Note: This is a very long chapter, so I have divided it among many pages. When you are done, just close this window and the main zoning page should be back.

165.07 USE CLASSIFICATIONS. The purpose of the Use Classifications shall be to provide a consistent set of terms encompassing and defining uses permitted or specifically permitted in the various districts, and to provide a procedure for determination of the applicable use classification of any activity not clearly within any defined use classification. In the event of any question as to the appropriate use classification of any existing or proposed use or activity, the Zoning Administrator shall have the authorization to determine the appropriate classification, subject to the right of appeal pursuant to Section 165.29. In making such determination, the Zoning Administrator shall consider the characteristics of the particular use in question, and shall consider any functional, product, service, or physical facility requirements common with or similar to uses cited as examples of use classifications.

1. General Description of Residential Use Types. Residential use types include the occupancy of living accommodations on a wholly or primarily non-transient basis but exclude institutional living arrangements involving those providing 24-hour skilled nursing or medical care and those providing forced residence, such as asylums and prisons.
   1. Single-family Residential: The use of a site for only one dwelling unit.
   2. Duplex Residential: The use of a site for two (2) dwelling units within a single building.
   3. Two-Family Residential: The use of a site for two (2) dwelling units, each in a separate building.
   4. Townhouse Residential: The use of a site for three (3) or more townhouse dwelling units, constructed with common or adjacent walls and each located on a separate ground parcel within the total development site, together with common area serving all dwelling units.
   5. Condominium Residential: The use of a site for three (3) or more dwelling units intended for separate ownership, together with common area serving all dwelling units.
   6. Multiple-Family Residential: The use of a site for three (3) or more dwelling units, within one or more buildings.
   7. Group Residential: The residential occupancy of living accommodations by groups of more than five (5) persons not defined as a family on a weekly or longer basis. Typical uses include occupancy of fraternity or sorority houses, dormitories, residence halls, or boarding houses.
      
   8. Mobile Home Residential: The residential occupancy of mobile homes by families on a weekly or longer basis. Uses only include mobile home parks or mobile home subdivisions.
2. General Description of Commercial Use Types. Commercial use types include the sale, rental, service, and distribution of goods; and the provision of services other than those classified as industrial or civic uses.
   1. Administrative and Business Offices: Office of private firms or organizations which are primarily used for the provision of executive, management, or administrative services. Typical uses include administrative offices, and services including real estate, insurance, property management, investment, personnel, travel, secretarial services, telephone answering, photocopy and reproduction, and business offices of public utilities, organizations and associations, or other use classifications when the service rendered is that customarily associated with administrative office services.
   2. Agricultural Animal Husbandry (Limited): The raising of cattle, swine, poultry, horses, sheep, goats or similar farm animals for reproductive stock or for slaughter. Such uses shall be conducted completely within enclosed structures and are regulated as provided in Chapter 455B, Code of Iowa.
   3. Agricultural Animal Husbandry (General): The raising of cattle, swine, poultry, horses, goats or similar farm animals for reproductive stock or for slaughter. Such uses are regulated as provided in Chapter 455B, Code of Iowa.
   4. Agricultural Crop Production: The growing of the usual farm crops for sale, storage or for the provision of feed.
   5. Agricultural Sales and Services: Establishments or places of business engaged in sale from the premises of feed, grain, fertilizers, pesticides and similar goods or in the provision of agriculturally related services with incidental storage on lots other than where the service is rendered. Typical uses include nurseries; hay, feed or grain stores, and tree service firms.
   6. Automotive and Equipment Services: Establishments or places of business primarily engaged in automotive-related or equipment sales or services. The following are automotive and equipment use types:
      1. Automotive Washing: Washing and cleaning of automobiles and related light equipment. Typical uses include auto laundries or car washes.
      2. Service Station: Provision of fuel, lubricants, parts and accessories, and incidental services to motor vehicles.
      3. Commercial Off-Street Parking: Parking of motor vehicles on a temporary basis within a privately owned off-street parking facility, other than accessory to a principal use. Typical uses include commercial parking lots or parking garages.
      4. Automotive Rentals: Rental of automobiles, noncommercial trucks, trailers, and recreational vehicles, including incidental parking and servicing of vehicles available for rent or lease. Typical uses include auto rental agencies, trailer rental agencies and taxi parking and dispatching.
      5. Automotive Sales: Sale or rental of automobiles, noncommercial trucks, motorcycles, motor homes, recreational vehicles or boats, including incidental storage, maintenance, and servicing. Typical uses include new or used car dealerships, motorcycle dealerships, and; boat, trailer and recreational vehicle dealerships.
      6. Equipment Sales: Sale or rental of trucks, tractors, construction equipment, agricultural implements, mobile homes, and similar heavy equipment, including incidental storage, maintenance, and servicing. Typical uses include
         truck dealerships, construction equipment dealerships, and mobile homes sales establishments.
      7. Automotive Repair Services: Repair of automobiles, noncommercial trucks, motorcycles, motor homes, recreational vehicles, or boats, including the sale, installation, and servicing of equipment and parts. Typical uses include new and used car dealerships, motorcycle dealerships; and boat, trailer and recreational vehicle dealerships.
      8. Equipment Repair Services: Repair of trucks, tractors, construction equipment, agricultural implements, and similar heavy equipment. Typical uses include truck repair garages, tractor and farm implement repair services, and machine shops, but excluding dismantling or salvage.
      9. Vehicle Storage: Long term storage of operational or non-operational vehicles. Typical uses include storage of private parking tow-aways or impound yards, but exclude dismantling or salvage.
   7. Building Maintenance Services: Establishments primarily engaged in the provision of maintenance and custodial services to firms rather than individuals. Typical uses include janitorial, landscape maintenance, or window cleaning services.
   8. Business Support Services: Establishments or places of business primarily engaged in the sale, rental or repair of equipment and supplies used by office, professional and service establishments to the firms themselves rather than to individuals, but exclude automotive, construction and farm equipment. Typical uses include office equipment and supply firms, small business machine repair shops or hotel equipment and supply firms.
   9. Business or Trade School: A use providing education or training in business, commerce, language, or other similar activity or occupational pursuit, and not otherwise defined as a home occupation, college, or university, or public or private educational facility.
   10. Cocktail Lounge: A use engaged in the preparation and retail sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, including taverns, bars, and similar uses.
   11. Commercial Recreation: Establishments or places primarily engaged in the provision of sports, entertainment, or recreation for participants or spectators. The following are commercial recreation use types.
       1. Indoor Sports and Recreation: Uses conducted within an enclosed building. Typical uses include bowling alleys, billiard parlors, ice and roller skating rinks, and arcades.
       2. Outdoor Sports and Recreation: Uses conducted in open or partially enclosed or screened facilities. Typical uses include driving ranges, miniature golf courses, golf courses, swimming pools, tennis courts, and racquetball courts.
       3. Indoor Entertainment: Predominately spectator uses conducted within an enclosed building. Typical uses include motion picture theaters, meeting halls and dance halls.
       4. Outdoor Entertainment: Predominately spectator uses conducted in open facilities. Typical uses include sports arenas, racing facilities, and amusement parks.
   12. Communication Services: Establishments primarily engaged in the provision of broadcasting and other information relay services accomplished through the use of electronic and telephonic mechanisms but excludes those classified as major utility facilities. Typical uses include television studios, telecommunication service centers or telegraph service offices.
   13. Construction Sales and Services: Establishments or places of business primarily engaged in construction activities and incidental storage on lots other than construction sites as well as the retail or wholesale, from the premises, of materials used in the construction of buildings or other structures other than retail sales of paint, fixtures and hardware; but excludes those classified as one of the automotive and equipment service use types. Typical uses include building materials stores, tool and equipment rental or sales, or building contractors.
   14. Consumer Repair Services: Establishments primarily engaged in the provision of repair services to individuals and households rather than firms, but excluding automotive and equipment use types. Typical uses include appliance repair shops, watch or jewelry repair, or musical instrument repair firms.
   15. Convenience Storage: Storage services primarily for personal effects and household goods within enclosed storage areas having individual access, but excluding use as workshops, hobby shops, manufacturing, or commercial activity. Typical uses include mini warehousing.
   16. Financial Services: Establishments primarily engaged in the provision of financial and banking services. Typical uses include banks, savings and loan institutions, loan and lending activities, and similar services.
   17. Food Sales: Establishments or places of business primarily engaged in the retail sale of food or household products for home consumption. Typical uses include groceries, delicatessens, meat markets, retail bakeries, and candy shops.
   18. Funeral Services: Establishments engaged in undertaking services such as preparing the human dead for burial and arranging and managing funerals. Typical uses include funeral homes or mortuaries.
   19. General Retail Sales: Sale or rental of commonly used goods, and merchandise for personal or household use, but excludes those classified more specifically in this section inclusive. Typical uses include department stores, apparel stores, furniture stores, or establishments providing the following products or services: household cleaning and maintenance products, drugs, cards and stationary, notions, books, tobacco products, cosmetics, and specialty items; flowers, fabrics, and like items; cameras, photography services, household electronic equipment, records, sporting equipment, kitchen utensils, home furnishing and appliances, art supplies and framing, arts and antiques, paint and wallpaper, carpeting and floor covering, interior decorating services, office supplies; bicycles; and automotive parts and accessories (excluding service and installation).
   20. Health Services: A use providing consultation, diagnosis, therapeutic, preventative, or corrective personal treatment services by doctors, dentists, medical and dental laboratories, and similar practitioners of medical and healing arts for humans, licensed for such practice by the State of Iowa.
   21. Kennels: Boarding and care services for dogs, cats and similar small animals. Typical uses include boarding kennels, pet motels, or dog training centers.
   22. Laundry Services: Establishments primarily engaged in the provision of laundering, dry cleaning or dyeing services other than those classified as Personal Services. Typical use types include bulk laundry and cleaning plants, diaper services, or linen supply services.
   23. Liquor Sales: Establishments or places of business engaged in retail sale for consumption off the premises of alcoholic beverages. Typical uses include liquor stores, bottle shops, or any licensed sales for off-site consumption.
   24. Personal Improvement Services: Establishments primarily engaged in the provision of informational, instructional, personal improvement and similar services of a non-professional nature. Typical uses include photography studios, driving schools, health or physical fitness studios, reducing salons, dance studios, handicraft and hobby instruction.
   25. Personal Services: Establishments primarily engaged in the provision of frequently or recurrently needed services of a personal nature. Typical uses include beauty and barber shops, seamstress, tailor, shoe repair shops, and self-service laundry or apparel cleaning services.
   26. Pet Services: Retail sales and grooming of dogs, cats, birds, fish, and similar small animals customarily used as household pets. Typical uses include pet stores, dog bathing and clipping salons, or pet grooming shops.
   27. Professional Office: A use providing professional or consulting services in the fields of law, architecture, design, engineering, accounting, and similar professions.
   28. Research Services: Establishments primarily engaged in research of an industrial or scientific nature but excludes product testing. Typical uses include electronics research laboratories, space research and development firms, or pharmaceutical research labs.
   29. Restaurant (Convenience): A use engaged in the preparation and retail sale of food and beverages, excluding alcoholic beverages, for on-premises consumption. Typical uses
       include soda fountains, ice cream parlors, sandwich shops, cafes, and coffee shops.
   30. Restaurant (General): A use engaged in the preparation and retail sale of food and beverages, including sale of alcoholic beverages when conducted as an accessory or secondary feature and producing less than 50 percent of the gross income. A general restaurant may include live entertainment. Typical uses include restaurants, coffee shops, dinner houses and similar establishments with incidental alcoholic beverage service.
   31. Riding Academy: A use engaged in the provision of equestrian riding lessons, stables for the quartering of horses. Typical uses include saddle clubs, riding stables or liveries.
   32. Scrap and Salvage Services: Places of business primarily engaged in the storage, sale, dismantling or other processing of used or waste materials which are not intended for reuse in their original forms. Typical uses include automotive wrecking yards, junk yards or paper salvage yards.
       
   33. Veterinary Services: Veterinary services for animals. Typical uses include pet clinics, dog and cat hospitals, and veterinary hospitals.
   34. Visitor Habitation: Establishments primarily engaged in the provision of lodging services on a less-than-weekly basis with incidental food, drink and other sales and services intended for the convenience of guests. The following are visitor habitation use types:
       1. Campground: Campground facilities providing camping or parking areas and incidental services for travelers in recreational vehicles or tents. Typical uses include recreational vehicle parks.
       2. Hotel / Motel: Lodging services involving the provision of room and/or board. Typical uses include hotels, motels or transient boarding houses.
3. General Description of Industrial Use Types. Industrial use types include the on-site extraction or production of goods by non-agricultural methods, and storage and distribution of products.
   1. Basic Industry: A use engaged in the basic processing and manufacturing of materials or products predominately from extracted or raw materials, or a use engaged in storage of, or manufacturing processes utilizing flammable or explosive materials, or storage or manufacturing processes which potentially involve hazardous or commonly recognized offensive conditions.
   2. Custom Manufacturing: Establishments primarily engaged in the on-site production of goods by hand manufacturing which involve only the use of hand tools or domestic mechanical equipment not exceeding two (2) horsepower or a single kiln not exceeding eight (8) kilowatts and the incidental direct sale to consumers of only those goods produced on-site. Typical uses include ceramic studios, candle making shops or custom jewelry.
   3. Light Manufacturing: A use engaged in the manufacture, predominately from previously prepared materials, of finished products or parts, including processing, fabrication, assembly, treatment, and packaging of such products, and incidental storage, sales, and distribution of such products, but excluding basic industrial processing.
   4. Resource Extraction: A use involving the on-site extraction of surface mineral products or natural resources. Typical extractive uses are quarries, borrow pits, sand and gravel operations, oil and gas extraction, and mining operations.
   5. Stockyards: Stockyard services involve the temporary keeping of livestock for slaughter, market or shipping. Typical uses include stockyards or animal sales and auction yards.
   6. Warehousing and Distribution: Establishments or places of business primarily engaged in wholesaling, storage, distribution and handling of materials and equipment other than live animals and plants. The following are wholesaling, storage and distribution types:
      1. Limited Warehousing and Distribution: Wholesaling, storage and warehousing services within enclosed structures. Typical uses include wholesale distributors, storage warehouses or moving and storage firms.
      2. General Warehousing and Distribution: Open-air storage, distribution and handling of materials and equipment. Typical uses include monument or stone yards, grain elevators or open storage yards.
4. General Description of Civic Use Types. Civic use types include the performance of utility, educational, recreational, cultural, medical, protective, governmental, and other uses which are strongly vested with public or social importance.
   1. Administrative Services: Offices, administrative, clerical or public contact services that deal directly with the citizens, together with incidental storage and maintenance of necessary vehicles. Typical uses include Federal, State, County or City offices.
   2. Aviation Facilities: Landing fields, aircraft parking and service facilities, and related facilities for operation, service, fueling, repair, storage, charter, sales, and rental of aircraft, and including activities directly associated with the operation and maintenance of airport facilities and the provision of safety and security.
   3. Cemetery: Land used or intended to be used for the burial of the dead and dedicated for cemetery purposes, including columbariums, crematoriums, mausoleums and mortuaries when operated in conjunction with and within the boundary of such cemetery.
   4. Club or Lodge: A use providing meeting, recreational, or social facilities for a private or non-profit association, primarily for use by members and guests. Typical uses include private social clubs and fraternal organizations.
   5. College and University Facilities: An educational institution of higher learning which offers course of study designed to culminate in the issuance of a degree.
   6. Community Recreation: A recreational facility for use by residents and guests of a particular residential development, planned unit development or limited residential neighborhood, including both indoor and outdoor facilities.
   7. Convalescent Services: A use providing bed care and in-patient services for persons requiring regular medical attention, but excluding a facility providing surgical or emergency medical services, and excluding a facility providing care of alcoholism, drug addiction, mental disease, or communicable disease.
   8. Cultural Services: A library, museum, art gallery, or similar non-profit use affording display, preservation and exhibition of objects of permanent interest in one or more of the arts and sciences.
   9. Day Care Services (Limited): A facility, or use of a building or portion thereof, for the care of six (6) or fewer individuals. This term includes nursery schools, pre-schools, day care centers for children or adults, and similar uses.
   10. Day Care Services (General): A facility, or use of a dwelling unit or portion thereof, for the care of seven (7) or more individuals. This term includes nursery schools, pre-schools, day care centers for children or adults, and similar uses. General day care facilities shall be registered as required by Chapter 237A of the Code of Iowa. Proof of said registration shall be provided before a zoning compliance permit may be issued.
   11. Detention Facilities: A publicly operated use providing housing and care for individuals confined by law.
   12. Game Refuge: A use of land providing natural habitat for animal and plant species. Typical uses include prairies, marshes, woodlands, and wetlands.
   13. Guidance Services: A use providing counseling, guidance, recuperative, vocational, or similar services to persons requiring rehabilitation assistance as a result of mental illness, alcoholism, detention, drug addiction, or similar condition, either on a residential or daytime care basis.
   14. Hospital Services: A facility providing medical, psychiatric, or surgical services for sick or injured persons primarily on an in-patient basis, and including ancillary facilities for out-patient and emergency treatment, diagnostic services, training, research, administration, and services to patients, employees, or visitors.
   15. Local Utility Services: Services which are necessary to support principal development and involve only minor structures such as lines, poles, transformers, control devices and junction boxes which are necessary to support principal development.
   16. Maintenance and Service Facilities: A facility supporting maintenance, repair, vehicular or equipment servicing, materials storage, and similar activities, including corporation yards, equipment service centers, and similar uses having characteristics of commercial services or contracting or industrial activities.
   17. Major Utility Facilities: Generating plants, electrical switching facilities and primary substations, refuse collection or disposal facilities, water and wastewater treatment plants, and similar facilities of public agencies or public utility firms having potentially significant impact upon surrounding uses.
   18. Military Installations: Military facilities of the Federal or State governments.
   19. Park and Recreation Services: Publicly owned and operated parks, playgrounds, recreation areas or open spaces.
   20. Postal Facilities: Postal services, including post offices, bulk mail processing or sorting centers, operated by the United States Postal Service.
   21. Primary Educational Facilities: A public, private or parochial school offering instruction at the elementary school level in the branches of learning and study required to be taught in the public schools in the State of Iowa.
   22. Public Assembly: Publicly owned and operated facilities for major public assembly, recreation, sports, amusement or entertainment, including civic or community auditoriums, sports stadiums, convention facilities, fairgrounds, and exhibition facilities.
   23. Railroad Facilities: Railroad yards, equipment servicing facilities, and terminal facilities.
   24. Religious Assembly: A use located in a permanent building and providing regular organized religious worship and religious education incidental thereto, but excluding primary or secondary educational facilities.
   25. Residential Care Services: A use, other than a hospital or convalescent facility, providing care for ambulatory persons in a residential environment, including over-night occupancy or care for extended periods of time.
   26. Safety Services: Facilities for conduct of public safety and emergency services, including police and fire protection services and emergency medical and ambulance services.
   27. Sanitary Landfill: A disposal project where garbage, refuse, rubbish, and other similar discarded solid or semisolid materials are buried between layers of earth.
   28. Secondary Educational Facilities: A public, private, or parochial school offering instruction at the junior and senior high school levels in the branches of learning and study required to be taught in the public schools of the State of Iowa.
   29. Transportation Terminals: A facility for loading, unloading, and interchange of passengers, baggage, and incidental freight or package express between modes of transportation, including bus terminals, railroad depots, airport terminals, and public transit facilities.