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Salvage Yard: Any non-residential property used for the storage, collection, and/or recycling of any type of equipment, and including but not limited to vehicles, appliances and related machinery.

Satellite Dish Antenna(s) (Satellite Earth Stations): A single or group of satellite parabolic (or dish) antennas. These dishes are mounted to a supporting device that may be a pole or truss assembly attached to a foundation in the ground, or in some other configuration. A satellite earth station may include the associated separate equipment enclosures necessary for the transmission or reception of wireless communications signals with satellites.

Screening: The use of plant materials and other landscape or architectural elements used separately or in combination to obscure views.

Sediment: Solid particulate matter, both mineral and organic, that has been, or is being, transported by water, air, gravity or ice from its site of origin.

Sedimentation: The process by which sediment resulting from accelerated erosion has been or is being transported off the site of the land-disturbing activity or into a lake or natural watercourse.

Service Area: In Design Districts, the service area is a designation for portions of buildings or sites that are used for loading areas including garage entries; trash/recycling facilities; secondary fire code egress; and mechanical equipment or utilities that are not permitted by code to be underground or on rooftops.

Setback: The minimum distance between a property line (or a different encumbrance, improvement, or feature as required within a specific regulation) and a building or structure.

Shelter: A facility established on a temporary or permanent basis by an organization to provide sleeping accommodations or refuge to individuals due to a social, economic, or other emergency or crisis, such as but not limited to homelessness, domestic violence, or a natural disaster.

Shopping Center: A group of retail businesses developed under a uniform development scheme and served by common off-street parking facilities.

Sign: Any words, lettering, parts of letters, figures, numerals, phrases, sentences, emblems, devices, structures, designs, trade names, or trade marks by which anything is made known such as are used to designate an individual, a firm, an association, a corporation, a profession, a business, or a commodity or products, which are legible from any public street or adjacent property and used to attract attention. This definition includes the structure or the face on which a sign message is displayed. For the purposes of this Ordinance, this definition shall not include "trade dress" i.e.: architectural features identified with a product or business, as a sign.

Sign Support or Bracing: The materials used to support and attach a sign to the ground, building, or other fixed location.

Siltation: Sediment resulting from accelerated erosion which is settleable or removable by properly designed, constructed and maintained control measures; and which has been transported from its point of origin within the site of a land-disturbing activity; and which has been deposited, or is in suspension in water.

Single-Family: A residential use consisting of one dwelling unit per lot of record. As described in Sec. 7.1, Housing Types, includes: single-family detached house; zero lot line house; traditional house; or attached house. Not to include manufactured housing.

Single-Loaded Street: A roadway serving property (street yard) on one side only with no need for access on the other side.

Site Area: The minimum area required for a particular type of development. The site may then be divided into smaller lots.

Site Plan: An accurately scaled development plan that shows existing conditions on a site as well as depicting details of proposed development.

Solar Energy System: An energy system which converts solar energy to usable thermal, mechanical, chemical, or electrical energy to meet all or a significant part of a structure’s energy requirements.

Solid Waste Disposal Facility: Means, as defined in NCGS 130A-290(a)(35), any facility involved in the disposal of solid waste.

Solid Waste Disposal Site: Means, as defined in NCGS 130A-290(a)(36), any place at which solid wastes are disposed of by incineration, sanitary landfill, or any other method.

Solid Waste Facilities: Stationary solid waste collection containers, yard waste containers, recycling containers and roll-out containers for the above.

Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) or Area of Special Flood Hazard: The land in the floodplain subject to a one percent or greater chance of being flooded in any given year based on current conditions hydrology.

Specimen Tree, Major: Any evergreen canopy tree 18 inches dbh or greater, any deciduous canopy tree 12 inches dbh or greater and any understory tree (deciduous or evergreen) eight inches dbh or greater, except any tree listed as a nonnative invasive plant by the U.S. Forest Service or prohibited pursuant to the Landscape Manual for Durham, North Carolina, also referred to as the Landscape Manual .

Specimen Tree, Minor: Trees that qualify for required preservation under the following paragraphs of this Ordinance:

a. Any species of tree that qualify for tree preservation within a cluster of trees under paragraph 8.3.1D.3, Cluster of Trees; and

b. Any species of tree that qualify for tree preservation as an individual tree under paragraph 8.3.1D.4, Individual Trees.

Start of Construction: Includes substantial improvement, and means the date the building permit was issued, provided the actual start of construction, repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition placement, or other improvement was within 180 days of the permit date. The actual start means either the first placement of permanent construction of a structure on a site, such as the pouring of slab or footings, the installation of piles, the construction of columns, or any work beyond the stage of excavation; or the placement of a manufactured home on a foundation. Permanent construction does not include land preparation, such as clearing, grading, and filling; nor does it include the installation of streets and/or walkways; nor does it include excavation for a basement, footings, piers, or foundations or the erection of temporary forms; nor does it include the installation on the property of accessory buildings, such as garages or sheds not occupied as dwelling units or not part of the main structure. For a substantial improvement, the actual start of construction means the first alteration of any wall, ceiling, floor, or other structural part of the building, whether or not that alteration affects the external dimensions of the building.

Storefront Window System: An architectural wall assembly of large glass panes framed in relatively thin metal members and typically used at the ground level of commercial buildings.

Storm Drainage Facilities: The system of inlets, conduits, channels, ditches and appurtenances which serve to collect and convey stormwater through and from a given drainage area.

Stormwater: The flow of water which results from precipitation and which occurs immediately following rainfall or snowmelt.

Stormwater Runoff: The direct runoff of water resulting from precipitation in any form.

Story: The horizontal division of a building made up of the space between two successive floors, or a floor and the roof. A level that is principally above ground, and not below grade, nor below street level, or within roofline, tower, or a roof deck.

Stream: means a body of concentrated flowing water in a natural low area or natural channel on the land surface.

Stream Buffer: A natural or vegetated area adjacent to a stream through which stormwater runoff flows in a diffuse manner so that the runoff does not become channelized and which provides for the infiltration of runoff and filtering of pollutants.

Stream, Intermittent: Except under Sec. 8.5, Riparian Buffer Protection Standards, a watercourse that collects surface runoff and is shown as a dashed blue line on the most recent United States Geologic Survey (USGS) 7½-minute quadrangle topographic maps, is shown as an intermittent stream on the most recent US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Soil Survey, or is shown as an intermittent stream on the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) maps.

Stream, Perennial: Except under Sec. 8.5, Riparian Buffer Protection Standards, a watercourse that collects surface runoff and is shown as a solid blue line on the most recent USGS 7½-minute quadrangle topographic maps, is shown as a perennial stream on maps in the most recent US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Soil Survey, or is shown as a perennial stream on the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) maps.

Street Frontage: The boundary of a property adjacent to one side of a street.

Street Network: A system of interconnected streets which includes vehicular, pedestrian, transit, and bicyclist infrastructure.

Street, Private: An area intended for local vehicular traffic, owned and maintained by a private corporation, individual, or group of individuals.

Street, Public: An area for vehicular traffic that is dedicated to or maintained by a public agency.

Street Wall: The implicit line created by the façades of adjacent structures.

Street Width: The horizontal distance between the side lines of a street, measured at right angles to the side lines.

Streetscape: The appearance or view of an entire street or street network in general, including sidewalks, utilities, landscaping, street furniture, and the structures that make up the street wall.

Strip Commercial: Intense commercial development extending along a roadway at a shallow depth along that roadway. It is typically characterized by multiple curb-cuts, unconnected vehicular use areas and a proliferation of signs.

Structure: A walled or roofed constructed object that is principally above ground; vertical projections meeting the definition of antenna-supporting or wireless support structures; or, when used in reference to Sec. 8.4, Floodplain and Flood Damage Protection Standards, a gas or liquid storage tank that is principally above ground. Included in this definition are extensions or additions which are covered by a roof supported by walls or columns, such as but not limited to porte cocheres, carports, covered or screened porches, and breezeways.

Stub Out: The extension of a street to an external property line to facilitate future roadway connection and reduce traffic impacts on the road network.

Subdivisions: All divisions of a tract or parcel of land into two or more lots, building sites, or other divisions for the purpose of sale or building development (whether immediate or future) or any division of land involving the dedication of a new street or a change in existing streets.

Subordinate: Secondary in appearance so as not to diminish or visually overpower another element or structure. This shall be considered as a whole and shall not require each dimensional aspect to be subordinate, unless specifically required by another provision of this Ordinance.

Subsidiary: An affiliate that is directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries, controlled by another person.

Substantial Change: In regards to wireless communication facilities, a modification that substantially changes the physical dimensions of an existing tower or base station if it meets any of the criteria detailed in the FCC Report and Order FCC14-153, or as amended.

Substantial Damage: Damage of any origin sustained by a structure during any one year period whereby the cost of restoring the structure to its before damaged condition would equal or exceed 50% of the market value of the structure before the damage occurred.

Substantial Improvement: Any repair, reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or other improvement of a structure, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50% of the market value of the structure before the "start of construction" of the improvement. This term includes structures which have incurred "substantial damage," regardless of the actual repair work performed. The term does not, however, include either: (1) any project or improvement of a structure to correct existing violations of State or local health, sanitary, or safety code specifications which have been identified by the local code enforcement official and which are the minimum necessary to assure safe living conditions; or (2) any alteration of a historic structure, provided that the alteration will not preclude the structure's continued designation as an historic structure.

Substantial Quantities: An amount of hazardous materials equal to or exceeding the Threshold Planning Quantities listed in the provisions of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA); the Comprehensive Emergency Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA); the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA); or any subsequent amendments of these Acts. Where no Threshold Planning Quantities have been identified for a particular material, the amount considered to be a substantial quantity shall be determined by the Director of Emergency Management or the Durham County Fire Marshall.

Support Equipment (WCF): Any and all devices utilized to attach or hold antennas, feed lines, or any related equipment to a WCF.