In the Shopping Center Districts the following regulations shall apply:
[1]
Cross reference—Licenses and miscellaneous business regulations, Ch. 12.
[Ord. No. 430, § 1, 5-13-1964; Ord. No. 464, § 2, 10-11-1965; Ord. No. 546, § 1, 12-12-1968; Ord. No. 709, § 2, 11-25-1974; Ord. No. 793, § 1, 3-13-1978; Ord. No. 840, § 1, 9-8-1980]
A building or combinations of buildings may be erected, altered or used, and a lot may be used or occupied, for any of the following purposes, and not others:
A. 
Retail store, including retail outlet or showroom for uses permitted in Paragraph I below, but not including automobile sales agency;
B. 
Restaurant, cafe, soda or ice cream fountain, dairy bar, snack bar, cafeteria, coffee shop, juice stand or cocktail lounge;
C. 
Office or studio;
D. 
Following personal service shops, dealing directly with customers: Beauty parlor, barbershop, investment office, travel agency, transportation ticket office, automatic self-service laundry and automatic dry cleaning, dressmaking, millinery or similar shop provided all repair or processing work is conducted in accordance with paragraph I below;
E. 
Theater, not including outdoor motion picture establishment; assembly hall; community room; town hall; library; skating rink; bowling alleys; billiard room; athletic or health club; or indoor recreational establishment for tennis, squash or similar athletic endeavors; child day-care center; radio station or television station;
F. 
Bakery, confectionery or custom shop for the production of articles to be sold at retail on the premises, provided that all baking or processing is conducted in accordance with paragraph I below;
G. 
Financial institution; municipal use;
H. 
Passenger bus station, taxicab stand; electric substation, telephone telegraph offices, or post office;
I. 
The following uses provided that if such uses are located on the ground floor they shall not be located within twenty (20) feet of the front of the store and provided that they shall be effectively screened from the front portion of the store by a wall or partition;
1. 
General servicing or repair;
2. 
Upholstering;
3. 
Carpentry and woodworking;
4. 
Electrical, radio or television repair;
5. 
Hand laundering, dry cleaning or pressing, provided no inflammable fluids are used;
6. 
Tailoring, dressmaking or repair;
7. 
Millinery repair or processing;
8. 
Watch or clock repair;
9. 
Baking, confectionery making or similar processing;
10. 
Frozen food lockers;
11. 
Any similar use involving repair, processing or storage activity.
K. 
[J.] Stamp redemption center;
K . 
Motel or motor court;
L. 
Elderly housing/assisted living facility when authorized as a conditional use, subject to the provisions of Article XXXVI of this ordinance and the specific development standards of Section 1101.1;
[Ord. No. 1650, § 1, 1-14-2019]
M. 
Swimming pool and other outdoor recreational facilities for use by the occupants of (K) and (L) above;
N. 
Offices for administration, executive, professional, sales and other similar uses the normal attributes of which do not involve the actual storage, exchange or delivery of merchandise on the premises;
O. 
Tire, battery and accessory store;
P. 
Heliport when authorized as a special exception by the zoning hearing board;
Q. 
Mid-rise apartments and high-rise apartments, only when (i) an existing building, previously or currently used for office purposes, is being converted into mid-rise apartments or high-rise apartments, and (ii) authorized as a conditional use. The development of mid-rise apartments and high-rise apartments pursuant this subsection shall be subject to the provisions of Article XXXVI of this ordinance and the specific development standards of Section 1101.2.
[Added 11-14-2022 by Ord. No. 1686[1]]
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance also redesignated former Subsections Q through S as Subsections R through T, respectively.
R. 
Accessory use customarily incidental to any of the above uses;
S. 
Any use of the same general character as any of the above permitted uses, when authorized as a special exception by the zoning hearing board, provided that such use shall be permitted subject to such reasonable restrictions as the zoning hearing board may determine and further provided that no trade or business shall be permitted which is either noxious or hazardous;
T. 
Signs when erected and maintained in accordance with the provisions of Sections 1601, 1603, 1604 and 1605 of Article XVI, herein.
[Ord. No. 430, § 1, 5-13-1964; Ord. No. 579, § 1, 7-14-1969; Ord. No. 618, § 1, 2-8-1971; Ord. No. 655, § 1, 8-14-1972; Ord. No. 793, § 1, 3-13-1978; Ord. No. 840, § 1, 9-8-1980; Ord. No. 1233, § 3, 6-9-1997; Ord. No. 1253, § 5, 1-26-1998; Ord. No. 1476, § 20, 6-11-2007]
The general plan shall include specific evidence and facts showing that it has considered and made provisions for, and the development shall be executed in accordance with the following essential conditions:
A. 
The development shall consist of a harmonious selection of uses and grouping of buildings, service and parking area, circulation and open spaces, planned and designed as an integrated unit, in such manner as to constitute a safe, efficient and convenient retail shopping center. The distance at the closest point between buildings or groups of attached buildings shall be not less than fifty (50) feet.
B. 
The appropriate use of property adjacent to the center shall be safeguarded. Where such shopping center abuts any residential district, a suitable and uninterrupted planting screen, not less than twenty-five (25) feet in depth, shall be provided and maintained by the owner of the shopping center. Lighting facilities shall be arranged in a manner which will protect the highway and neighboring properties from direct glare or hazardous interference of any kind.
C. 
All buildings within the shopping center shall be served by township sanitary sewage disposal systems and public water supply.
D. 
Adequate provisions shall be made for safe and efficient ingress and egress to and from public streets and highways serving the shopping center without undue congestion to or interference with the normal traffic flow within the township. All points of vehicular access to and from the public streets shall be located not less than two hundred and fifty (250) feet from the intersection of any public street lines with each other.
E. 
Adequate provisions shall be made for safe and efficient pedestrian and vehicular traffic circulation within the boundaries of the shopping center.
F. 
Off-street Parking and Loading Space Requirements.
(1) 
(a) 
The following regulations on off-street parking spaces and loading space requirements shall apply to all land zoned Shopping Center District and wherein multiple uses are involved, which regulations shall be in lieu of the requirements specified in section 1700. Where a lot or tract of land in single and separate ownership is zoned Shopping Center District and is the subject of either a single use or not more than four (4) different uses, then in such event the parking requirements of this article shall not be applicable to such use but the parking space and loading space requirements of section 1700 shall be applied thereto.
(b) 
The size of the parking space for one vehicle shall consist of a rectangular area having dimensions of not less than nine (9) feet in width and eighteen (18) feet in length. Aisles serving such parking spaces shall have a minimum width of twenty-six (26) feet.
(c) 
Parking spaces may consist of enclosed areas such as basements, attached or detached garages, or open space parking areas including open lot, deck and roof parking areas.
(d) 
The front, side and rear yards may, subject to the provisions of paragraph B of this section 1101, be used for parking and loading space.
(e) 
The land upon which the off-street parking and loading spaces are located shall be owned or controlled by the same entity which owns or controls the land on which the principal use is located unless the conditions of section 1701 are met or unless the shopping center consists of a lot as defined in paragraph A of section 1103 or unless the conditions of section 1101.F.(2)(c) are met.
(f) 
Required parking spaces for individual establishments need not be provided separately but may be made a component part of such space jointly serving two (2) or more establishments.
(2) 
Required parking spaces.
(a) 
Off-street parking and loading spaces shall be provided in accordance with and as an integral part of the plan.
(b) 
Off-street parking spaces shall be provided in accordance with the following schedule:
1. 
Retail stores, personal service shops, studio, financial institution, restaurant, eating establishments, cafe, theater, skating rink, bowling alley, billiard room, indoor recreational establishment and other commercial establishments—One (1) parking space for every two hundred (200) square feet of rentable floor area.
2. 
Office, office building or library—One (1) parking space for every five hundred (500) square feet of rentable floor area.
3. 
Motel-One (1) parking space for each guest unit.[1]
[1]
Editor's Note: Former Subsection F(2)(b)4, regarding parking spaces for high-rise apartment buildings or hotels, which immediately followed this subsection, was repealed 11-14-2022 by Ord. No. 1686.
(c) 
In connection with a shopping center having in the aggregate for all uses not less than three thousand five hundred (3,500) off-street parking spaces, whether on one or multiple parcels and whether under common or separate ownership, the required off-street parking spaces for an indoor theater may be provided elsewhere than on the same parcel by a common parking area jointly serving the indoor theater and an office or office building; provided, that some portion of the common parking area lies within two hundred fifty (250) feet of an entrance, regularly used by patrons, into each building served thereby. In the event such a common parking area is provided, the number of off-street parking spaces otherwise required for the indoor theater may be reduced by one space for every space required for an office or office building sharing the common parking area.
G. 
All access roads, parking areas, service and other areas for vehicular use shall be paved with bituminous or other concrete material.
H. 
All utility lines serving the shopping center shall be placed underground.
I. 
If the development of the shopping center is to be carried out in progressive stages, each stage shall be so planned that the foregoing requirements and the intent of this ordinance shall be fully complied with by the development at the completion of any stage.
J. 
Required Minimum Area, Street Frontage, Yard, Impervious Surface and Green Space Area Regulations.
(1) 
District area, 10 acres;
(2) 
Lot area, 4 acres;
(3) 
Front yard, 100 feet;
(4) 
Side yard (each), 50 feet;
(5) 
Rear yard, 50 feet;
(6) 
Frontage on public street, 300 feet.
(7) 
Maximum impervious surface, seventy-five (75) percent.
(8) 
Minimum green space area, twenty-five (25) percent.
K. 
Maximum Building Coverage. The maximum building coverage shall be twenty-five (25) percent of the total lot area.
L. 
Maximum Heights. The maximum heights of the buildings or structures erected or enlarged in this district shall be as follows:
(1) 
Buildings or structures devoted or intended for devotion to uses of the nature specified in paragraph A to S inclusive in section 1100 other than high rise apartment buildings, hotels, motels, motor courts and office buildings—forty (40) feet, except that the height of any such building or structure may be increased to a maximum of sixty-five (65) feet provided that for each foot of height in excess of forty (40) feet there shall be added to each yard requirement one corresponding foot of width or depth;
(2) 
High-rise apartment buildings, hotels, motels, or motor courts shall not exceed one hundred (100) feet in height, except when an existing building is being converted to high-rise apartments and the height of the existing building already exceeds one hundred (100) feet.
[Amended 11-14-2022 by Ord. No. 1686]
(3) 
Buildings or structures devoted or intended for devotion to uses for offices as in paragraph N of section 1100-One hundred twenty (120) feet.
M. 
The township council may prescribe particular requirements of any further reasonable conditions deemed appropriate with respect to the suitability of the shopping center in the neighborhood.
[Ord. No. 1650, § 2, 1-14-2019]
Elderly housing/assisted living facilities shall comply with the applicable requirements of the Shopping Center District except as specifically modified by this section, as follows:
A. 
Minimum district area. The minimum size of a Shopping Center District in which an elderly housing/assisted living facility is located shall be 50 acres.
B. 
Setbacks. The facility shall be located a minimum of 500 feet from the boundary of the Shopping Center District.
C. 
Maximum number of dwelling units. The maximum number of elderly housing/assisted living dwelling units in any one Shopping Center District shall not exceed 150.
D. 
Parking. Off-street parking spaces for an elderly housing/assisted living facility shall be provided at the rate of 0.6 space per dwelling unit.
[Added 11-14-2022 by Ord. No. 1686]
Mid-rise and high-rise apartments shall comply with the applicable requirements of the Shopping Center District except as specifically modified by this section, as follows:
A. 
Minimum district area. The minimum size of a Shopping Center District in which mid-rise apartments or high-rise apartments may be located shall be 50 acres.
B. 
Setbacks. The mid-rise apartments or high-rise apartments shall be located a minimum of 100 feet from the boundary of the Shopping Center District and a minimum of 75 feet from the ultimate right-of-way of any street.
C. 
Project Density. The maximum density within any Shopping Center District shall be 30 units per gross acre, based only upon the acreage of the property proposed for redevelopment, with no more than 50 units in any one (1) mid-rise apartment building, and no more than 150 units in any one (1) high-rise apartment building. For the purpose of calculating density and the maximum number of allowable units, the area of a lot subject to redevelopment shall be the area existing on the date of enactment of this ordinance amendment.
D. 
Shopping Center District Density. In addition to the project density specified in Subsection 1101.2C above, a maximum of 150 apartment units shall be permitted on any property subject to redevelopment pursuant to Section 1101.2; and a maximum of 300 apartment units shall be permitted within an SC Zoning District. In the event multiple applications are pending before the Township which, if granted, would exceed the 300-unit maximum, the applications will be considered in the order in which preliminary approval is granted. When preliminary approval of an application would cause the number of approved apartment units to exceed 300 units in the SC Zoning District, the application shall be denied. Conditional Use approval for apartment units shall be conditioned upon compliance with the unit maximum at the time of preliminary plan approval.
E. 
Building Spacing. All mid-rise apartment buildings shall be spaced at least 100 feet from each other, and all high-rise apartment buildings shall be spaced at least 250 feet from each other.
F. 
Parking. Off-street parking spaces for mid-rise apartments and high-rise apartments shall be provided at the rate of 1.5 spaces per dwelling unit.
G. 
Amenity Space. Any mid-rise or high-rise apartment building use in the Shopping Center District shall provide a minimum of 30 square feet of amenity space for each apartment unit for the exclusive use of the occupants of the apartments. In no case shall the amenity space total less than 1,500 square feet. Amenity space may include, but shall not be limited to: fire pits, dog walking areas, barbecue grills, fitness areas, media rooms, and gathering rooms. Amenity space may be located inside or outside of the apartment building.
H. 
Unit Mix. Mid-rise apartments and high-rise apartments in the Shopping Center District may contain a mix of efficiency, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom units, provided that no more than 50% of the total number of units in an apartment building shall be 2-bedroom units.
I. 
Transportation Impact Study. Any conditional use application for development under this section shall include a traffic impact study prepared in accordance with accepted methodology and containing any supplemental information deemed necessary by the Plymouth Township Traffic Engineer. The scope of the study shall be approved by the Township Traffic Engineer, and must include an analysis of parking requirements, pedestrian connections, site circulation, and any required off-site improvements.
J. 
Fiscal Impact Study. Any conditional use application for development under this section shall include a fiscal impact study prepared in accordance with accepted methodology and containing any supplemental information deemed necessary by the Plymouth Township Planner.
K. 
Sanitary Sewer Study. Any conditional use application for development under this section shall include a sanitary sewer study prepared in accordance with accepted methodology and containing any supplemental information deemed necessary by the Plymouth Township Municipal Engineer. The study must show that there is adequate capacity to properly convey all anticipated flows from the proposed development.
L. 
Buffering and Berming. The buffer requirements in Section 1706 and the berming requirements in Section 1707 shall not be applicable for the conversion of an existing building for use as mid-rise apartment and/or high-rise apartments when surrounded by other commercial uses and part of a larger shopping center.
[Ord. No. 430, § 1, 5-13-1964; Ord. No. 793, § 1, 3-13-1978]
A. 
Plans for any shopping center use shall be submitted to the planning agency prior to the issuance of any zoning permit as provided in Article XX. If however, portions of the project are to be completed in successive stages, a less detailed sketch or layout of the area not scheduled for immediate development will suffice initially, provided that as further developments occur, a plan showing all of the required detail shall then be submitted prior to the construction of any portion. Information to be shown on all shopping center plans shall include:
1. 
A plot plan of the lot, showing the location of all present and proposed buildings, sidewalks and other areas to be devoted to pedestrian use, drives, parking lots, loading and unloading areas and other construction features on the lot; and all buildings, streets, alleys, highways, streams and other topographical features of the lot and within two hundred (200) feet of any lot line.
2. 
Architectural plans for any proposed buildings.
3. 
The location, dimensions and arrangement of areas to be devoted to planting, lawns, trees or any other purpose.
4. 
A description of the commercial uses proposed including approximate number of employees, and an indication of the number of customers in sufficient detail to indicate the effects of those operations in producing traffic congestion, noise, glare, air pollution, water pollution, fire hazards or safety hazards.
5. 
Engineering and architectural plans for the disposal of sanitary sewage and storm water.
6. 
Any other data or evidence that the planning agency may require.
B. 
The planning agency shall review all plans for shopping center uses submitted to them and shall submit these plans, with recommendations thereon to the township council for final approval.
C. 
Upon receipt of plans for any shopping center use, and recommendations thereon, by the planning agency, the township council shall have the power of approval or disapproval of these plans. The secretary of the township council shall notify, in writing, the zoning officer of their final decision and any special conditions agreed upon regarding any shopping center use.
D. 
As a guide for the recommendation by the planning agency and for final approval or disapproval by the township council on any shopping center plan all the provisions of this article shall be considered.
[Ord. No. 430, § 1, 5-13-1964; Ord. No. 618, § 2, 2-8-1971; Ord. No. 663, § 1, 10-23-1972]
The following words and phrases when used in this Article XI shall have the meaning set forth below:
A. 
Lot. One or more contiguous parcels of land, whether or not in single and separate ownership, which is or are occupied or to be occupied by one or more buildings or other structures or which is or are devoted to or to be devoted to any or all of the uses permitted by section 1100 of this Article XI, together with any accessory buildings, structures, or groups or principal buildings, or other structures or uses, and any service and parking areas, circulation and open spaces as are arranged or designed to be used in connection with such principal building or buildings, or groups of principal buildings or other structures or uses, such areas and open spaces and the area and dimensions of such lot being not less than the minimum required by this ordinance.
B. 
Lot line. A property boundary line of any lot (not including any interior property line separating contiguous parcels comprising a lot as defined in the foregoing paragraph), except that, in case of any lot abutting a street, the lot line for such portion of the lot as abuts such street shall be deemed to be the same as the street line, and shall not be the center line of the street, or any other line within the street lines even though such may be the deeded property boundary line.
[Ord. No. 663, § 2, 10-23-1972; Ord. No. 793, § 1, 3-13-1978]
A. 
Where the Township Council shall have approved plans of a shopping center containing a lot area of not less than 30 acres in accordance with section 1102 hereof, the subsequent division of that lot or part thereof incident to the development of said shopping center shall thereafter be exempted from the provisions of the Plymouth Township Subdivision Ordinance, providing that the deeds conveying parts thereof shall contain covenants requiring the purchasers at all times to operate and maintain such parts in good order and repair and in a clean and sanitary condition uniformly with the appearance and maintenance of the balance of the shopping center complex.
B. 
The failure of any purchaser to so covenant and agree shall thereby subject the proposed division of the lot or part thereof to the Subdivision Ordinance of Plymouth Township notwithstanding subparagraph (a) above.