A.Â
The purpose of this bylaw is declared to be the promotion
of the public health, safety, convenience and welfare, by:
(1)Â
Encouraging the most appropriate use of land;
(2)Â
Preventing overcrowding of land;
(3)Â
Conserving the value of land and buildings;
(4)Â
Minimizing traffic hazards and congestion;
(5)Â
Preventing undue concentration of population;
(6)Â
Providing for adequate light, air, and sanitation;
(7)Â
Reducing hazards from fire, flood, and other dangers;
(8)Â
Assisting in the economical provision, utilization
and expansion of transportation, water, sewerage systems, schools,
parks, and other public facilities;
(9)Â
Enhancing the natural, man-made and historical amenities
of the Town.
B.Â
This bylaw is based upon and is intended to implement
the Comprehensive Plan of Lancaster as prepared and revised by the
Lancaster Planning Board.
[Amended 10-24-2000]
A.Â
Date of adoption and effective dates. Zoning was originally
adopted in Lancaster on February 13, 1950, and has been amended from
time to time since then. Amendments after January 1, 1976, are effective
upon the date of adoption by Town Meeting in accordance with MGL c.
40A, § 5.
B.Â
Separability. The invalidity of any section or provision
of this bylaw shall not invalidate any other section or provision
thereof.
For the purpose of this bylaw, the following
words and phrases shall have the meanings listed below unless a contrary
intention clearly appears.
A second dwelling unit subordinate in size to a preexisting
single-family dwelling unit on the lot and having separate cooking,
sleeping and bathroom facilities, located either in the principal
building or in an existing accessory structure.
[Added 5-5-2008 ATM by Art. 17]
An activity incidental to, functionally dependent on, and
located on the same premises as a principal use conducted by the same
person or his agent.
A freestanding building exclusively for residential use,
with three or more apartment units.
Any room or suite of rooms comprising one complete housekeeping
unit, with its own cooking and food storage equipment and facilities
and its own bathing and toilet facilities wholly within such room
or suite of rooms.
The vertical distance from the mean finished grade of the
ground adjoining a building or structure to the highest point of the
roof (or parapet) for flat or shed roofs, to the deck line for mansard
roofs, and to the mean height between eaves and ridge for gable, hip,
and gambrel roofs.
[Added 10-24-2000]
A vehicle, or trailer to a vehicle, designed as a temporary
shelter for travel or recreational use.
A structure, mobile home, truck trailer or similar vehicle
used as an office for construction on the same site.
[Added 5-2-2011 ATM by Art. 14]
Premises used by a building contractor or subcontractor for
the storage of equipment and supplies, fabrication of sub-assemblies,
and parking of wheeled or tracked equipment in support of construction
on one or more other sites, with or without an office on the premises.
[Added 5-2-2011 ATM by Art. 14]
Premises offering a continuing supervised recreational, health,
educational, religious, and/or athletic program, and without overnight
accommodations.
[Added 3-3-1998]
A dwelling containing three or more dwelling units, whether
for rental, condominium ownership, or other form of tenure.
[Added 10-24-2000]
A building containing only one single-dwelling unit other
than an accessory apartment, and attached to no other residential
structure.
[Added 5-2-2011 ATM by Art. 14]
A dwelling containing two dwelling units, which may be two
attached dwelling units.
[Added 10-24-2000; amended 5-2-2011 ATM by Art. 14]
One or more rooms in a dwelling designed and equipped, including
cooking facilities, for one family to occupy as a year-round residence.
One or more persons occupying a dwelling unit as a single
nonprofit housekeeping unit, who are living together as a bona fide,
stable and committed living unit, being a traditional family unit
or the functional equivalent thereof, exhibiting the generic character
of a traditional family
[Amended 5-5-2008 ATM by Art. 14]
The channel of a river and the adjacent land areas that are subject to a one-percent-or-greater chance of flooding in any given year (i.e., the "one-hundred-year flood"). Development in these land areas is regulated to prevent increases in the water surface elevation associated with the one-hundred-year flood. The regulatory floodway, as determined by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is delineated on the Flood Insurance Rate Maps described in § 220-25.
[Amended 5-2-2011 ATM by Art. 14]
A front lot line qualified under § 220-10B to be measured continuously between side lot lines or, for corner lots, between one side lot line and the midpoint of the corner radius.
[Amended 5-2-2011 ATM by Art. 14]
The sum of the areas of all floors of a building as measured
from the exterior dimensions, but not including storage cellars, unused
attics, unenclosed porches, garages or areas occupied by heating and
ventilating equipment.
The gross floor area less area for corridors, courts, service
areas, storage and office space.
As defined in the State Department of Public Health's Minimum
Standards of Fitness for Human Habitation; in brief, those heated
areas used daily for living, eating, cooking and sleeping but excluding
garages, circulation areas, storage areas, etc.
Facilities for the development and maintenance of physical
fitness and well-being. Possible activities include but are not limited
to the use of indoor/outdoor swimming pools, indoor/outdoor physical
sporting activities including hand and racquet sports, physical training
and education, health spas, physical and rehabilitative therapy, and
medical offices ancillary to the above. Not included is any form of
motorized vehicular recreational or therapeutic activity.
[Added 3-3-1998]
Continuous light, not varied in intensity or color, from
a source of artificial light within a translucent sign.
Continuous white light arranged to shine onto an area or
a sign from a source not visible from any street line nor from any
structure on an adjacent lot.
Impenetrable by surface water, or having a percolation rate
greater than 30 minutes per inch.
The use of any part of a lot, except as specifically permitted in § 220-8, for the storage, keeping or abandonment of junk or scrap material, or the dismantling, demolition or abandonment of automobiles or other unlicensed vehicles not in running condition, or machinery or parts thereof.
Facility licensed as an assisted living residence or continuing
care retirement community, or another dwelling whose occupancy is
limited to households having at least one member 55 or more years
of age.
[Added 10-24-2000]
Facility licensed as a nursing home, convalescent home, rehabilitation
facility, extended care facility, or intermediate care facility.
[Added 10-24-2000]
A single area of land in one ownership defined by metes and
bounds or boundary lines or a deed recorded in the Registry of Deeds,
Worcester County, or drawn on a plan approved under the Subdivision
Control Law,[1] or on a plan endorsed by the Planning Board stating "Approval
not required under the Subdivision Control Law," or word of similar
import.[2]
A property line dividing a lot from a street or way. On lots
abutting more than one street, the front lot line shall be that so
designated by a permit applicant or, if not, as designated by the
Building Inspector.
[Added 5-2-2011 ATM by Art. 14]
A property line which connects a front lot line and another
side lot line or a rear lot line.
[Added 5-2-2011 ATM by Art. 14]
An institution or facility providing medical, surgical, dental,
restorative or mental hygiene services to persons not accommodated
overnight therein, under license as a clinic under Massachusetts General
Laws, whether or not affiliated with a hospital or other health care
facility.
[Added 10-24-2000]
A movable or portable housing unit for year-round living,
built on a chassis and originally designed to be independent of a
permanent foundation, whether or not subsequently connected to a foundation
or utilities.
A substantial, opaque fence at least six feet high, or a
solid, year-round, evergreen hedge which will grow to six feet within
three years, or the equivalent, and maintained in good condition.
A strip of dense vegetation of shrubs and trees not less than 20 feet
deep may be considered an equivalent.
A building intended for vacation occupancy only, not occupied
for more than six months in the aggregate during any one year and
not meeting the definition of "dwelling" above, but conforming to
all health and safety standards of the Town.
A group of not less than 15 units serving the general retail
trade and including retail sales and service stores, shops, banks,
indoor theaters, restaurants and similar establishments, planned and
designed as a single unit, and having a gross leasable area of not
less than 100,000 square feet, with immediately adjoining off-street
parking facilities.
Any device designed to inform or attract the
attention of persons not on the premises on which the device is located.
The following, however, shall not be considered
signs within the context of this bylaw:
Flags and insignia of any government except
when displayed in connection with commercial promotion;
Legal notices, or informational devices erected
or required by public agencies;
Standard gasoline pumps bearing thereon in usual
size and form the name, type, and price of gasoline;
Integral decorative or architectural features
of buildings, except letters, trademarks, moving parts, or parts internally
illuminated or decorated with gaseous tube or other lights;
On-premises devices guiding and directing traffic
and parking, not exceeding two square feet in area, and bearing no
advertising matter;
On awnings or similar devices, lettering not
exceeding three inches in height, or symbols not exceeding four square
feet in area.
The area of the smallest horizontally or vertically oriented
rectangle which could enclose all the display area of the sign, together
with any backing different in color or material from the finish material
of the building face, without deduction for open space or other irregularities.
Structural members not bearing advertising matter shall not be included
unless internally or decoratively lighted. Only one side of flat,
back-to-back signs need be included in calculating sign area.
A freestanding lockable container or a mobile home, truck
trailer, or similar vehicle having in all cases no plumbing fixtures,
used principally for storage of goods, materials, or personal property
at that location as either a principal or accessory use of the premises.
[Added 5-2-2011 ATM by Art. 14]
A combination of materials assembled at a fixed location
to give support or shelter, such as a building, framework, retaining
wall, tent, reviewing stand, platform, bin, fence, sign, flagpole,
mast for radio antenna or the like. The word "structure" shall be
construed, where the context allows, as though followed by the words
"or part or parts thereof."
A product, waste, or combination of substances
which because of quantity, concentration, or physical or chemical
or infectious characteristics, poses a substantial hazard to human
health or safety if improperly treated, stored, transported, used,
disposed of, or otherwise managed. Among others, any substance regulated
as a hazardous waste under MGL c. 21C, as amended, shall be considered
a toxic or hazardous material for the purposes of this bylaw.
Substances listed on the Massachusetts Substance
List contained in 105 CMR 670.000, Appendix A, substances regulated
as hazardous wastes under MGL c. 21C, as amended, and regulated substances
defined under Subtitle 1, § 9001 of the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act, as amended.[4]
An area open to the sky, located between a property line
and any structure or element thereof other than a fence, wall, foundation
or projection allowed to encroach on building lines by the State Building
Code, unless otherwise provided in this bylaw.
[Added 10-24-2000]
A yard abutting the street line on each street the lot adjoins,
measured perpendicular to a line connecting the foremost points of
the side lot lines.
[Amended 10-24-2000; 5-2-2011 ATM by Art. 14]
A yard abutting a rear property line, which typically is
a line or set of lines approximately parallel to the street frontage,
and separating lots whose frontage is established on different streets.
Yards on irregularly shaped lots where "side" versus "rear" is indeterminate
shall be construed as rear yards.
[Amended 10-24-2000]
A yard extending between front and rear yards and abutting
a side property line, which typically is a line or set of lines which
intersect a street line, separating lots whose frontage is established
on the same street. Corner lots commonly have two side yards and no
rear yard.
[Amended 10-24-2000]
