18.20.050 Institutional and civic use categories.
A. Basic Utility Uses.
1. Characteristics. Basic utilities are infrastructure services that need to be located in or near the area where the service is provided. Basic utility uses generally do not have a large number of employees at the site. Services may be publicly or privately provided.
2. Examples. Utility substation facilities, such as electric substations, gas regulator stations, telecommunications switching and relay facilities, water and sewer lift stations, water towers, and reservoirs.
3. Accessory Uses. Parking; control, monitoring, data or transmission equipment.
4. Exceptions.
a. Services where employees or the general public are generally present are classified as community service or office uses.
b. Utility offices where employees or customers are generally present are classified as office uses.
c. Bus barns are classified as warehouse and freight movement.
d. Communications towers, including radio, television, and wireless communications infrastructure, are classified as communication transmission facilities.
B. Colleges. [Reserved]
C. Community Service Uses.
1. Characteristics. Uses of a public, nonprofit, or charitable nature providing a local service to people of the community. Generally, they provide the service on the site or have employees at the site on a regular basis. The service is ongoing, not just for special events.
Included are community centers or facilities that have membership provisions that are open to the general public to join at any time, e.g., a senior center that allows any senior to join. The use may provide shelter or short-term housing where tenancy may be arranged for periods of less than one month when operated by a public or nonprofit agency. The use may also provide special counseling, education, or training of a public, nonprofit or charitable nature.
2. Examples. Examples include uses from the following two subgroups:
a. General Community Service. Libraries; museums; transit centers; park-and-ride facilities; senior centers; community centers; neighborhood centers; youth club facilities; some social service facilities; vocational training facilities for the physically or mentally disabled; soup kitchens; surplus food distribution centers; public safety facilities, such as police and fire stations.
b. Community Service – Shelter. Transient housing operated by a public or nonprofit agency.
3. Accessory Uses. Offices; meeting areas; food preparation areas; parking; health and therapy areas; daycare uses; athletic facilities.
4. Exceptions.
a. Religious institutions and private clubs and lodges are classified as religious/private group assembly uses.
b. Group care facilities where patients are residents of the facility are classified as assisted group living.
c. Private, for-profit athletic or health clubs are classified as indoor commercial recreational uses.
d. Private, for-profit art galleries are classified as sales-oriented retail.
e. Social service agencies that consist primarily of office and counseling functions and operate in a similar fashion to other office uses are classified as general office.
f. Parks and cemeteries are classified as parks and open space.
g. Uses where tenancy is arranged on a month-to-month or longer period are residential, and are classified as household living or group living.
h. Alternatives to incarceration, such as halfway houses, where residents of the facility are under supervision of sworn officers of the court are classified as detention facilities.
D. Daycare Uses. [Reserved]
E. Detention Facilities.
1. Characteristics. Facilities for the judicially required detention or incarceration of people. Inmates and detainees are under 24-hour supervision by employees or contractees of the Department of Corrections, except when on an approved leave. This category also includes alternatives to incarceration, such as halfway houses, where residents or inmates are placed by and remain under the supervision of the courts.
2. Examples. Prisons; jails; probation centers; juvenile detention homes; halfway houses.
3. Accessory Uses. Offices; recreational and health facilities; therapy facilities; maintenance facilities; hobby and manufacturing activities.
4. Exceptions.
a. Programs that provide care and training or treatment for psychiatric, alcohol, or drug problems, where patients are residents of the program, but where patients are not under 24-hour supervision of employees or contractees of the Department of Corrections, are classified as assisted group living.
b. Programs that provide transitional living experience for former offenders, where residents are not currently under 24-hour supervision by employees or contractees of the Department of Corrections, are classified as assisted group living.
F. Educational Facilities.
1. Characteristics. Public and private schools that provide state-mandated primary and secondary generalized education; and schools for specialized activities, such as dance, music, martial arts, business, and technical skills.
2. Examples. Examples include uses from the following two subgroups:
a. General Educational Facilities. Public and private elementary, middle, junior high and senior high schools, including such schools owned or operated by a religious entity; boarding schools; military academies.
b. Specialized Educational Facilities. Schools primarily engaged in offering specialized trade, business, or commercial courses, but not academic training. Also specialized non-degree-granting schools, such as music schools, dramatic schools, dance studios, martial arts studios, language schools and civil service and other short-term examination preparatory schools.
3. Accessory Uses. Cafeterias; parking; play areas; recreational and sports facilities; auditoriums; preschools; before- and after-school programs.
4. Exceptions.
a. Preschools that are not accessory to an educational facility use are classified as daycare.
b. Schools that offer training in industrial trades that include training on large equipment or vehicles, or that include activities that generate noise, odors, or dust more typical of industrial uses, are classified as industrial service.
c. Business, technical, and other colleges that offer degree programs in campus-like settings are classified as private colleges and universities.
G. Hospitals. [Reserved]
H. Parks and Open Space Uses.
1. Characteristics. Large areas consisting mostly of natural areas, formal or informal landscaped open space, and/or open space for outdoor assembly and recreation. This category includes both public open space areas as well as private, shared open space. These uses tend to have few structures.
2. Examples. Parks; golf courses; cemeteries; public squares; plazas; botanical gardens; arboretums; community gardens; boat launching areas; nature preserves.
3. Accessory Uses. Maintenance facilities; concessions; parking. Mausoleums, columbariums, and crematoriums within cemeteries and recreational uses within private open space areas, such as clubhouses, tennis courts, sports fields, and swimming pools, are regulated as accessory uses and are subject to the regulations of TMC 18.90.060, Accessory buildings, structures or uses.
4. Exceptions.
a. Recreational uses, such as health and athletic clubs, operated as commercial businesses that are open to the general public, whether payment is on a fee for services or on a membership basis, are classified as commercial recreational uses.
b. Accessory outdoor recreational facilities that are located on private property that are exclusively for use of those that live on the property are considered an accessory use to the principal use of the property. For example, a swimming pool, tennis court, or other similar facility located on a property that has as its principal use an apartment building would be considered an accessory use to a multifamily use, not an accessory use to a parks and open space use. However, a swimming facility located on property that has been designated private, shared open space used jointly by multiple properties in the vicinity would be considered an accessory use to a parks and open space use because the principal use of the property is private, shared open space.
I. Religious/Private Group Assembly Uses. [Reserved]
J. Public Works Facility Uses.
1. Characteristics. Facilities that provide centralized services for maintaining public streets, parks, open spaces, utilities, and buildings. Private individuals rarely come to the site.
2. Examples. Public works facilities, yards, and preassembly yards; repair of heavy machinery; vehicle and heavy machinery storage.
3. Accessory Uses. Offices; parking; outdoor storage.
4. Exceptions.
a. Recycling processing facilities are classified as waste-related uses. [Ord. 966 § 2 (Exh. B), 2021; Ord. 846 § 2 (Exh. B); Ord. 817 § 8-3B.250, 2006.]