[R.O. 2006 §400.010; CC 1986 §42.010]
Pursuant to authority conferred by Sections 89.010 through 89.140, State of Missouri and to promote the public health, safety, morals and general welfare; lessen congestion in the streets; to secure safety from fire, panic and other dangers; provide adequate light and air; to prevent the overcrowding of land; to avoid undue concentration of population; and to facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water, sewerage, schools, parks and other public requirements in accordance with the comprehensive plan, the Board of Aldermen does ordain and enact into law the following.
[R.O. 2006 §400.020; CC 1986 §§42.020 — 42.030; Ord. No. 1081 §II, 9-11-1989; Ord. No. 1367, 8-8-2005; Ord. No. 1410 §1, 2-14-2008]
A. 
Interpretations Of Certain Terms And Words.
1. 
For the purpose of this Chapter, the following terms, phrases, words and their derivations shall have the meaning given herein. Where not defined herein, the language used in this Chapter shall have the common and customary meaning.
2. 
The particular shall control the general.
3. 
In case of any difference of meaning or implication between the text and any caption or illustration, the text shall control.
4. 
The word "shall" is mandatory and not discretionary. The word "may" is permissive.
5. 
Words used in the present tense shall include the future; and words used in the singular shall include the plural and the plural the singular, unless the context indicates the contrary.
6. 
The phrase "used for" includes arranged for, designed for, intended for, maintained for, occupied for.
7. 
Wherever in this Chapter any reference is made to any other Section or provision of this Chapter, such reference shall be deemed to include the provision or regulation to which reference is made.
B. 
Rules And Definitions.
ACCESSORY BUILDING OR USE
A use customarily incidental and subordinate to the principal use or building and located on the same lot with such principal use or building. An "accessory use" includes, but is not limited to, the following:
1. 
A children's playhouse, garden house and private greenhouse.
2. 
A civil defense shelter serving not more than two (2) families.
3. 
A garage, shed or building for domestic storage.
4. 
Incinerators incidental to residential use.
5. 
Storage of merchandise normally carried in stock on the same lot with any retail service or business use, unless such storage is excluded by the district regulations.
6. 
A non-paying guest house or rooms for guests within an accessory building providing such facilities are used for the occasional housing of guests or occupants of the principal building and not for permanent occupancy by others as housekeeping units.
7. 
Off-street motor vehicle parking areas and loading and unloading facilities.
ALLEY
A narrow service way providing a secondary public means of access to abutting properties and not more than twenty (20) feet wide.
ALTERATION, STRUCTURAL
Any change in the supporting members of a building such as bearing walls, columns, beams or girders.
ALTERATIONS
As applied to a building or structure, a change or rearrangement in the structural parts or in the exit facilities or an enlargement, whether by extending on a side or by increasing in height, or the moving from one location or position to another or by change in use from that of one district classification to another.
APARTMENT
A room or suite of rooms in a multiple-family structure which is arranged, designed, used or intended to be used as a single housekeeping unit and which contains complete kitchen, bath and toilet facilities permanently installed.
APARTMENT HOUSE
A building arranged, intended or designed to be occupied by three (3) or more families living independently of each other.
AREA, BUILDING
The total of area taken on a horizontal plane at the main grade level of the principal building and all accessory buildings exclusive of uncovered porches, terraces and steps.
AUTOMOBILE REPAIR, MAJOR
Engine rebuilding or major reconditioning of worn or damaged motor vehicles or trailers, collision service, including body, frame or fender straightening or repair and overall painting of vehicles.
AUTOMOBILE REPAIR, MINOR
Incidental repairs, replacement of parts and motor service to automobiles, but not including any operation specified under "automobile repair, major".
BASEMENT
A story partly underground but having at least one-half (½) of its height above the average level of the adjoining ground. A basement shall be counted as a story for the purposes of height measurement, if the vertical distance between the ceiling and the average level of the adjoining ground is more than five (5) feet or if used for business or dwelling purposes.
BLOCK
That property abutting on one (1) side of a street between the two (2) nearest intersecting streets or other natural barriers.
BOARDING HOUSE
A building or premises where meals are served for compensation for five (5) or more persons, but not exceeding twelve (12) persons. An establishment where meals are served for compensation for more than twelve (12) persons shall be deemed a restaurant.
BUILDING
A structure having a roof supported by columns or walls for the shelter, support, enclosure or protection of persons, animals, chattels or property. When separated by party walls, each portion of such building shall be considered a separate structure.
BUILDING AND ZONING OFFICER
The employee of the City of Willow Springs, Missouri, designated to ensure compliance with all applicable building codes and the zoning ordinance, as approved by the Board of Aldermen.
BUILDING AREA
The maximum horizontal projected area of a building and its accessory buildings, excluding open steps, terraces and cornices projecting not more than thirty (30) inches.
BUILDING, FRONT LINE OF
The line of that face of the building nearest the front line of the lot. This face includes sun parlors and covered porches whether enclosed or unenclosed but does not include steps.
BUILDING HEIGHT
The vertical distance measured from the average elevation of the proposed or existing finished grade at the front of the building to the highest point of the roof for flat roofs, to the deck line of mansard roofs and to the mean height between eaves and ridge for gable, hip and gambrel roofs.
CELLAR
A story having more than one-half (½) of its height below grade.
COVERAGE
That percentage of the plot or lot area covered by the building area.
DAY CARE, COMMERCIAL (ANY NUMBER OF PEOPLE NOT RESIDING AT THE FACILITY)
The care of a person away from his/her home for custodial, educational, religious or other purposes for any part of a twenty-four (24) hour day on a regular, daily basis in exchange for payment. Subject to the following regulations:
1. 
State licensing. Commercial day care uses shall be licensed by the State of Missouri and shall meet all City, County and State Health Department requirements pertaining to facilities, equipment and other features.
2. 
Commercial day care is allowed in commercial and "R-4" districts only.
3. 
Business license. A business license is required prior to the establishment of a commercial day care.
4. 
Vehicle drop-off area. A loading zone capable of holding one (1) car per ten (10) licensed occupants shall be provided in addition to the required parking area in order to provide for easy pickup and discharge of passengers.
5. 
A fence must surround the play or outside area.
DAY CARE, GENERAL (5-10 PEOPLE NOT RESIDING IN THE RESIDENCE)
The care of a person away from his/her home for custodial, educational, religious or other purposes for any part of a twenty-four (24) hour day on a regular, daily basis in exchange for payment. General day care may be conducted in a dwelling unit that is occupied as a permanent residence by the day care provider under a conditional use permit if approved by the Planning Commission and the Board of Aldermen and subject to the following regulations:
1. 
State licensing. General day care uses shall be licensed by the State of Missouri and shall meet all City, County and State Health Department requirements pertaining to facilities, equipment, personnel and other features.
2. 
Business license. A business license is required prior to the establishment of a general day care.
3. 
There shall be no signage.
4. 
A fence must surround the play or outside area.
5. 
There shall be no more than one (1) day care within four hundred forty (440) feet of another day care (closest corner of lot to closest corner of lot).
DAY CARE, LIMITED (1-4 PEOPLE NOT RESIDING IN THE RESIDENCE)
The care of a person away from his/her own home for custodial, educational, religious or other purposes for any part of a twenty-four (24) hour day on a regular, daily basis in exchange for payment. Limited day care uses may be conducted in a dwelling unit that is occupied as a permanent residence by the day care provider and subject to the following regulations:
1. 
The use will be considered a home occupation and be subject to the home occupation provisions defined in this Section.
2. 
A business license/home occupation is required prior to the establishment of a limited day care.
3. 
There shall be no more than one (1) day care operation within four hundred forty (440) feet (closest corner of lot to closest corner of lot) of another day care.
4. 
Immediate family shall be exempt including all relatives up to the fifth degree of consanguinity.
DISTRICT
A section of the City for which uniform regulations governing the use, height, area and intensity of use by buildings and land and open spaces about buildings are herein established.
DWELLING
A building designed or used exclusively as the living quarters for one (1) or more families.
DWELLING, GROUP
A group of two (2) or more one-family, two-family or multiple dwellings occupying a lot in one (1) ownership and having any yard in common.
DWELLING, MULTI-FAMILY
A dwelling or group of dwellings on one (1) plot containing separate living units for three (3) or more families, but which may have joint services or facilities or both.
DWELLING, ONE-FAMILY
A detached building designed for or occupied exclusively by one (1) family.
DWELLING, ROW
A dwelling, the walls on two (2) sides of which are in common with the walls of adjoining dwellings and are party or lot line walls.
DWELLING, TWO-FAMILY
A building designed for or occupied exclusively by two (2) families living independently of each other. May also be referred to as a duplex.
DWELLING UNIT
A building or portion thereof providing complete housekeeping facilities for one (1) family.
FAMILY
One (1) or more persons who live together in one (1) dwelling unit and maintain a common household. May consist of a single person or of two (2) or more persons, whether or not related by blood, marriage or adoption. May also include domestic servants and gratuitous guests.
FLOOR AREA
The sum of the gross horizontal areas of the several floors of the building or buildings measured from the exterior face of exterior walls or from the centerline of walls separating two (2) buildings.
1. 
In particular the floor area of a building or buildings shall include:
a. 
Basement space.
b. 
Elevator shafts and stairwells at each floor.
c. 
Floor space for mechanical equipment with structural headroom of seven (7) feet six (6) inches or more.
d. 
Penthouse.
e. 
Attic space (whether or not a floor has actually been laid) providing structural headroom of seven (7) feet six (6) inches or more.
f. 
Exterior balconies and mezzanines.
g. 
Enclosed porches.
h. 
Accessory use, not including space for accessory off-street parking.
2. 
The "floor area" of a building shall not include:
a. 
Cellar space, except that cellar space used for retailing shall be included for the purpose of calculating requirements for accessory off-street parking spaces and accessory off-street loading berths.
b. 
Elevator and stair bulkheads, accessory water tanks and cooling towers.
c. 
Floor space used for mechanical equipment with structural headroom of less than seven (7) feet six (6) inches.
d. 
Attic space, whether or not a floor has actually been laid, providing structural headroom of less than seven (7) feet six (6) inches.
e. 
Uncovered steps.
f. 
Terraces, breezeways and open spaces.
g. 
Accessory off-street parking areas.
h. 
Accessory off-street loading berths up to two hundred percent (200%) of the amount required by Section 405.210.
FLOOR AREA RATIO (F.A.R.)
The total floor area of the building or buildings on that zoning lot divided by the area of such zoning lot.
FRONTAGE
All the property abutting on one (1) side of a street or place between two (2) intersecting streets or places (crossing or terminating) or if the street or place is dead ended, then all of the property abutting on one (1) side between an intersecting street or place and the dead end of the street or place.
GARAGE, COMMUNITY
A group of minor garages, one (1) story in height arranged in a row or surrounding a common means of access and erected for the use of adjacent property owners having no minor garage on their individual lots.
GARAGE, PRIVATE
An accessory building housing not to exceed four (4) motor-driven vehicles the property of and for the use of occupants of the lot on which the private garage is located.
GARAGE, PUBLIC
Any garage, other than a private garage, available to the public operated for gain and which is used for storage, repair, rental, greasing, washing, servicing, adjusting or equipping of automobiles or other motor vehicles.
GROUP HOME
Any home in which eight (8) or fewer unrelated 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.
HOME OCCUPATION
An accessory use of a service character customarily conducted within a dwelling by the residents thereof, which is clearly secondary to the residential use and does not have any exterior evidence of such secondary use other than a small name plate and where the sale of a stock merchandise is ancillary to the service character of such home occupation. The office of a physician, surgeon, dentist or other professional person each with not more than one (1) paid assistant shall be deemed to be home occupations.
No person other than someone related by blood, marriage, adoption or custodial relationship to the person conducting the home occupation and who also resides in the dwelling unit shall be employed on the property except that an outside assistant may be allowed for a general day care only in the absence of the regular caregiver who resides in the home.
HOSPITAL
Unless otherwise specified, the term "hospital" shall be deemed to include sanitarium, sanatorium, preventorium, clinic, rest home, nursing home, convalescent home or any other place for the diagnosis, treatment or other care of ailments and shall be deemed to be limited to places for the diagnosis, treatment or other care of human ailments.
HOTEL
A building in which lodging is provided and offered to the public for compensations and in which ingress and egress to and from rooms is made through an inside lobby or office supervised by a person in charge at all hours and which is open to transient guests, in contradistinction to a boarding house or lodging house.
LAUNDROMAT
A business that provides home-type washing, drying and/or ironing machines and/or dry cleaning machines for hire to be used by customers on premises.
LOADING SPACE
A space within the main building or on the same lot therewith providing for the standing, loading or unloading of trucks.
LODGING HOUSE
A building or premises where lodging is provided for compensation for five (5) or more persons, but not exceeding twelve (12) persons.
LOT
A parcel, tract or area of land accessible by means of a street or place. It may be a single parcel separately described in a deed or plat which is recorded in the office of the County Recorder, or it may include parts of or a combination of such parcels when adjacent to one another and used as one (1).
LOT, CORNER
A lot at the junction of and having frontage on two (2) or more intersecting streets.
LOT COVERAGE
The percentage of the lot area covered by the building area.
LOT, DEPTH OF
The mean horizontal distance between the front lot line and the rear lot line measured in the general direction of the side lot lines.
LOT, INTERIOR
A lot other than a corner lot or through lot.
LOT LINE, FRONT
In the case of an interior lot, a line separating the lot from the street or place; and in the case of a corner lot, a line separating the narrowest frontage of the lot from the street.
LOT, THROUGH
A lot having frontage on two (2) parallel or approximately parallel streets and which is not a corner lot.
LOT WIDTH
The dimension of a lot measured between side lot lines on the building line.
MANUFACTURED HOME
A factory-built structure or structures which, in the traveling mode, is eight (8) body feet or more in width and forty (40) body feet or more in length or, when erected on site, contains three hundred twenty (320) or more square feet, equipped with the necessary service connections and made so as to be readily movable as a unit or units on its or their own running gear and designed to be used as a dwelling unit or units with or without a permanent foundation. The phrase "without 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.
MOBILE HOME
A transportable, factory built home designed to be used as a residential dwelling and built prior to the enactment of Federal Manufactured Home Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974.
MODULAR UNIT
A factory-fabricated transportable building unit designed to be used by itself or to be incorporated with similar units at a building site into a modular structure to be used for residential, commercial, educational or industrial purposes.
NET SITE AREA
That area, in the case of a Community Unit Plan, not occupied by rights-of-way.
NON-CONFORMING USE
A building or use of land that does not conform to the regulations for the district in which it is situated.
NURSERY SCHOOL
A school designed to provide daytime care or instruction for two (2) or more children from two (2) to five (5) years of age inclusive.
PARKING LOT
Any place, lot, parcel or yard used in whole or in part for the storage or parking of two (2) or more vehicles where such usage is not incidental to or in conjunction with a dwelling or other usage permissible in dwelling districts and located on the same tract.
PARKING SPACE
An off-street space available for the parking of one (1) motor vehicle and having an area of not less than one hundred eighty (180) square feet inclusive of passageways and driveways appurtenant thereto and giving access thereto and having direct access to a street or alley.
PLACE
An open unoccupied space, other than a street or alley, permanently reserved as the principal means of access to abutting property.
RESIDENTIAL HOTEL
A dwelling occupied by permanent guests only and not by transients. It may include restaurants, newsstands and other accessory services primarily for serving its occupants and only incidentally the public.
SERVICE STATION
A building, buildings, premises or portions thereof which are used or arranged, designed or intended to be used for the retail sale of gasoline or other motor vehicles, motorboat or aircraft fuels.
STABLE
Any building, structure or portion thereof which is used in whole or in part for the shelter or care of horses, cattle or other similar animals, either permanently or transiently.
STORY
That portion of a building included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it or if there be no floor above it, then the space between any floor and the ceiling next above it.
STREET
A public or private way which affords the principal means of access to abutting properties.
STREET GRADE
The officially established grade of the street upon which a lot fronts. If there is no officially established grade, the existing grades of the streets shall be taken as the street grade.
STRUCTURE
Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires location on the ground or attachment to something having location on the ground.
USE
The specific purpose for which land or a building is designed, arranged, intended or for which it is or may be occupied or maintained. The term "permitted use" or its equivalent shall not be deemed to include any non-conforming use.
YARD
A space on the same lot with a principal building, open, unoccupied and unobstructed by structures, except as otherwise provided.
YARD, FRONT
A yard extending across the full width of the lot, unoccupied other than by steps, walks, terraces, driveways, lampposts and similar structures, the depth of which is the least distance between the front lot line and the building line.
YARD, REAR
A yard extending across the full width of the lot between the rear of the principal building and the rear lot line unoccupied other than by accessory buildings which do not occupy more than thirty percent (30%) of the required space and steps, walks, terraces, driveways, lamp- posts and similar structures, the depth of which is the least distance between the rear lot line and the rear of the principal building.
YARD, SIDE
A yard between the principal building and the side lot line, extending from the front yard or from the front lot line where no front yard is required, to the rear yard. The width of the required side yard is measured horizontally, at ninety degrees (90°) with the side lot line, from the nearest part of the principal building.
ZONING DISTRICT MAP
A map entitled "Zoning District Map" dated December, 1989 and any amendment thereto.