is planned) shall be maintained in grass, landscaping and natural ground cover, except at any approved sidewalk or driveway entrance locations.
F. 
Minimum front yard setback: 40 feet from the existing right-of-way line except as provided in Subsections K and L.
G. 
Minimum side yard setback: 20 feet, except as provided in Subsections K and L.
H. 
Minimum rear yard setback: 40 feet, except as provided in Subsections K and L.
I. 
Maximum of 2 1/2 stories or 35 feet, whichever is more restrictive, except for gymnasium, theater and classroom buildings, which may be a maximum of 40 feet irrespective of the number of floors.
[Amended 11-19-2001 by Ord. No. 07-01]
J. 
Buffers.
(1) 
See § 275-171D as revised regarding buffers along institutional uses.
(2) 
A twenty-foot wide buffer yard with evergreen plantings meeting the requirements of § 275-171D shall be required if a college, university or hospital parking lot of more than 10 parking spaces that is at least partially within 75 feet of an abutting lot line of an existing dwelling or lot granted final subdivision approval for a dwelling.
K. 
Additional building setbacks.
(1) 
All buildings shall be set back a minimum of 50 feet from the existing right-of-way of an expressway, arterial street or connector street.
(2) 
Any college, university, dormitory or hospital building shall be set back a minimum of 200 feet from the following lot lines if such lot is not owned by such college, university or hospital:
(a) 
A lot including an existing dwelling.
(b) 
A lot granted final subdivision approval for a dwelling.
(c) 
An abutting lot line of an existing nursing home or personal-care center.
L. 
FAR. The maximum ratio of the total floor area of all buildings on a lot divided by the lot area of that lot shall be 0.3.
A. 
Off-street parking. See Article XVII.
B. 
Signs. See Article XVIII.
C. 
Site plan review. See § 275-178, which requires a site plan review by the Planning Commission for every principal nonresidential use. Such review shall also be required for a dormitory.