General provision
(a) All words used in the present tense include the future tense. All words in the plural number include the singular number and all words in the singular number include the plural number, unless the natural construction of the wording indicates otherwise. The word “building” includes the word “structure”. The word “lot” includes the word “plot”. The word “shall” is mandatory and not directory. The word “used” shall be deemed also to include “designed, intended, or arranged to be used”. Unless otherwise specified, all distances shall be measured horizontally.
Specific provisions
(b) As used in this subchapter, unless the context otherwise requires, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings assigned them herein:
(1) Accessory building. A subordinate building or a portion of a main building, the use of which is incidental to that of the main building and which is located on the same lot as the main building.
(2) Accessory building (residential). A subordinate building attached to or detached from the main building and used for purposes customarily incidental to the residential occupancy of the main building and not involving the conduct of a business or the sale of a service. Accessory buildings include but are not limited to an automobile storage garage, laundry room, garden shelter, hobby room and mechanical room.
(3) Accessory use. A use of land or a portion of the building customarily incidental to the actual principal use of the land or building and located on the same parcel of property with such principal use.
(3A) “Affordable housing” means, with respect to living accommodations, a dwelling unit for which a household pays, with regard to a unit for sale, not more than the “applicable percentage” (determined by the VIHFA) of gross income for mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance and homeowners association fee, if any, and, with regard to a rental unit, not more than the “applicable percentage” of gross income for all shelter costs including utilities. The “applicable percentage” for purposes of this definition may be established by the VIHFA in a manner consistent with the various Federal housing programs designed to assist low and moderate income households.
(3B) “Affordable housing development agreement” means one or more agreements executed between and among an Applicant for a development permit for affordable housing, the VIHFA and the Zoning Administrator providing for development of affordable housing units in accordance with an affordable housing development plan.
(3C) “Affordable housing development plan” means a plan submitted to the VIHFA, the Authority, the Legislature and the zoning Administrator in connection with a request for a development permit for affordable housing.
(3D) “Affordable housing program” or “Program” means the Government's program adopted pursuant to the Low and Moderate Income Affordable Housing Act of 1990, as from time to time amended, to facilitate development of affordable housing in the United States Virgin Islands.
(3E) “Authority” means the Public Finance Authority of the United States Virgin Islands.
(3F) VIHFA means the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority as created by section 103 of Title 21, Virgin Islands Code.
(4) Agricultural processing plant. A facility designed for the primary or complete processing of agricultural products which, by reason of bulk or perishable nature or both, should reasonably be processed close to the point of origin, but not including commercial slaughtering of animals or rum distillation.
(5) Agricultural use. Cultivation of the ground, including harvesting crops and rearing and management of livestock; tillage; husbandry; farming; horticulture and forestry.
(6) Alley. A passage or way open to public travel, affording a secondary means of access to abutting property, but not generally intended for general traffic circulation.
(7) Alterations. Any change, addition, or modification or type of occupancy; any change in the structural members of a building such as walls, partitions, columns, beams, girders; or any change which may be referred to herein as “altered” or “reconstructed”.
(8) Amusement parks, children's. A group of not more than a total of twelve (12) amusement devices for children only, including pony rings, and their accessory uses, located on a plot of ground with an area of not over three (3) acres, which area shall include provisions for off-street parking.
(9) Apartment. A room or suite of rooms, within an apartment house or apartment hotel, used as a dwelling unit for one family with facilities which are used or intended to be used for living, sleeping, and cooking.
(10) Apartment hotel. An apartment house which furnishes services for the use of its tenants which are ordinarily furnished by hotels, but the privileges of which are not primarily available to the public.
(11) Apartment house. Any building or part thereof, occupied, or intended to be occupied as the residence of more than four (4) families living independently of each other and each with facilities which are used or intended to be used for living, sleeping, and cooking in said building.
(12) Automobile laundry. A building, or portion thereof, containing facilities for washing automobiles utilizing mechanical devices.
(13) Automobile service station. A building or structure designed or used for the retail sale or supply of fuels (stored only as prescribed by existing legal regulations), lubricants, air, water and other operating commodities for motor vehicles, aircraft, or boats and including the customary space and facilities for the installation of such commodities on or in such vehicles, and including space for facilities for the storage, minor repair or servicing but not including bumping, body repair, painting, refinishing, steam cleaning and rust proofing where the primary use of the premises is such, or high speed washing thereof.
(14) Auto wrecking. The collecting and dismantling or wrecking of used motor vehicles or trailers, or the storage, sale or dumping of dismantled, partially dismantled, obsolete or wrecked motor vehicles or their parts.
(15) Basement. A story partly underground and having at least one-half (½) of its height above ground.
(16) Block. The property abutting one side of a street and lying between the two (2) nearest intersecting streets, or between the nearest such street and unsubdivided acreage, watercourse or body of water; or between any of the foregoing and any other barrier to the continuity of development.
(17) Boarding house. A dwelling where meals or lodging and meals are provided for compensation to five (5) or more persons by pre-arrangement for definite periods. A boarding house is to be distinguished from a hotel.
(18) Buildable area. The buildable area of a lot is the space remaining after the minimum open space requirements of this subchapter have been complied with.
(19) Building. Any structure having a roof, supported by columns or by walls and intended for the shelter, housing or enclosure of any person, animal or goods. When any portion thereof is completely separated from every other portion by masonry or a fire wall without any window, which wall extends from the ground to the roof, then such portion shall be deemed to be a separate building.
(20) Building, principal. A building in which is conducted the principal use of the lot on which it is situated.
(21) Building line. A line established, in general parallel to the front street line between which and the front street line no part of a building shall project, except as otherwise provided in this chapter.
(22) Carport. Space for the housing or storage of motor vehicles and enclosed on not more than (2) sides by walls.
(23) Car wash. See “Automobile laundry”.
(24) Cay. A small off-shore island.
(24A) Cellar. A portion of a building having more than one-half (½) of its height below ground.
(25B) Channel, drainage. A large natural or constructed waterway, ordinarily lined to speed, control, and conduct the flow of water (not to be confused with a sea or bay channel).
(26) Clubhouse. A building to house a club or social organization not conducted for private profit and which is not an adjunct to or operated by or in connection with the public tavern, cafe or other public place.
(27) Condominium. A form of ownership of property usually where the purchaser acquires title to a part of a building and/or a portion of land, and undivided interest in the common areas and facilities, as distinguished from a cooperative where the purchaser usually acquires stock which represents his interest in the property. Where the building so acquired consists of bedrooms with individual baths or combined bedrooms and living rooms with individual baths and/or has separate entrances for each unit, each unit shall be considered a separate dwelling unit or a separate hotel room for the purposes of this subchapter.
(28) Conversion. Change of use or purpose to which a structure or building is put.
(29) Density. The number of persons residing on, or family units developed on an acre of land.
In determining the number of persons occupying a particular unit, the following table of persons per unit shall be used:| Efficiency apartment | one and one-half | (1½) persons |
| 1 bedroom apartment | two | (2) persons |
| 2 bedroom apartment | three | (3) persons |
| 3 or more bedrooms | four | (4) persons |
| Hotel rooms | one and one-half | (1 ½) persons |
(30) District, zoning. A portion of the Islands of St. Thomas, St. Croix or St. John and all other properties within the jurisdiction of the Virgin Islands within which, on a uniform basis, certain uses of land and buildings are permitted and certain other uses of land and buildings are prohibited as set forth in this subchapter, or within which certain yards and other open spaces are required or within which certain lot areas are established, or within which a combination of such aforesaid conditions are applied.
(31) Drive-in establishment. A business establishment so developed that its principal retail or service character is dependent on providing a driveway approach or parking spaces for motor vehicles so as to either serve patrons while in the motor vehicle or else intended to permit consumption in the motor vehicle of food or beverages obtained by a patron from said business establishment. (Restaurants, cleaners, banks, theaters, etc.)
(32) Dwelling. A building occupied or intended to be occupied exclusively for residence purposes by not more than four (4) families.
(33) Dwelling, attached. A dwelling having any portion of each of two walls in common with adjoining dwellings.
(34) Dwelling, detached. A dwelling which is entirely surrounded by open space on the same lot.
(35) Dwelling, group. A group of two (2) or more detached or semi-detached one-family, two-family or multiple dwellings, occupying a parcel of land in common ownership and having yards or courts in common.
(36) Dwelling, multiple. A building or portion thereof, used or designed as a residence for three (3) or more families living independently of each other and each with facilities which are used or intended to be used for living, sleeping, and cooking in said building. This definition includes apartment houses but does not include hotels, automobile courts, trailers or mobile home camps or parks or tourist camps.
(37) Dwelling, row. A row of three (3) or more attached single family dwellings not more than two and one-half (2 ½) stories in height.
(38) Dwelling, semi-detached. A dwelling having any portion of one wall in common with an adjoining dwelling.
(39) Dwelling, single family. A detached building designed for or occupied exclusively by one (1) family.
(40) Dwelling, two-family. A detached building, designed for or occupied exclusively by two (2) families living independently of each other.
(41) Dwelling unit. Any room or group of rooms located within a dwelling and forming a single habitable unit with facilities which are used or intended to be used for living, sleeping, and cooking.
(42) Efficiency dwelling unit. A dwelling unit consisting of one (1) room exclusive of bathroom, kitchen, hallway, closets, or dining alcove whether or not directly off the principal room.
(43) Erected. The word “erected” includes built, constructed, reconstructed, moved upon, or any physical operations on the premises required for the building. Excavations, fill, drainage, paving and the like shall be considered a part of erection.
(44) Essential services. The erection, construction, alteration, or maintenance by public utilities, or government departments and agencies of underground, surface or overhead gas, communication, electrical, steam, fuel or water transmission or distribution systems, collection, supply, or disposal systems, including towers, poles, wires, mains, drains, sewers, pipes, conduits, cables, fire alarm and police call boxes, traffic signals, hydrants and similar accessories in connection therewith, but not including buildings which are necessary for the furnishing of adequate service by such utilities or municipal departments for the general public health, safety, convenience and welfare.
(45) Family. One (1) person or group of two (2) or more persons living together and inter-related by bonds of kinship, marriage, mutual consent, or legal adoption, occupying the whole or part of a dwelling as a separate housekeeping unit with a common set of cooking facilities. The persons thus constituting a family may also include foster children, gratuitous guests and domestic servants.
(46) Floor area. The floor area of a building or buildings is the sum of the gross horizontal areas of the several floors of all buildings on the lot, measured from the exterior faces of exterior walls or from the center line of walls separating two buildings. Floor area shall include the area of basements when used for residential, commercial or industrial purposes but need not include a basement or portion of a basement used for storage or housing of mechanical equipment or the basement apartment of a custodian in a multi-family dwelling, except that portion of said custodian's dwelling unit which is in excess of fifty (50) percent of the total basement area.
(47) Floor area, usable. Any floor area within outside walls of a residential building exclusive of areas in cellars, basements, unfinished attics, garages, open porches and accessory buildings.
(48) Floor area ratio (F.A.R.). The “floor area ratio” of the building or buildings on any zoning lot is the floor area of the building or buildings on that zoning lot divided by the area of such lot, or in the case of planned developments, by the net size area. Where off-street parking is provided in the principal building or in a building on a lot across a street or alley from the principal building, the area of the lot upon which such building providing off-street parking is provided may be included in determining the permitted floor area of the principal building. Space provided within a building for off-street parking shall not be counted in determining the floor area of such building.
(49) Gade. The Danish name for street.
(50) Garage, community. A garage used for the storage of vehicles for occupants of lots in the same or adjacent block or blocks, and providing only incidental services to such vehicles as are stored therein.
(51) Garage, private. An accessory building used only for the storage of self-propelled vehicles for the use of occupants of a lot on which such building is located with a capacity of not more than three (3) motor driven vehicles. The foregoing definition shall be construed to permit the storage on any one (1) lot within such garage, for the occupants thereof, of not more than one (1) commercial vehicle. Not more than one (1) space may be rented for a passenger vehicle.
(52) Garage, public. Any premises except those described as a private or community garage, used principally for the storage of automobiles, cars or motor driven vehicles, for remuneration, hire or sale, where any such vehicle may also be equipped for operation or repaired.
(53) Grade. The established grade of the street or sidewalk as prescribed by the Department of Planning and Natural Resources. Where no such grade has been established, the grade shall be the average elevation of the sidewalk at the property line. Where no sidewalk exists, the grade shall be the average elevation of the street adjacent to the property line.
(54) Guesthouse. See “Hotel & guesthouses”.
(55A) Gut. A natural or constructed waterway or any permanent or intermittent stream.
(55B) Gutter. A constructed waterway, usually along a street curb, to collect and conduct street surface water.
(55C) Height of building. The vertical distance from the established grade of the center of the front of the building to the highest point of the roof surface of a flat roof, to the deck line for a mansard roof, to the mean height level between the eaves and ridge for hip, gabled and gambrel roofs.
(56) Home occupation. Any use customarily conducted entirely within the dwelling and carried on by the inhabitants thereof which use is clearly incidental and secondary to the use of the dwelling for dwelling purposes and does not change the character thereof, including consultation by such professionals as a physician, dentist, lawyer, architect, engineer or clergyman, and excluding such uses as a real estate broker, tea rooms, cafes, and animal hospital. A home occupation will not display or advertise any commodity or service for sale on the premises, nor will it involve the employment of more than one person other than a member of the immediate household.
(57) Hotels & guesthouses. Any building containing more than five (5) guest rooms used, or intended to be used, rented or hired out to be occupied or which are occupied for sleeping purposes by guests, whether rent is paid in money, goods, labor or otherwise. It does not include buildings in which sleeping accommodations are provided for persons who are harbored or detained to receive medical, charitable or other care or treatment or provided for persons who are involuntarily detained under legal restraint.
(58) Junkyard. A lot, land or structure, or part thereof, used primarily for the collecting, temporary storage and sale of waste paper, rags, scrap metal or discarded metal, other than used building materials.
(59) Laboratory. A place devoted to experimental study such as testing and analyzing. Manufacturing of product or products is not permitted within this definition.
(60) Loading space. An off-street space on the same lot with a building or group of buildings for temporary parking for a commercial vehicle while loading and unloading merchandise or materials.
(61) Lodging house. A “lodging house” or rooming house is a building other than a hotel where lodging is provided for five (5) or more persons for compensation pursuant to previous arrangements but not open to the public or transients and meals and drinks are not served.
(62) Lot. A plot, parcel or tract of land occupied or proposed to be occupied by a building and the accessory building or uses customarily incident to it, including at least such open spaces as are required by this subchapter and such open spaces as are arranged and designed to be used in connection with such building and having its principal frontage on a street or place or with access thereto.
(63) Lot, corner. A lot located at the intersection of two (2) streets or a lot bounded on two (2) sides by a curving street and any two (2) chords of which form an angle of one hundred twenty (120 degrees) degrees or less. The point of intersection of the street lot lines is the “corner”. In the case of a corner lot with curved street lines, the corner is that point on the street lot line nearest to the point of intersection of the tangents described above.
(64) Lot, interior. A lot other than a corner lot. Any portion of a corner lot more than one hundred fifty (150) feet from the “corner” measured along a front street lot line shall be considered an interior lot.
(65) Lot, through. An interior lot having frontages on two (2) streets as distinguished from a corner lot.
(66) Lot, zoning. A “zoning lot or lots” is a single tract of land located within a single block which (at the time of filing for a building permit) is designated by its owner or developer as a tract to be used, developed or built upon as a unit under single ownership or control. A “zoning lot or lots” may or may not coincide with a lot of record.
(67) Lot coverage. The part or percent of the lot occupied by buildings or structures, including accessory buildings or structures.
(68) Lot line, front. In the case of a lot abutting upon one street, the front lot line shall mean the line separating such lot from such street. In the case of any other lot, the owner shall, for the purpose of this subchapter, have the privilege of electing any street lot line as the front lot line, providing that such choice in the opinion of the Zoning Administrator will not be injurious to the existing or to the desirable future development of adjacent properties.
(69) Lot line, rear. Ordinarily, that lot line which is opposite and most distant from the front lot line of the lot. In the case of an irregular, triangular or gore shaped lot, a line ten (10) feet in length entirely within the lot, parallel to and at the maximum distance from the front lot line of the lot shall be considered to be the rear lot line for the purpose of determining depth of rear yard. In cases where none of these definitions are applicable, the Zoning Administrator shall designate the rear lot line.
(70) Lot width. The mean horizontal distance between the side lines, measured at right angles to the side lot line. Where side lot lines are not parallel, the lot size shall be considered as the average width between such side lot lines.
(71) Mobile home. Any dwelling, trailer or unit designed and constructed for living or sleeping purposes which is equipped with wheels or similar devices for the purpose of transporting the unit, and such unit shall be considered a mobile home whether or not the wheels have since been removed and whether or not ultimately set on jacks, masonry blocks or other foundation, with or without skirtings.
(72) Mobile home park. Any place, area or tract of land maintained, offered or used for the parking of three (3) or more mobile homes used or intended to be used for living or sleeping purposes.
(73) Mobile home space. That portion of land in a mobile home park allotted or designed for accommodation of one (1) mobile home.
(74) Night club. An establishment which has a capacity for at least thirty (30) persons seated at tables and the bar, and which employs a bartender and which maintains table service and dancing and/or other live entertainment for the guests.
(75) Nonconforming use. Any use of land or building which does not conform at the time of the adoption of this subchapter to the use regulations for the district in which it is situated.
(76) Nursing home, rest home or convalescent home. A private home for the care of five (5) or more children, aged or infirm persons, or a place of rest for those suffering bodily disorders. Such home does not contain equipment for surgical care or for the treatment of injury.
(77) Open space, usable landscaped. Usable landscaped open space shall consist of that space on the same lot as the principal building which is either landscaped with shrubs or planted with grass and excludes that portion of the lot which is utilized for off-street parking purposes.
(78) Parking space. An area of not less than eight and one-half (8 ½) feet by eighteen (18) feet long for compact automobiles or motor vehicles or nine (9) feet wide by eighteen (18) feet long for each mid-size or larger automobile or motor vehicle for each automobile or motor vehicle, such space being exclusive of necessary drivers, aisles, entrances, or exits and being fully accessible for the storage of parking or permitted vehicles.
(79) Planned area development. A tract of land which is developed as a unit under single ownership or control, which includes two (2) or more principal buildings, and which is at least five (5) acres in area.
(80) Public utility. Any person, firm, corporation, governmental department or board, duly authorized to furnish under government regulations to the public, electricity, gas, communications, transportation or water.
(81) Rooming house. See “Lodging house”.
(82) Rooming unit. Any room or group of rooms forming a single habitable unit used or intended to be used for living and sleeping, but not for cooking or eating purposes.
(83) Quarrying and associated activities. Operations which primarily involve surface mining or quarrying of non-metallic minerals such as dimension stone, crushed and broken stone, including riprap, and sand and gravel pits. Well operations and primary preparation plants of quarried material for construction and other special uses are also included.
(84) Sign. Anything whatsoever placed, erected, constructed, posted, affixed in any manner whatsoever on the ground or to any post, fence, building or structure for out-of-doors advertising, but not included devices, structures or representations installed by any governmental authority.
(85) Sign, business. A sign which directs attention to a business, commodity, service, activity or product sold, conducted or offered upon the premises where the sign is located.
(86) Sign, gross area of. The “gross area” of a sign shall be the entire area within a single continuous perimeter enclosing the extreme limits of such a sign. However, such perimeter shall not include any structural elements lying outside the limits of such a sign and not forming an integral part of the display.
(87) Sign, identification. A sign on the premises bearing the name of a subdivision, the name of a group housing project or of a school, college, park, church or other public or quasi-public facility, or a professional or firm nameplate, but bearing information identifying, but not describing, occupancy of the premises on which such sign is located.
(88) Sign, occupancy. A sign on the premises bearing the name or address of the piece of property, the name of the owner or resident and/or any permitted home occupation, but bearing information pertaining only to the premises on which such sign is located.
(89) Sign, outdoor advertising. Any card, cloth, paper, metal, painted, glass, wooden, plaster, stone or other sign of any kind or character whatsoever, placed for outdoor advertising purposes on the ground or on any tree, wall, rock, post, fence, bush, building, structure or thing whatsoever. The term “placed” as used in the definition of “outdoor advertising sign” and “outdoor advertising structure” shall include erecting, constructing, posting, painting, printing, tacking, nailing, gluing, sticking, carving or other fastening, affixing or making visible in any manner whatsoever.
(90) Single ownership. Possession wherein the owner does not own adjoining property.
(91) Soil removal. Removal of any kind of soil or earth matter, including top soil, sand, gravel, clay, rock or similar materials or combination thereof, except common household gardening.
(92) “Solar photovoltaic energy system” means facilities, equipment and devices that have the primary purpose of collecting solar energy and generating electricity by photovoltaic effect.
(93) Story. That portion of a building, other than a cellar or mezzanine, included between the surface of any floor and the floor next above it, or if there be no floor above it, then the space between the floor and the ceiling next above it. A mezzanine shall be deemed a full story when it covers more than thirty-three (33) percent of the area of the story underneath said mezzanine, or if the vertical distance from the floor next below it to the floor next above it is twenty-four (24) feet or more.
(94) Street, public. A street affording the principal means of access to abutting property, and dedicated to or maintained by the Virgin Islands Government on a street affording the principal means of access to abutting property and with a right-of-way or easement as specified in the Land Subdivision Regulations.
(95) Street line. The dividing line between street, road or other thoroughfare and the adjacent lots.
(96) Structural alteration. Any material or dimensional changes in the structural elements of a building such as bearing walls, columns, beams and roofs.
(97) Structure. Anything constructed or erected which requires permanent location on the ground or attachment to something having location.
(98) Structure, accessory. A detached, subordinate structure, located on the same lot, the use of which is customarily incidental to that of the main building or to the principal use of the land.
(99) Trailer, house. See “Mobile home park”.
(100) Trailer camp, park. See “Mobile home park”.
(101) Use. The “use” of property is the purpose of activity for which the land, or building thereon, is designed, arranged or intended, or for which it is occupied or maintained and shall include any manner of performance of such activity with respect to the performance standards of this subchapter.
(102) Use, principal. The main use of land or buildings as distinguished from a subordinate or accessory use.
(103) Yard. An open space of generally uniform width or depth on the same land with a building or group of buildings, which open space lies between the building or group of buildings and the nearest lot line and is unoccupied and unobstructed from the ground upward except as otherwise provided herein.
(104) Yard, front. A yard extending across the full width of the lot and lying between the front line of the lot and the nearest line of the building.
(105) Yard, rear. A yard extending across the full width of the lot and lying between the rear line of the lot and the nearest line of the principal building.
(106) Yard, side. A yard between the side line of the lot and the nearest line of the principal building and extending from the front yard to the rear yard, or, in the absence of either of such yards, to the front or rear lot line, as the case may be, except that on a corner lot the side yard adjacent to a street shall extend the full depth of the lot.