For the purposes of this chapter, the following definitions shall be used, unless a different definition is specifically provided for a section. Words used in the present tense include the future; the singular number includes the plural number; and the plural number includes the singular number. The word "shall" is mandatory and not permissive.
As used in this chapter, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
ABUTTING
Have a common property line or district line.[1]
ACCESSORY USE OR STRUCTURE
A use or detached structure subordinate to the principal use of a structure, parcel of land or water and located on the same lot or parcel serving a purpose incidental to the principal use or the principal structure.
ACRE, NET
The actual land devoted to the land use, excluding public streets, public lands or unusable lands, and school sites contained within 43,560 square feet.
ALLEY
A public way not more than 21 feet wide which affords only a secondary means of access to abutting property.
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. Complete kitchen facilities, permanently installed, must always be included for each apartment.
ARTERIAL STREET
A public street or highway used or intended to be used primarily for large volume or heavy through traffic. Arterial streets shall include freeways and expressways as well as arterial streets, highways and parkways.
BASEMENT
That portion of any structure located partly below the average adjoining lot grade which is not designed or used primarily for year-around living accommodations. Space partly below grade which is designed and finished as habitable space is not defined as basement space.
BLOCK
A tract of land bounded by streets or by a combination of streets and public parks or other recognized lines of demarcation.
BOARDINGHOUSE
A building other than a hotel or restaurant where meals or lodging are regularly furnished by prearrangement for compensation for three or more persons not members of a family, but not exceeding 12 persons and not open to transient customers.
BUILDABLE LOT AREA
The portion of a lot remaining after required yards have been provided.
BUILDING
Any structure having a roof supported by columns or walls used or intended to be used for the shelter or enclosure of persons, animals, equipment, machinery or materials. When a building is divided into separate parts by unpierced walls extending from the ground up, each part shall be deemed a separate building.
BUILDING SETBACK LINE
A line parallel to the lot line at a distance parallel to it, regulated by the yard requirements set up in chapter.
BUILDING, DETACHED
A building surrounded by open space on the same lot.
BUILDING, HEIGHTS OF
The vertical distance from the average curb level in front of the lot or the finished grade at the building line, whichever is higher, to the highest point of the coping of a flat roof, to the deck line of a mansard roof or to the average height of the highest gable of a gambrel, hip or pitch roof.
BUILDING, PRINCIPAL
A building in which the principal use of the lot on which it is located is conducted.
BUSINESS
An occupation, employment or enterprise which occupies time, labor and materials, or wherein merchandise is exhibited or sold, or where services are offered.[2]
COMMUNITY LIVING ARRANGEMENT
The following facilities licensed or operated or permitted under the authority of the Wisconsin State Statutes: Child welfare agencies under § 48.60, group foster homes for children under § 48.02(6) and community-based residential facilities under § 50.01, but does not include day-care centers, nursing homes, general hospitals, special hospitals, prisons and jails. The establishment of a community living arrangement shall be in conformance with applicable Sections of the Wisconsin State Statutes, including §§ 46.03(22), 62.23(7)(i) and 62.23(7)(i)(2), and amendments thereto, and also the Wisconsin Administrative Code.
CONDITIONAL USES
Uses of a special nature as to make impractical their predetermination as a principal use in a district.
CONSERVATION STANDARDS
Guidelines and specifications for soil and water conservation practices and management enumerated in the Technical Guide, prepared by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service for Green County, adopted by the County Soil and Water Conservation District Supervisors, and containing suitable alternatives for the use and treatment of land based upon its capabilities from which the landowner selects that alternative which best meets his needs in developing his soil and water conservation plan.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II)]
CONTROLLED ACCESS ARTERIAL STREET
The condition in which the right of owners or occupants of abutting land or other persons to access, light, air or view in connection with an arterial street is fully or partially controlled by public authority.
CORNER LOT
On corner lots, the setback shall be measured from the street line on which the lot fronts. The setback from the side street shall be equal to 75% of the setback required on residences fronting on the side street, but the side yard setback shall in no case restrict the buildable width to less than 30 feet. Said corner lots shall be consisting of a parcel of property abutting on two or more streets at their intersection providing that the interior angle of such intersection is less than 135°.
DEVELOPMENT
Any man-made change to improved or unimproved real estate, including, but not limited to, construction of or additions or substantial improvements to buildings, other structures, or accessory uses, mining, dredging, filling, grading, paving, excavation or drilling operations or deposition of materials.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II)]
DISTRICT, BASIC
A part or parts of the Village for which the regulations of this chapter governing the use and location of land and building are uniform.
DISTRICT, OVERLAY
Overlay districts, also referred to herein as regulatory areas, provide for the possibility of superimposing certain additional requirements upon a basic zoning district without disturbing the requirements of the basic district. In the instance of conflicting requirements, the more strict of the conflicting requirements shall apply.
DWELLING
A building designed or used exclusively as a residence or sleeping place, but does not include boarding or lodging houses, motels, hotels, tents, cabins or mobile homes.
DWELLING UNIT
A group of rooms constituting all or part of a dwelling, which are arranged, designed, used or intended for use exclusively as living quarters for one family.
DWELLING, EFFICIENCY
A dwelling unit consisting of one principal room with no separate sleeping rooms.
DWELLING, MULTIPLE-FAMILY
A residential building designed for or occupied by three or more families, with the number of families in residence not to exceed the number of dwelling units provided.
DWELLING, SINGLE-FAMILY
A detached building designed for or occupied by one family.
DWELLING, TWO-FAMILY
A detached building containing two separate dwelling (or living) units, designed for occupancy by not more than two families.
DWELLING, ZERO LOT LINE
A single building having two dwelling units with the dwellings adjoining a common property line.[3]
[Added 6-15-2011 by Ord. No. 2011-0615A]
ESSENTIAL SERVICES
Services provided by public and private utilities, necessary for the exercise of the principal use or service of the principal structure. These services include underground, surface or overhead gas, electrical, steam, water, sanitary sewerage, stormwater drainage, and communication systems and accessories thereto, such as poles, towers, wires, mains, drains, vaults, culverts, laterals, sewers, pipes, catch basins, water storage tanks, conduits, cables, fire alarm boxes, police call boxes, traffic signals, pumps, lift stations and hydrants, but not including buildings.
FAMILY
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II)]
A. 
One or more persons living together in a single dwelling unit as a traditional family or the functional equivalent of a traditional family. It shall be a rebuttable presumption that four or more persons living together in a single dwelling unit who are not related by blood, adoption or marriage do not constitute the functional equivalent of a traditional family. In determining the functional equivalent of a traditional family, the following criteria shall be present:
(1) 
The group shares the entire dwelling unit.
(2) 
The group lives and cooks together as a single housekeeping unit.
(3) 
The group shares expenses for food, rent, utilities or other household expenses.
(4) 
The group is permanent and stable and not transient or temporary in nature.
(5) 
Any other factor reasonably related to whether the group is the functional equivalent of a family.
B. 
This definition is not intended to prohibit group homes or community living arrangements that are determined to be protected by the Federal Fair Housing Law, provided that such facilities are licensed and permitted under the authority of the State Department of Health Services or the State Department of Children and Families or other state department or agency.
FARMSTEAD
A single-family residential structure located on a parcel of land, which primary land use is associated with agriculture.
FLOOD
A temporary rise in stream-flow or stage in lake level that results in water overtopping the banks and inundating the areas adjacent to the steam channel or lake bed. See Chapter 362, Floodplain Zoning, § 362-44, for definitions of flood-related terms applicable to this chapter.[4]
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II)]
FLOOR AREA
Business and Manufacturing Buildings. For the purpose of determining off-street parking and off-street loading requirements, the sum of the gross horizontal areas of the floors of the building, or portion thereof, devoted to a use requiring off-street parking or loading. This area shall include accessory storage areas located within selling or working space occupied by counters, racks or closets and any basement floor area devoted to retailing activities, to the production or processing of goods, or to business or professional offices. However, floor area, or the purposes of determining off-street parking spaces, shall not include floor area devoted primarily to storage purposes except as otherwise noted herein.
FOSTER FAMILY HOME
The primary domicile of a foster parent with four or fewer foster children and which is licensed under § 48.62 of the Wisconsin State Statutes and amendments thereto.
FRONT YARD
A yard extending across the full width of the lot, the depth of which shall be the minimum horizontal distance between the existing street or highway right-of-way line and a line parallel thereto through the nearest point of the principal structure. Corner lots shall have two street yards.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II)]
FRONTAGE
All the property butting on one side of a street between two intersecting streets or all of the property abutting on one side of a street between an intersecting street and the dead end of a street.
GARAGE, PRIVATE
A detached accessory building or portion of the principal building, designed, arranged, used or intended to be used for storage of automobiles of the occupant of the premises.
GARAGE - PUBLIC
Any building or portion thereof, not accessory to a residential building or structure, used for equipping, servicing, repairing, leasing or public parking of motor vehicles.
GROUP FOSTER HOME
Any facility operated by a person required to be licensed by the State of Wisconsin under State Statute § 48.62 for the care and maintenance of five to eight foster children.
HOME OCCUPATION
Any business or profession carried on only by a member of the immediate family residing on the premises, carried on wholly within the principal building or accessory building thereto, in connection with which there are no signs or exterior display or storage other than a sign permitted by this chapter, and no activity that will indicate from the exterior that the building(s) is being used in whole or in part for any purpose other than that of a dwelling. The use is to be clearly incidental to the use of the dwelling unit for residential purposes and shall not endanger the public health or safety. No articles shall be sold or offered for sale on the premises except such as is produced by the occupation on the premises, and no mechanical or electrical equipment shall be installed or maintained other than such as is customarily incidental to domestic use. Persons operating a home occupation shall employ no more than one nonresident employee. No business such as a shop, store or child nursery shall be conducted upon the premises. No material or equipment shall be stored outside the confines of the home. No mechanical equipment may be used which creates a disturbance such as noise, dust, odor or electrical disturbance. The home may not be altered to attract business. No motors shall be utilized which exceed one horse power each and not exceeding five horsepower in total, such activity being deemed a public nuisance. Repairing of motor bicycles, motorcycles and motor driven cycles, other than those licensed and owned by the occupants of a home in a residential area is strictly prohibited. For the purpose of this Subsection, the definitions of the above-mentioned vehicles shall be as set forth in Chapter 340 of the Vehicle Code of the Wisconsin State Statutes. Such repairing is deemed a public nuisance. It is immaterial for the purpose of this Subsection whether or not such repairing is done in return for remuneration.
HOTEL
A building in which lodging, with or without meals, is offered to transient guests for compensation and in which there are more than five sleeping rooms with no cooking facilities in any individual room or apartment.
LOADING AREA
A complete off-street space or berth on the same lot for the loading or unloading of freight carriers, having adequate ingress and egress to a public street or alley.
LODGING HOUSE
A building where lodging only is provided for compensation for not more than three persons not members of the family.
LOT
A parcel of land having frontage on a public street, or other officially approved means of access, occupied or intended to be occupied by a principal structure or use and sufficient in size to meet the lot width, lot frontage, lot area and other open space provisions of chapter as pertaining to the district wherein the lot is located.
LOT COVERAGE (EXCEPT RESIDENTIAL)
The area of a lot occupied by the principal building or buildings and accessory buildings, including any driveways, parking areas, loading areas, storage areas and walkways.
LOT COVERAGE (RESIDENTIAL)
The area of a lot occupied by the principal building or buildings and accessory building.
LOT LINE
A property boundary line of any lot held in single or separate ownership, except that where any portion of the lot extends into the abutting street or alley, the lot line shall be deemed to be the abutting street or alley right-of-way line.
LOT LINES AND AREA
The peripheral boundaries of a parcel of land and the total area lying within such boundaries.
LOT WIDTH
The horizontal distance between the side lot lines measured at the building setback line.[5]
LOT, INTERIOR
A lot situated on a single street which is bounded by adjacent lots along each of its other lines and is not a corner lot.
LOT, SUBSTANDARD
A parcel of land held in separate ownership having frontage on a public street, or other approved means of access, occupied or intended to be occupied by a principal building or structure, together with accessory buildings and uses, having insufficient size to meet the lot width, lot area, yard, off-street parking areas or other open space provisions of chapter as pertaining to the district wherein located.
LOT, THROUGH
A lot which has a pair of opposite lot lines along two substantially parallel streets and which is not a corner lot. On a through lot, both street lines shall be deemed front lot lines.
MINOR STRUCTURES
Any small, movable accessory erection or construction such as birdhouses, tool houses, pet houses, play equipment, arbors and walls and fences under four feet in height.
MOBILE HOME
A manufactured home that is HUD certified and labeled under the National Mobile Home Construction and Safety Standards Act of 1974. A mobile home is a transportable structure, being eight feet or more in width (not including the overhang of the roof), built on a chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling with or without permanent foundation when connected to the required utilities.
MOBILE HOME LOT
A parcel of land for the placement of a single mobile home and the exclusive use of its occupants.
MOBILE HOME PARK
A parcel of land which has been developed for the placement of mobile homes and is owned by an individual, a firm, trust, partnership, public or private association, or corporation. Individual lots within a mobile home park are rented to individual mobile home users.
MOBILE HOME SUBDIVISION
A land subdivision, as defined by Chapter 236 of the Wisconsin Statutes and any Village Land Division Ordinance, with lots intended for the placement of individual mobile home units. Individual home sites are in separate ownership as opposed to the rental arrangements in mobile home parks.
MODULAR UNIT
A modular unit is 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.
NONCONFORMING USES
Any structure, use of land, use of land and structure in combination or characteristic of use (such as yard requirement or lot size) which was existing at the time of the effective date of chapter or amendments thereto and which is not in conformance with chapter. Any such structure conforming in respect to use but not in respect to frontage, width, height, area, yard, parking, loading or distance requirements shall not be considered a nonconforming use, but shall be considered nonconforming with respect to those characteristics.[6]
PARKING LOT
A structure or premises containing five or more parking spaces open to the public.
PARKING SPACE
A graded and surfaced area of not less than 180 square feet in area, either enclosed or open, for the parking of a motor vehicle, having adequate ingress and egress to a public street or alley.
PARTIES IN INTEREST
Includes all abutting property owners, all property owners within 100 feet, and all property owners of opposite frontages.
PROFESSIONAL OFFICE
The office of a doctor, practitioner, dentist, minister, architect, landscape architect, engineer, lawyer, author, musician or other recognized trade. When established in a residential district, a professional office shall be incidental to the residential occupation, not more than 25% of the floor area of one story of a dwelling unit shall be occupied by such office and only one unlighted nameplate, not exceeding one square foot in area, containing the name and profession of the occupant of the premises shall be exhibited.
PUBLIC AIRPORT
Any airport which complies with the definition contained in § 114.002(7), Wisconsin Statutes, or any airport which serves or offers to serve common carriers engaged in air transport.
REAR YARD
A yard extending across the full width of the lot, the depth of which shall be the minimum horizontal distance between the rear lot line and a line parallel thereto through the nearest point of the principal structure. This yard shall be opposite the street yard or one of the street yards on a corner lot.[7]
RETAIL
The sale of goods or merchandise in small quantities to the consumer.
SETBACK
The minimum horizontal distance between the front lot line and the nearest point of the foundation of that portion of the building to be enclosed. The overhang cornices shall not exceed 24 inches. Any overhang of the cornice in excess of 24 inches shall be compensated by increasing the setback by an amount equal to the excess of cornice over 24 inches. Uncovered steps shall not be included in measuring the setback.
SIDE YARD
A yard extending from the street yard to the rear yard of the lot, the width of which shall be the minimum horizontal distance between the side lot line and a line parallel thereto through the nearest point of the principal structure.
SIGNS
As defined in Article VIII, Signs and Billboards, in this chapter.
[Amended at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II)]
STORY
That portion of a building included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the next floor above it, or if there is no floor above it, then the space between the floor and the ceiling next above it. Any portion of a story exceeding 14 feet in height shall be considered as an additional story for each 14 feet or fraction thereof. A basement having 1/2 or more of its height above grade shall be deemed a story or purposes of height regulation.
STORY, HALF
That portion of a building under a gable, hip or mansard roof, the wall plates of which, on at least two opposite exterior walls, are not more than 4 1/2 feet above the finished floor of such story. In the case of one-family dwellings, two-family dwellings and multifamily dwellings less than three stories in height, a 1/2 story in a sloping roof shall not be counted as a story for the purposes of chapter.
STREET
Property other than an alley or private thoroughfare or travelway which is subject to public easement or right-of-way for use as a thoroughfare and which is 21 feet or more in width.
[8]
STRUCTURAL ALTERATIONS
Any change in the supporting members of a structure, such as foundations, bearing walls, columns, beams or girders.
STRUCTURE
Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires a permanent location on the ground or attached to something having a permanent location on the ground.
TEMPORARY STRUCTURE
A movable structure not designed for human occupancy nor for the protection of goods or chattels and not forming an enclosure, such as billboards.
USE
The purpose or activity for which the land or building thereof is designed, arranged or intended, or for which it is occupied or maintained.[9]
USE, PRINCIPAL
The main use of land or building as distinguished from subordinate or accessory use.
UTILITIES
Public and private facilities, such as water wells, water and sewage pumping stations, water storage tanks, electrical power substations, static transformer stations, telephone exchanges, microwave radio relays and gas regulation stations, inclusive of associated transmission facilities, but not including sewage disposal plants, municipal incinerators, warehouses, shops, storage yards and power plants.
VISION CLEARANCE
An unoccupied triangular space at the street corner of a corner lot which is bounded by the street lines and a setback line connecting points specified by measurement from the corner on each street line.
YARD
An open space on the same lot with a structure, unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward except the vegetation. The street and rear yards extend the full width of the lot.[10]
ZONING PERMIT
A permit issued by the Zoning Administrator to certify that the use of lands, structures, air and waters subject to this chapter are or shall be used in accordance with the provisions of said chapter.
[1]
Editor's Note: Original Sec. 13-1-200(a)(1) of the 1989 Code of Ordinances, definition of "A Zones," which immediately preceded this definition, was repealed at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II). See now Ch. 362, Floodplain Zoning.
[2]
Editor's Note: Original Sec. 13-1-200(a)(18) of the 1989 Code of Ordinances, definition of "channel," which immediately followed this definition, was repealed at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II). See now Ch. 362, Floodplain Zoning.
[3]
Editor's Note: Original Sec. 13-1-200(a)(33) of the 1989 Code of Ordinances, definition of "equal degree of hydraulic encroachment," which immediately followed this definition, was repealed at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II). See now Ch. 362, Floodplain Zoning.
[4]
Editor's Note: The following definitions in original Sec. 13-1-200(a) of the 1989 Code of Ordinances, which immediately followed this definition, were repealed at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II): (38) flood insurance study, (39) flood profile, (40) flood protection elevation, (41) flood stage, (42) floodlands, (43) floodplain fringe, (44) flood-proofing and (45) floodway.
[5]
Editor's Note: Original Sec. 13-1-200(a)(57) of the 1989 Code of Ordinances, definition of "lot, corner," which immediately followed this definition, was repealed at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II). See "corner lot."
[6]
Editor's Note: Original Sec. 13-1-200(a)(73) of the 1989 Code of Ordinances, definition of "official letter of map amendment," which immediately followed this definition, was repealed at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II). See now Ch. 362, Floodplain Zoning.
[7]
Editor's Note: Original Sec. 13-1-200(a)(80) of the 1989 Code of Ordinances, definition of "regional flood," which immediately followed this definition, was repealed at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II). See now Ch. 362, Floodplain Zoning.
[8]
Editor's Note: The term "street yard," which immediately followed this definition, was revised to refer to "front yard" with the 2019 codification. See now the definition of "front yard."
[9]
Editor's Note: Original Sec. 13-1-200(a)(93) of the 1989 Code of Ordinances, definition of "use, accessory," which immediately followed this definition, was repealed at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II). See "accessory use."
[10]
Editor's Note: Original Sec. 13-1-200(a)(98) of the 1989 Code of Ordinances, definition of "zero lot line," which immediately followed this definition, was repealed at time of adoption of Code (see Ch. 1, General Provisions, Art. II). See "dwelling, zero lot line."