Town of North Hampton, NH

ARTICLE III - DEFINITIONS

In the interpretation and enforcement of this Ordinance, all words other than those defined specifically below shall have the meanings implied by their context in the Ordinance or their ordinarily accepted meanings. The word person includes a firm, association, organization, partnership, trust company, or corporation as well as an individual. The present tense includes the future tense, the singular number includes the plural, and the plural number includes the singular. The word “shall” is mandatory, the word may is permissive. The word “lot” includes the words “plot” or “parcel.”

Section 302 Definitions *3/08/2005

1. Accessory Apartment: One dwelling unit, located within a single-family dwelling that is clearly subordinate to the principal dwelling and meets the conditions set forth in Section 513. *3/13/90

2. Accessory Use: A use customarily incidental and subordinate to the principal use and located on the same lot as the principal use.

3. Agriculture: Agriculture shall mean cultivating the soil, producing crops, and raising livestock.

4. Area: Area of a lot size shall be calculated from dimensions derived by the horizontal projection of the site.

5. Basement: A story having a portion of its clear height below finished grade.

6. Clinic: Any establishment where human patients are examined and treated by doctors or dentists but are not hospitalized overnight, or where animals are examined and treated by veterinarian whether hospitalized overnight or not. *3/6/73

7. Club: An establishment operated for social, recreation or education purposes but open only to members and not the general public. *3/12/68

8. Coverage: That percentage of the lot area covered by principal and accessory use structures.

9. Duplex: A building designed and/or used exclusively for residential purposes and containing two principal dwelling units separated by a common party wall or otherwise structurally attached. *3/10/92

10. Dwelling: Any completed structure or portion thereof designed or used exclusively for residential purposes.

11. Essential Services: The erection, construction, alteration or maintenance by public utilities or municipal or other governmental agencies of underground or overhead gas, electrical, steam or water transmission or distribution systems, including poles, wires, mains, drains, sewers, pipes, conduit cables,

North Hampton Zoning Ordinance March 10, 2009

fire alarm boxes, police call boxes, traffic signals, hydrants, street signs, but not including buildings, and other similar equipment and accessories in connection therewith, reasonably necessary for the furnishing of adequate service by such public utilities or municipal or other governmental agencies or for the public health, safety or general welfare.

a. Installation of all such services must be approved by the Planning Board, or its agent, in regards to scope, aesthetics, location, size and affect on general welfare. Approval may be conditioned upon the limiting of volume and/or units, which would affect the future welfare of the town, especially volume of natural resources, which are removed from the town by installation of essential services.

b. No additional quantities of water in excess of the amount of water capable of being pumped presently, or scheduled to be pumped from wells installed within six months of the effective date of this amendment, shall be conveyed by any means or allowed to be piped for use outside of the Town of North Hampton except by annual permit issued by the Select Board after Planning Board review; provided however, that on a case by case basis, Selectmen may issue such permit for a period longer than one year, but not longer than twenty years, provided that the applicant shall prove to the Selectmen's reasonable satisfaction that in such case the water use will not exceed the maximum safe yield of the water source, that the water source will not be depleted and that no aquifer, wetland, or other environmental interest will be harmed. Any independent engineering consultants used to verify or confirm the applicants proof and data will be paid by the applicant. *3/12/91

12. Family Day Care: Taking care of up to six preschool children on a full-time basis and three school age children on a part-time basis as an accessory use to the principal use of the property. *3/13/90

13. Family Unit: One or more persons occupying a premise and living as a single unit, as distinguished from a group occupying a boarding house, club, fraternity or hotel, including quarters for relatives or servants or employees whose duties involve the premises on which they reside, so long as no rent is charged, utilities and kitchen shall be shared. *3/11/86

14. Frontage: The distance for which a lot abuts and is adjacent to one town accepted or maintained road within the limits of the Town of North Hampton as shown as the Official Map. *3/12/85

15. Group Day Care: A child care facility taking care of more than six children on a full-time basis by at least two care givers that is licensed by the Bureau of Child Care Standards & Licensing, Division of Public Health Services of the N.H. Department of Health and Welfare. *3/13/90

16. Home Occupation: An occupation carried on in a dwelling unit which is clearly incidental and secondary to the use of the building for dwelling purposes, and which does not change the character thereof.

17. Intermittent stream: A stream or reach of a stream that flows only at certain times of the year, as when it receives water from springs or from some surface source. *3/10/98

18. Isolated Non-bordering Wetlands: Those areas of 3,000 sf or less which satisfy the definition above of “wetlands” but which are not within 100 feet of any other wetlands and do not abut a marsh, pond, bog, lake, river, natural intermittent or perennial stream. *3/10/92, *3/10/98, *3/08/05

19. Light Manufacturing: The processing and fabrication of certain materials and products where no process involved will produce noise, vibration, air pollution, fire hazard, or noxious emission which will disturb or endanger neighboring properties. Light manufacturing includes the production of the following goods: home appliances; electrical instruments; office machines; precision instruments; electronic devices; timepieces; jewelry; optical goods; musical instruments; novelties; wood products, printed material; lithographic plates; type composition, machine tools; dies and gauges; ceramics; apparel; lightweight nonferrous metal castings; film processing; light sheet metal products; plastic goods; pharmaceutical goods; and food products, but not

North Hampton Zoning Ordinance March 10, 2009

animal slaughtering, curing, nor rendering of fats.

20. Lot: A parcel of land intended for occupancy by a main building, together with its accessory buildings.

21. Lot, Depth of: A mean horizontal distance between the front and rear lot lines.

22. Lot, Minimum Area of: The horizontally projected area of a lot computed exclusive of any portion of the right of way of any public thoroughfare.

23. Lot, Width of: The mean width measured at right angles to its depth.

24. Lot of Record: Any lot which, individually or as a part of a subdivision, has been recorded in the Office of the Register of Deeds in Rockingham County.

25. Manufactured Housing: Any structure, transportable in one or more sections, which, in the traveling mode, is 8 body feet or more in width and 40 feet or more in length, or when erected on site, is 720 square feet or more, and which is built on a permanent chassis and designed to be used as a dwelling with or without a permanent foundation when connected to required utilities, which include plumbing, heating and electrical heating systems contained therein. Manufactured housing placed on individual lots or in a subdivision shall be placed on a permanent foundation. All manufactured housing shall have a minimum width of 14 feet. *3/13/90

26. Manufactured Housing Parks: Any land rented for the location, either permanently or temporarily, of one or more manufactured houses, recreational vehicles, travel trailers, tent campers, or other vehicles intended for a similar purpose. *3/13/84

27. Multi Family Dwelling: A residential structure containing more than two dwelling units. *3/13/90

28. Municipal Officers: The Selectmen of the Town of North Hampton. *3/12/68

29. Non-Conforming Structure: A structure designed, converted, or adopted for a use prior to the adoption of provisions prohibiting such use in such location. *3/12/68

30. Non-Conforming Use: Non-conforming use is any use or arrangement of structures or land legally existing at the time of enactment of this ordinance or any of its amendments, which does not conform to the provisions of this ordinance. *3/10/81

31. Perennial stream: A stream or reach of a stream that flows continuously throughout the year and whose upper surface generally stands lower than the water table in the region adjoining the stream. *3/10/98

32. Pre-site Built Housing: Any structure designed primarily for residential occupancy which is wholly or in substantial part made, fabricated, formed or assembled in off-site manufacturing facilities in conformance with the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development minimum property standards and local building codes, for installation, or assembly and installation, on the building site. *3/13/90

33. Recreational Vehicle: Recreational Vehicle shall mean any vehicle used or so constructed as to permit its being used as a conveyance on the public streets and highways, whether licensed as such or not, and constructed in such a manner as will permit occupancy thereof as a dwelling or sleeping place for one or more persons. A Recreational Vehicle under this ordinance shall also mean but is not limited to Tent Trailers, Travel Trailers, Truck Campers, Busses, or other sleeping facilities other than manufactured housing and/or what normally constitutes a permanent dwelling unit. *3/13/79

34. Seasonal Sign: A sign used each year at a particular period and removed for the balance of the year such as but not limited to "Ice Cream" or "Snow Blowers." *3/4/75

35. Sign: The word "sign" shall mean and include every sign, billboard, ground sign, wall sign, illuminated sign, projecting sign, sandwich board, temporary sign and include any announcement, demonstration, display or any device used in advertising out of doors in view of the general public. *3/6/73

36. Single Dwelling: A dwelling occupied by one family unit only. *3/6/73

North Hampton Zoning Ordinance March 10, 2009

37. Structure: Anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires a fixed location on the ground or an attachment to something having a fixed location on the ground, including, in addition to buildings, billboards, carports, porches, and other building features but not including sidewalks, drives, fences and patios.

38. Temporary Sign: A sign constructed for a short period and when once removed will not be replaced, such as but not limited to a construction site sign. *3/4/75

39. Temporary Structure: Any structure not on a permanent foundation nor permanently attached in any manner. Said structure to be used for a specified period of time. *3/10/81

40. Tidal lands: All lands submerged by mean high tide and, in addition, those areas which border on tidal waters, such as banks, bogs, salt marsh, swamps, meadows, flats or other lowlands subject to tidal action, whose surface is at an elevation not exceeding three and one-half feet above local mean high tide and upon which grow or are capable of growing a variety of tidal plants. The occurrence of salt marsh peat at the undisturbed surface is also evidence of a tidal wetland. *3/13/79, 3/08/2005

41. Wetlands: Pursuant to RSA 482-A:2 and RSA 674:55, “Wetlands” means an area that is inundated or saturated by surface water or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal conditions does support, a prevalence or vegetation