SECTION 300.

ESTABLISHMENT AND CLASSIFICATION OF DISTRICTS

 

301. Districts.

 

For the purpose of this ordinance, the City of Warwick is hereby divided into ten classes of districts, listed and designated on the "zoning plat" as follows:

 

Open Space District (OS)

Residence A-40 District (A-40)

Residence A-15 District (A-15)

Residence A-10 District (A-10)

Residence A-7 District (A-7)

Office District (O)

 

 

Waterfront Business District (WB)

General Business District (GB)

Light Industrial District (LI)

General Industrial District (GI)

Warwick Station Intermodal District (Intermodal)

Warwick Station Gateway District (Gateway)

 

The general intent and purposes of the zoning districts are as follows: Table 1 contains the use regulations for each district; table 2A contains the dimensional regulations for residence districts and table 2B contains the dimensional regulations for nonresidential districts.

 

301.1. Open space district (OS). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance for the purposes of maintaining open space, recreation, agriculture, conservation of natural resources, or other environmental conditions.

 

301.2. Residence A-40 district (A-40). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and used for very low density residential use, comprising not more than one single-family dwelling unit per lot area measuring a minimum of 40,000 square feet.

 

301.3. Residence A-15 district (A-15). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and used for low density residential use, comprising not more than one single-family dwelling unit per lot area measuring a minimum of 15,000 square feet.

 

301.4. Residence A-10 district (A-10). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and used for medium density residential use, comprising not more than one single-family dwelling unit per lot area measuring a minimum of 10,000 square feet.

 

301.5. Residence A-7 district (A-7). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and used for high density residential use, comprising not more than one single-family dwelling unit per lot area measuring a minimum of 7,000 square feet.

 

301.6. Office district (O). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and used primarily for professional and personal service offices, and low intensity businesses, which generally serve as a transition between residential and other nonresidential districts. The preservation of residential structures or the construction of new offices that are residential in character is encouraged to the extent possible and where appropriate.

 

301.7. Waterfront business district (WB). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance used primarily for businesses catering to marine activities.

 

301.8. General business district (GB). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and generally used for a wide diversity of commercial establishments including retail, service, office, and automotive related uses.

 

301.9. Light industrial district (LI). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and used for limited or light industrial purposes generally of a less intensive nature than those allowed in the general industrial district.

 

301.10. General industrial district (GI). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and used for general industrial and manufacturing operations and enterprises, including assembly of durable goods, bulk storage, and general storage of trucks and construction equipment; provided however that such uses do not create serious problems of compatibility with other land uses and that they do not pose unwarranted toxic, explosive or environmental hazard in the general vicinity.

 

301.11. Warwick Station Intermodal District (Intermodal). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and are intended to comply with the special zoning needs resulting from their location near the railroad terminal and the airport terminal site, including appropriate complementary uses, pedestrian and vehicular circulation and parking needs, access issues, traffic flow and congestion, lot coverage and height restrictions. The intent of the intermodal zone is to create and sustain an area of regional economic activity within a retail commercial and office core located on a circulation access spine linking the two transportation nodes described above. This area is the core commercial activity area of the Warwick Station Redevelopment District. It is intended that this zone have a high quality of design for pedestrian use, infrastructure improvements that will enable a flow of users between the two transportation nodes and an appropriate intensity of associated retail, office and hotel uses.

 

301.12. Warwick Station Gateway District (Gateway). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and are intended to serve as transitional areas leading to the Intermodal District of the Warwick Station Redevelopment District from outlying areas, including the Post Road and Airport Road general business districts. The Gateway District is intended to allow limited commercial uses customarily associated with transportation facilities such as airport and railroad terminals as well as general commercial uses commonly allowed within general business districts. It is intended that this district have a high quality of design associated with vehicular circulation and appropriate landscaping and architectural design intended to create a separate identity and a cohesive appearance distinguishable from the outlying areas.

(Ord. No. O-98-44, § I(Exh. A), 12-14-98)

 

302. Overlay districts.

 

Within each of the districts as designated in subsection 301, there may be overlay districts which are set forth herein due to certain unique natural characteristics and conditions and special areas of the city which require additional regulations, as specified herein, to meet the purposes of this ordinance. Overlay districts are designed to impose supplementary requirements and do not in any manner supersede or replace any requirements of the underlying district. The intent, purposes, and zoning plat designations of the overlay districts are as follows:

 

302.1. Overlay district--Institutional-health care (IH). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and so designated to provide for health care facilities such as hospitals (including teaching hospitals). Specific institutional-health care overlay district regulations are found in subsection 306 of this ordinance.

 

302.2. Overlay district--Institutional-educational (IE). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and so designated to provide for educational facilities, such as colleges, universities, vocational institutions, professional training schools and the like, but not including private and public schools that provide compulsory education such as grammar schools, junior high and high schools. Specific institutional-educational overlay district regulations are found in subsection 307 of this ordinance.

 

302.3. Planned district residential overlay (PDR). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and so designated to allow two-family and multiple-family developments comprising more than ten dwelling units. It is generally intended that PDR overlay districts be combined with or limited to the underlying and corresponding residential districts: A-40, A-15, A-10, and A-7. PDR may also be permitted in underlying office and general business districts. In these cases, the residential density and dimensional requirements shall be the same as the A-7 district. Specific PDR overlay district regulations are found in subsection 308 of this ordinance.

 

302.4. Planned unit development overlay district (PUD). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and so designated to allow a mixture of residential and limited commercial uses or industrial and limited commercial uses on the same site for the purpose of promoting flexible site plan layouts and design of appropriate large parcels. The underlying district will generally determine the principal use in a PUD overlay district; for example, a PUD in a residential district will provide a residential type development with a mixture of limited commercial uses, a PUD in an industrial district will provide an industrial type development with a mixture of limited commercial uses. Specific PUD overlay district regulations are found in subsection 309 of this ordinance.

 

302.5. Flood hazard overlay district (AE, VE). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and so designated to protect properties and life from natural storms, hurricanes and flood damage. Specific flood hazard overlay district regulations are found in subsection 310 of this ordinance.

 

302.6. Historic overlay district (H). Properties mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and so designated due to the historic, architectural or archaeological character of the structure or site or due to a wider historical significance to a neighborhood within the city. Specific historic overlay district regulations are found in subsection 311 of this ordinance.

 

302.7. Watershed protection overlay districts. Properties will be mapped in accordance with subsection 303 of this ordinance and so designated to protect environmentally sensitive surface water and groundwater bodies or wetlands. Specific watershed protection overlay district regulations will be found in subsection 312 of this ordinance.

 

302.8. Groundwater protection overlay districts. (Reserved)

 

TABLE 1. USE REGULATIONS (Due to HTML space limitations, please CLICK HERE for PDF version)

 

TABLE 2A. DIMENSIONAL REGULATIONS

 

 

 

Footnotes:

 

⁽¹⁾ Detached single-household residential uses in O and GB districts are subject to the dimensional requirements of the A-7 district. See section 304.5 for dimensional requirements when there are two uses on a single lot.

 

⁽²⁾ For lots fronting on any street cul-de-sac, both the minimum frontage and lot width shall be at least 80 percent of the requirements.

 

⁽³⁾ See subsection 304.9 of this ordinance relating to height requirements in the vicinity of Theodore Francis Green Airport.

 

⁽⁴⁾ On corner lots, the required frontage and width shall be necessary only on one street provided that the second street frontage maintains the minimum of 80 percent of the frontage requirement.

 

⁽⁵⁾ On corner lots, the rear setback shall conform to the side setback requirements.

 

Note for all setback requirements: Setbacks shall be measured from the lot line to any building projection and not necessarily the foundation.

 

TABLE 2B. DIMENSIONAL REGULATIONS