C5 (By-law 150-85) zone, Cambridge: Commercial C5 (Service Station)

What the C5 zone permits

• Automobile service station or gas bar (s.3.3.3.1(b)(vii))
• A use permitted in all zones under s.2.1.1 (s.3.3.3.1(d)(xiv))
• A use, building or structure accessory to a permitted use (s.3.3.3.1(d)(xv))
• Accessory to an automobile service station: keeping licensed trailers for hire or lease, and sale of used motor vehicles, subject to s.3.3.3.2; not more than 50% of the parking spaces required by s.2.2.1.2(b)(ii)(10) may be used to store or park them (s.2.1.11.3, by-law p.52, PDF p.70; the proviso is missing from the PDF text layer). In the 2012 consolidation item (10) is the rollover car wash rate; the automobile service station or gas bar rate is item (12) (PDF p.85), so the cross-reference appears stale.

Standards

Other provisions in this section

• Outside display (s.3.3.1.1, PDF p.123): except garden centres, fruit and vegetable stands, motor vehicle/trailer sales and licensed outdoor vendors, goods may be displayed or stored outside only within 3 m of the front wall of the principal building and only as a retail sales area.
• Hotels and motels (s.3.3.1.2, PDF p.123): a 7.5 m side or rear yard is required where the principal entrance is through that yard or a wall facing it has a window to a habitable room.
• Motor vehicle repair shops (s.3.3.1.6, PDF pp.124-125): derelict vehicles screened by a solid fence or wall at least 2 m high; used vehicles may be sold only as an accessory use, max two per service bay.
• Drive-through facilities (s.3.3.1.9, PDF p.126): at least 30 m from an abutting residential or institutional zone boundary (15 m with a 1.8 m noise wall or building wall between), minus the abutting zone's required interior side or rear yard.
• Suffix (O) (s.2.1.6, PDF p.65): a commercial zone shown with (O), e.g. C2(O), may be used for no commercial purpose other than business and professional offices.
• Garbage (s.2.1.16, PDF p.73): refuse stored only inside a building or in a container in a side or rear yard, and in any commercial zone (and M1/M2) the container must be screened from view.
• Planting strips and fencing (s.2.4.1-2.4.2, PDF pp.99-100): a commercial or industrial use next to any residential, institutional or open space zone, park, walkway or school needs, along the rear and interior side lot lines, either a 3 m planting strip with a 1.5 m visual screen (plants or berm) plus a 1.5 m chain link or wrought iron fence, or a 1.5 m sodded/planting strip with a 1.5 m solid fence or wall; fences limited to 0.9 m within 3.0 m of the street line (s.2.4.4).
• Minimum building height (s.2.1.9.1, PDF p.67): within the shaded core areas on Special Area Zoning Maps Z4, Z5 and Z6, any new building or structure must be at least 6 m high.
• Landscaped strip at the street (s.2.4.3, PDF p.100): a strip at least 3 m wide must be kept along the front and exterior side lot lines (except where crossed by a driveway) of a lot used for commercial or industrial purposes in a C2, C3, C4 or C5 zone or any CS-class or M-class zone.
• Residential uses (summary): none listed for C5 in s.3.3.3.1; s.3.3.1.3(c) allows dwelling units in commercial buildings only in C1, C2, C3 and CS5.
• Where C5 is part of a compound zone (s.2.1.3.1, PDF p.63), the C5 frontage, area and pump-island/canopy yard rules apply to the land used for the service station or gas bar.
• Prefix (H) holding zone (s.2.1.4, PDF p.63): until the (H) is removed by amendment, only farming (no intensive animal, fur or fish farming), market gardening, landscape gardening and s.2.1.1 uses are allowed.
• Prefix (F) floodplain (s.1.1.2.2(b)(iii) PDF p.51; s.2.1.8, PDF pp.66-67): land below the regulatory flood line; no new habitable room below the flood line, no hospital/home for the aged/group home/domiciliary hostel more than 1 m below it or with access below it, no bulk storage of dangerous, flammable, explosive, toxic, corrosive or buoyant materials below it; Grand River Conservation Authority approval also required. s.2.1.8.2 applies the same rules to land below the flood line outside the Special Policy Area (Map Z3) and to all OS1 land. (The text layer of PDF p.67 is missing s.2.1.8.2; read from the page image.)
• Compound zones (s.2.1.3, PDF pp.62-63): where two zone symbols apply (e.g. C1RM1), land may be used for any use permitted in either zone or a combination; where C5 is combined with another zone, the C5 yard and frontage/area rules (s.3.3.3.2(b), (c)(ii)-(iii), (f)(ii)-(iii)) apply to the service station/gas bar; in a commercial/residential mixed-use building the residential site rules of s.3.1.2 apply if residential gross floor area exceeds two-thirds of the building, otherwise the commercial rules of s.3.3.3.2/3.3.3.3 apply; parking and loading must be provided for every use.
• Uses permitted in all zones (s.2.1.1, PDF p.61): public uses and public/private utilities (subject to the zone's coverage, setback, yard, parking, loading and landscaping rules), private home day care in a dwelling unit, a bachelor or one-bedroom caretaker unit in a non-residential building in an N-class or M-class zone (not on the ground floor of a building in a commercial zone), wayside pits/quarries, and crisis intervention homes.
• Setbacks from specified roads (s.2.1.19, PDF pp.75-79): on roads in the Table of Designated Road Allowances, no building may be closer to the original centreline than the required front, exterior side or rear yard plus half the designated road allowance (e.g. 20.117 m to 70.841-122.968 m allowances); s.2.1.19.2 adds fixed extra distances on parts of Adam St. and Cooper St.
• Corner lot sight triangle (s.2.1.14, PDF p.72): nothing over 0.75 m high within the 15 m x 15 m triangle at street intersections, except in the shaded core areas of Maps Z4-Z6.
• Yard encroachments (s.2.1.15, PDF pp.72-73): required yards must be open to the sky except listed projections (e.g. eaves, sills, chimneys 0.5 m into any yard; fire escapes 1.6 m into rear yards; wheelchair ramps 5.0 m into front, exterior side and rear yards).
• Propane facilities (s.2.5.1, PDF p.102): no propane storage, handling or transfer within 30 m of a residential zone, none in a required front, exterior side or interior side yard (except the C5 dispenser-island allowances), none within 5 m of a hydro transmission line.
• Airport height limits (s.2.1.10, PDF pp.67-68) and Minimum Distance Separation from livestock barns/manure storage (s.2.1.21, PDF p.80) apply in all zones.