City Code, ExplainedBetaPardon our dust while we build this out — expect some changes along the way.

This chapter is the City of Pottsville's Zoning Ordinance. It divides the city into 11 zoning districts and controls how land and buildings within each may be used, along with lot size, yard, height, parking, signage, and building requirements.

Who this affects

It affects anyone who owns, builds on, alters, or occupies property in the city, since no building or land may be used, constructed, altered, or enlarged unless it conforms to these regulations. It also affects businesses seeking permits for particular uses, such as retail, industrial, recreational, or adult-entertainment establishments, and residents dealing with fences, home occupations, signs, or accessory structures.

Key rules

• "No building, structure or land shall be used or occupied, nor shall any building or structure or part thereof be constructed, erected, moved, enlarged or structurally altered unless in conformity with the regulations of this chapter."
• The city is divided into 11 districts: R-1, R-1A, R-2, C-1, C-2, C-3, C-4, M-1, M-2, S-1, and C/R.
• Uses fall into three categories — principal permitted uses (no special approval needed), accessory uses (subordinate to a principal use), and special uses (require Zoning Hearing Board approval after Planning Commission review).
• Adult entertainment and services (adult bookstores, adult motion-picture theaters, massage parlors, etc.) are prohibited within 1,000 feet of any residential zone, school, church or religious facility, or public park/S-1 zone.
• Mobile homes are "not permitted in any location in the City of Pottsville."
• Nonconforming uses/structures may continue but generally cannot be enlarged more than 25% of their original floor/lot area, and a nonconforming use discontinued for one year or more is terminated and cannot be revived.
• New junkyards are prohibited; existing ones must be fenced (six feet), avoid outdoor storage of flammable or hazardous materials, and comply with nuisance provisions or shut down within a year.
• Home occupations may use no more than 20% of a dwelling unit's floor area (50% for medical/dental offices or foster family care), may employ no more than two nonresident persons, and no exterior evidence of the occupation is allowed except permitted signage.
• Front yard fences in residential areas may not exceed four feet, must be decorative material (chain link does not qualify), and barbed wire is prohibited in residential neighborhoods.
• Off-street parking and loading requirements are set by use type (e.g., one parking space per dwelling unit, five spaces per bowling alley, one space per 2.5 restaurant seats).
• Wind energy conversion systems (windmills) require special-use approval, may not exceed 50 feet in height (including blades) without further Board approval, and require a minimum $500,000 property/liability insurance policy.
• Sign regulations vary by district; advertising signs (billboards) are banned in all residential districts and in Commercial Districts C-1, C-3, C-4 and Industrial Districts M-1, M-2.
• Variances may be granted by the Zoning Hearing Board only for exceptionally irregular, narrow, shallow, or steep lots or other exceptional physical conditions causing practical difficulty or unnecessary hardship — not merely for convenience.
• Zoning amendments require an affirmative vote of at least four members of City Council after Planning Commission review and public hearing.

Penalties

"Any person, partnership or corporation who or which has violated or permitted the violation of the provisions of this Zoning Chapter shall, upon being found liable therefor in a civil enforcement proceeding, pay a judgment of not more than $500, plus all costs to include attorney fees. Each day that a violation continues shall constitute a separate violation."

Notable and archaic details

• The chapter still separately defines and regulates now-largely-obsolete adult-entertainment terms (adult bookstores, adult drive-in theaters, adult mini-motion-picture theaters) added in 1977, with detailed definitions of "specified sexual activities" and "specified anatomical areas."
• Mobile homes are categorically banned citywide, with no exceptions listed.
• The Legal Counsel to the Zoning Hearing Board has a fixed statutory annual salary of $1,500, set in 1973 and apparently never updated in the text.
• Fee schedule amounts (e.g., $25 for a zoning permit not requiring Board action, $600 for one requiring Board action) are written directly into the ordinance rather than left to a separate fee schedule.