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Undevelopable Area. An area that cannot be used practicably for a habitable structure because of natural conditions, such as slopes exceeding 20%; severe topographic relief; water bodies; or conditions that isolate one portion of a property under another portion so that access is not practicable to the unbuildable portion. Undevelopable area also includes man-made conditions such as existing development restrictions that prohibit development of a given area of a lot by law or private agreement; or existence or absence of easements or access rights that prevent development of a given area.

Undeveloped. Regarding the Tree Conservation Ordinance, a parcel of land on which no buildings or other facilities are located and which is to remain without improvements for a period of six years.

Uniform Plumbing Code. The current version of the Uniform Plumbing Code as adopted by the City of Vancouver at the time construction commences.

Urban Area. For the purposes of 20.775 VMC, Wetlands and Water Bodies Protection, urban area means the area within the Vancouver urban growth boundary.

Urban Forestry. The art and science of planning, managing, and protecting natural and planted vegetation in urban areas.

Urban Growth Boundary. The boundary of an urban growth area designated in the Clark County Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

Use. An activity or purpose for which land or premises or a building thereon is designed, arranged or intended, or for which it is occupied or maintained, let or leased.

Utility Facilities. All physical facilities necessary for the provision of the following services:

1. Sewer;

2. Water;

3. Electricity;

4. Natural gas;

5. Telephone;

6. Cable television;

7. Storm drainage; and

8. Transportation.

Utility Facilities, Essential. Those facilities which are necessary to support principal development and involve only minor structures such as:

1. Overhead lines and poles;

2. Underground lines and pipes;

3. Transformers and regulator stations; and

4. Private, on-site facilities such as septic tanks and wells.

Utility Facilities, Major. Those facilities which have a substantial public impact, including but not limited to:

1. Administrative offices and operation centers;

2. Sewage treatment plants and lagoons;

3. Electric generation facilities including biomass generating facilities; and

4. Essential public facilities as defined in Chapter 20.855 VMC, Essential Public Facilities.

Utility Facilities, Minor. Those facilities which have a local impact on surrounding properties and are necessary to provide essential services such as:

1. Transmission and distribution substations;

2. Pump stations;

3. Water towers and reservoirs;

4. Public wells;

5. Outfalls;

6. Telephone switching facilities;

7. Cable television receiver and transmission facilities, excluding wireless communications facilities as defined in Chapter 20.890 VMC Wireless Communications Facilities;

8. Catch basins, retention ponds and related facilities; and

9. Water treatment facilities.

Variance. An administrative or quasi-judicial decision to lessen or otherwise modify the requirements of the development code.

Vehicle, Accessory Recreational. A vehicle with or without motive power, which is designed for sport or recreational use or which is designed for human occupancy on an intermittent basis such as vacation trailers and fifth-wheel trailers. A camper is considered an accessory recreation vehicle when it is standing alone. A recreational vehicle also includes vehicles designed for off-road use:

1. Off-road vehicles;

2. Dune buggies; and

3. Recreational boats.

Vehicle, Commercial. Any vehicle the principal use of which is the transportation of commodities, merchandise, produce, freight, animals, or passengers for hire. (Per RCW 46.04.140)

Vehicle, Featured Display (Auto Dealership Plan District). Featured Vehicle Display is the "showcasing" of motor vehicles outdoors within the plan district.

Vehicle, Motor. Vehicles that have their own motive power and are used for the transportation of people or goods on streets. Motor vehicle includes motorcycles, passenger vehicles, trucks, and recreational vehicles with motive power.

Vehicle, Passenger. A motor vehicle designed to carry ten persons or fewer including the driver. Passenger vehicle also includes motor vehicles designed to carry ten persons or fewer that are constructed on a truck chassis or with special features for occasional use. Passenger vehicles include cars, minivans, passenger vans, and jeeps. Passenger vehicle is intended to cover the vehicles identified as passenger cars and multi-purpose passenger vehicles by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter V, Section 571.3. See also Recreational Vehicle and Truck.

Vesting. A legal right of applicants to have their development application reviewed under the regulations in effect as of a certain date when the application has met certain timing and completeness requirements. For example, an application determined by the Review Authority to be fully complete is vested under the regulations in effect at the time of such determination, regardless of subsequent changes to development regulations.

Vesting, Contingent. A legal right of applicants to have their fully complete development application, when submitted within 180 days of the pre-application conference, reviewed under the development regulations, not including fees, in effect at the time of the pre-application conference.

Vision Clearance Triangle. An area, typically triangular in shape adjacent to a driveway or at a property corner where two streets (or an alley and street) intersect, that must be maintained clear of visual obstructions to provide visibility to motorists and pedestrians.

Visual Obstruction. An obstruction of vision through landscaping, structure or device in those areas near intersections of roadways and motor vehicle access points where a clear field of vision is necessary for traffic safety.

Walkway. A facility for pedestrian use to or through a parcel for the general public which may or may not be adjacent to the street. Walkways may differ from sidewalks in standards, alignment, shape, location, construction materials, and overall installation.

Washington Heritage Register. The state listing of properties that are significant to the community, state or nation, but which do not meet the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places [Ord. M-3243, 2 (part), M-1996].

Wastewater Facility. In Chapter 14.12.020 VMC, Water and Sewer Facilities, the City of Vancouver’s industrial wastewater collection system and industrial wastewater pretreatment facility constructed in 1979, and sometimes known as the pretreatment lagoon.

Water-dependent. A use or portion of a use that requires direct contact with the water and cannot exist at a nonwater location due to the intrinsic nature of its operations. Also see the Vancouver Shoreline Management Master Program.

Water-enjoyment. A use or activity which facilitates or provides public access to the shoreline, and through its location, design, and operation assures the public’s ability to enjoy the physical and aesthetic qualities of the shoreline. A water-enjoyment use or activity must be open to the general public, and space within it must be devoted to fostering public enjoyment of the shoreline. Parks, piers, restaurants, trails, promenades, museums, aquariums, reserves, and resorts are examples of water-enjoyment uses and activities. Also see the Vancouver Shoreline Management Master Program.

Water-related. A use or activity which must be located close to the land/water interface to support a water-dependent use or activity either by its own operation or by the provision of the services it houses. The economic viability of a water-related use or activity is dependent on a location near the waterfront. Warehousing of goods transported by water, seafood processing plants, hydroelectric generating plants, and log storage are examples of water-related uses or activities. Also see the Vancouver Shoreline Management Master Program.

Watershed. A topographically delineated area draining to a single surface water system as identified and mapped by Clark County Public Works.

Weekday. Any day of the week except Saturday, Sunday, and legal holidays.

Wetland. An area that is inundated or saturated by surface or ground water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances does support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs, and similar areas. Wetlands do not include those artificial wetlands intentionally created (but not as mitigation for impacts to wetlands) from nonwetland sites, including, but not limited to irrigation and drainage ditches, grass-lined swales, canals, detention facilities, wastewater treatment facilities, farm ponds, and landscape amenities or those wetlands created after July 1990 that were unintentionally created as a result of the construction of a road, street or highway. Wetlands shall include those artificial wetlands intentionally created from nonwetland areas to mitigate conversion of wetlands.

Wetland Buffer. An area that surrounds and protects a wetland from adverse impacts to the functions and values of a regulated wetland.

Wetland Creation. The manipulation of the physical, chemical or biological characteristics present to develop a wetland on an upland or deepwater site where a biological wetland did not previously exist. Activities typically involve excavation of upland soils to elevations that will produce a wetland hydroperiod, hydric soils, and support the growth of hydrophytic plant species. Creation results in a gain in wetland acres and functions.

Wetland Enhancement. The manipulation of the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of a biological wetland to increase or improve specific functions or to change the growth stage or composition of the vegetation present. Enhancement is undertaken for specified purposes such as water quality improvement, flood water retention or wildlife habitat. Activities typically consist of planting vegetation, controlling nonnative or invasive species, modifying site elevations to result in open water ponds or some combination of these. Enhancement results in a change in certain wetland functions and can lead to a decline in other wetland functions. It does not result in a gain in wetland acres.

Wetland Re-establishment. The manipulation of the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of a site with the goal of returning natural or historic functions to a former wetland. Activities could include removing fill material, plugging ditches or breaking drain tiles. Re-establishment results in a gain in wetland acres and functions.

Wetland Rehabilitation. The manipulation of the physical, chemical or biological characteristics of a site with the goal of repairing natural or historic functions, and processes of a degraded wetland. Activities could involve breaching a dike to reconnect wetlands to a floodplain, restoring tidal influence to a wetland or breaking drain tiles and plugging drainage ditches. Rehabilitation results in a gain in wetland functions but not in wetland acres.

Wetland, Scrub-shrub. A wetland with at least 30 percent of its surface area covered by woody vegetation less than 20 feet in height as the uppermost strata.

Wetlands Delineation Manual. Approved federal wetland delineation manual and applicable regional supplements.

Wind-firm. A tree which has a high probability of withstanding windstorms.

Wireless Communications Facilities. The site, wireless communications support structures, antennae, accessory equipment structures, and appurtenances used to transmit, receive, distribute, provide or offer wireless telecommunications services. Wireless communications facilities include, but are not limited to, antennae, poles, towers, cables, wires, conduits, ducts, pedestals, vaults, buildings, electronic, and switching equipment.

Wireless Communications Support Structures. A structure erected to support wireless communications antennas and connecting appurtenances. Wireless communications support structures may include, but are not limited to lattice tower, monopoles, and guyed towers.

Wireless Communications Systems. The sending and receiving of radio frequency transmissions and the connection and/or relaying of these signals to land lines and other sending and receiving stations (cell sites), and including, but not limited to cellular radiotelephone, personal communications services (PCS), enhanced/specialized mobile radio (ESMR), commercial paging services, and any other technology which provides similar services.

Writing, Written or In Writing. These terms refer to original signed and dated documents. Facsimile (fax) transmissions are a temporary notice of action that must be followed via mail or delivery of the original and dated document.

Yard. Any open space on the same lot with a building or a dwelling group, which open space is unoccupied and unobstructed by any structure from the ground upward to the sky. Required setback areas shall be considered yards as defined herein.

Yard, Front. An open space defined by setbacks extending the full width of the lot between a setback line and the front lot line, unoccupied, and unobstructed from the ground upward, except as specified elsewhere in this title.

Yard, Rear. An open space defined by setbacks extending the full width of the lot between a setback line and the rear lot line, unoccupied, and unobstructed from the ground upward, except as specified elsewhere in this title.

Yard, Side. An open space defined by setbacks extending from the front yard to the rear yard between a setback line and the nearest side lot line, unoccupied, and unobstructed from the ground upward, except as specified elsewhere in this title.

Yard, Street Side. On corner lots where two streets intersect, an open space defined by setbacks extending from the front lot line to the rear lot line, along the side of the lot which fronts on a street and between the setback line and side street lot line, unoccupied, and unobstructed from the ground upward, except as specified in this title.

Zoning District. A geographic area which corresponds to a comprehensive plan designation and which specifies allowed and conditionally allowed uses and applicable standards for development within the district. Also referred to as Zone or District. (Ord. M-4380 § 4, 2022; Ord. M-4179 § 66, 2016; Ord. M-4176 § 4, 2016; Ord. M-4034 § 2, 2012)