§ 23-352. Nursing care homes.

A nursing care home is an institution, building, residence, or private home providing nursing or personal care on a long-term basis for four (4) or more elderly or disabled persons, but not primarily for the acutely ill. Nursing care homes shall comply with the provisions of this section in addition to all other applicable provisions of these land development regulations and any conditions imposed as part of a special exception permit.

a. To be eligible to apply for a special exception permit, a property proposed for a nursing home must have a minimum of seven thousand five hundred (7,500) square feet in area, except that property proposed for a residential treatment facility must be a minimum of ten thousand (10,000) square feet in area.

b. The following shall also apply:

1. Interior living space required: Two hundred (200) square feet of living space per resident, not including any area reserved for resident staff, plus a minimum of eighty (80) square feet of sleeping area in each single occupancy sleeping room and a minimum of sixty (60) square feet of sleeping area in each multiple occupancy sleeping room.

2. A full bathroom with toilet, sink and tub or shower shall be provided for each five (5) residents.

3. No signs are permitted in residential zones unless otherwise allowed as part of the special exception permit. In non-residential districts, section 23-545 shall apply.

4. A landscaped buffer of at least ten (10) feet in width shall be provided along all property lines and streets adjoining the property. The buffer shall be landscaped with landscaping materials and a tree every fifty (50) feet, as defined in section 23-307

5. A residential treatment facility abutting a residential area, whether or not the area is residentially zoned, must provide, adjacent to the residential use, a thirty-five-foot buffer that includes the ten-foot landscaped buffer required above.