ARTICLE V DISTRICT REGULATIONS
Section 8. M-1 Light Industrial District
8.1 Purpose of the District
The purpose of this district is to provide for a wide variety of light manufacturing, fabrication, processing, wholesale distributing, and warehousing uses appropriately located for access by major thoroughfares or railroads. Commercial uses and open storage of materials are permitted but new residential development is excluded.
8.2 Permitted Uses
A building or land shall be used only for the following purposes; general light industrial uses, warehousing and storage uses, wholesale establishments, service industries, distribution centers, and in general industrial uses dependent on raw material refined elsewhere, provided it complies with the following:
1. There shall be no industry created noise in excess of 50 decibels as measured at the property line and on objectionable noise due to extreme frequency, beat frequency, intermittence or shrillness.
2. There shall be no industry created ground vibration measurable at any lot line of an industrial unit.
3. There shall be no industry created air pollution including:
- No noxious odors; no noxious, toxic or corrosive gases or fumes.
- No smoke of a density in excess of #1 on the Ringelmann Chart. In cases of smoke other than black in color an approved density scale equivalent to the Ringelmann Chart shall be used.
- No dust or other particulate matter emitted in excess of 0.85 pounds per 1,000 pounds of gases adjusted to 12% carbon dioxide.
4. There shall be no industry created glare or heat.
5. There shall be no surface or subsurface discharge or disposal of any wastes, either liquid or solid, by any industrial unit by any process or in any form without prior approval of Borough Council and if located in the Industrial Parks, the additional approval of the Somerset County Development Council.
6. There shall be no unusual fire or explosion hazards. Based on the National Board of Fire Underwriters determinator and their “Analytic” schedule of fire insurance rates which classifies industrial units as Class I, Class II, and Class III the following shall apply:
- No special controls on a manufacturing unit determined to be Class I other than under d. below.
- Class II manufacturing units shall be contained in a building designed and constructed in accordance with its class and according to provisions of the building code published by the Building Officials and Code Administrators, International, [BOCA], 1313 East 60th Street, Chicago, Illinois, 60637.
- No Class III manufacturing shall be permitted.
- Machinery or equipment shall be treated as necessary to eliminate hazards.
7. Uses which are customarily incidental and accessory to the principal use shall be permitted including but not limited to: dwelling quarters for watchman and caretakers employed by industries within the same district’s boundaries, restaurants, warehouses and commercial uses that are permitted in the C-1 Commercial District.
8. Miscellaneous Prohibitions:
a. Any interference with any other process, equipment, appliance or devices and any mechanical, electrical or other equipment which could create such interference shall have all necessary shielding or other protection.
b. In any industrial unit or accessory, all operations, and storage, other than for passenger vehicles of visitors and employees, trucks and over the road vehicles, shall be within an entirely enclosed building or structure. Outside storage of bulk or large raw materials which are fireproof will be permitted if enclosed by a fence, planting, or barrier equal in height to the stored material.
c. The following uses are prohibited in the M-1 Light Industrial District:
- Production of radioactive materials or radioactive waste.
- Storage of contractor’s equipment, building material, scrap metal, coal, used paper, lumber junk.
- The extraction, preparation and processing of dust-producing mineral products, including but not limited to abrasives, fertilizers, lime, plaster, cement, crushed stone, stone-cutting, mining or processing of sand, gravel, top soil, stone and coal.
- The production of corrosive and noxious chemicals including but not limited to acetylene gas, acids, chlorine, bleaching compound.
- The operations of a distillery, food canning plant, brewery, stock yards, slaughterhouse, soap manufacture, fat rendering, tannery, glue manufacture, paper manufacture, paint and varnish manufacture, textile sizing, wool securing and cleaning, scouring, bleaching, dyeing and similar operations.
- The production, processing, and storage of coal, coal tar, petroleum, and asphalt products including but not limited to illumination gas production, petroleum refining, coke manufacture, bulk gasoline and petroleum products storage, asphalt products, linoleum manufacture, oil cloth manufacture, roofing material manufacture, and gas production.
- The manufacture or storage of explosive products including but not limited to dynamite and commercial explosives, fire works, military explosive and TNT.
- The smelting and reduction of metallic ores including but not limited to open hearth and electric furnace, Bessemer converter, nonferrous metal smelter and blast furnace.
- The use of hammer mills, ball mills, rolling or drop forges in any industrial process, the testing or operation of jet engines.
8.3 Permitted Accessory Uses
1. Storage of goods or materials used in or produced by permitted commercial and industrial uses and related activities, subject to applicable district regulations.
2. A single-family dwelling accessory to a farm of ten acres or more.
8.4 Permitted Signs
Subject to the general sign regulations of Article 6 and consisting of non-illuminated or indirectly illuminated accessory signs as follows:
1. For permitted business and commercial uses, any sign permitted in the C-1 General Commercial District.
2. For permitted manufacturing, processing, storage, or distributive use, any sign permitted in the C-1 General Commercial District, with permitted area of flat signs increased to 100 square feet, one for each street frontage or one for each building of more than 20,000 square feet of floor area on the premises, and with permitted area of directional signs increased to ten square feet.
8.5 Height, Area, and Bulk Requirements
Requirements for minimum lot area, yards, and open space, and maximum height are contained in the Table of District Regulations.
8.6 Reference to Additional Regulations
The regulations contained in this article are supplemented or modified by regulations contained in other articles of this Ordinance, especially the following:
- Article 7, Off-Street Parking Regulations
- Article 8, Off Street Loading Regulations
- Article 9, Conditional Uses
- Article 10, Supplementary Height, Area, and Bulk
- Article 12, The Zoning Hearing Board, Exceptions and Variances
- Article 13, Definitions
8.7 Industrial Park Regulations
The Somerset County Development Council has adopted Rules, Regulations and Standards for the Industrial Parks under its direction. You are advised to contact that agency if land is located in one of its Parks for additional requirements that may not be incorporated herein.