Atlanta › Land Development Code — Part III
Part 15, Chapter 6 — Definitions
§ 15-06.001
Definitions.
Sec. 15-06.001. Definitions.
As used in this part, unless specifically stated otherwise, the following terms mean and include:
(a)ADT (Average Daily Traffic): The average number of vehicles per day that pass over a given point.
(b)Alley: A private street designed to serve only as a secondary means of access to the side or rear of properties whose principal frontage is on a public street.
(c)Amenity Area: An area of land that: (1) is held in common ownership by owners of the applicable subdivision; (2) consists of permanent open space, or, structures that are customarily used for the joint enjoyment of the subdivision's residents such as swimming pools, tennis courts, clubhouses, and similar facilities; and (3) is permanently maintained by the collective owners.
(d)Applicant: A person submitting an application for land subdivision pursuant to this part.
(e)Application: A formal request for land subdivision made pursuant to this part.
(f)Arterial Street: A multilane street that functions to move traffic from one district of the city to another and which is not designed to serve individual residences.
(g)Better Site Design: A set of development or redevelopment site-design principles and techniques that seek to mimic natural conditions by infiltrating water into the ground close to where it falls, minimizing impervious areas to reduce overall runoff volume and velocity, reducing connected impervious areas, and preserving natural drainage patterns and surfaces.
(h)Bicycle Lane: A lane within a street that is reserved and marked for the exclusive use of bicycles.
(i)Bicycle Path: A pathway, usually separated from the street, designed specifically for bicycling, and upon which motorized traffic is prohibited.
(j)Bikeway: A bicycle lane or a bicycle path.
(k)Buildable area: That area of the lot available for the construction of a dwelling and permissible accessory uses after having provided the required front, side, rear and any other special yards required by this part or by part 16 of this code.
(l)Character: A distinctive quality or set of qualities, not including architectural style, of the natural or built environment that can be identified by prevalent objective features such as street design and pattern, lot pattern, tree cover, topographical conditions, setbacks and similar features by which a street, block, or neighborhood may be distinguished from other streets, blocks or neighborhoods.
(m)Collective Detention Area: An area of land that is intended to serve as a stormwater collection facility and that meets the definition of amenity area.
(n)Cul-de-sac: A local street with one outlet and having a circular area at its other end for the reversal of traffic movement.
(o)Developable Area: That portion of the buildable area of a lot that does not lie within a floodplain, wetland, area of severe slope, or the required 15-foot setback adjacent to a floodplain set forth in chapter 21 of part 16 of this code.
(p)Director: The director, bureau of planning.
(q)Final Plat: The final map of an entire subdivision or the final map of a portion of an entire subdivision which is presented for final approval.
(r)Floodplain: Area or areas of land presently having natural or manmade contours of elevation at or below the base flood elevation shown on the flood hazard district maps adopted as a part of part 16 of this code and those areas of land which are not so shown in the flood hazard district maps where inundation is likely to occur during a base flood as determined from by engineering studies to determine the probable depth of such floodwaters. See section 16-21.003.
(s)Green Infrastructure: An interconnected natural system and/or engineered system that use plants and soil to slow, filter, and infiltrate stormwater runoff close to its source in a way that strengthens and mimics natural functions and processes.
(t)Historic Neighborhood: Any neighborhood which is listed on or is eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places established by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as amended.
(u)Landscaped Areas: Those portions of building lots on which trees, shrubs and other plant material are located and maintained, primarily as a result of human intervention.
(v)Lot: A parcel of land, designed to be used for the development of a one- or twofamily dwelling, or an amenity area, that meets the requirements of this part and part 16 of this code and has been given final approval by the director and has been recorded in the records of the Clerk of the Superior Court of Fulton or DeKalb County, as is appropriate.
(w)Major Collector Street: A multilane street that functions to move traffic from residential streets to arterial streets.
(x)Minor Subdivision: A subdivision of a parcel of land that has (1) frontage on an existing street and no new street is being proposed (2) that creates no more than three lots of record and (3) that all proposed lots of record have sanitary sewer service available by an existing public sanitary sewer located in the existing frontage or located elsewhere on each proposed lot. A Minor Subdivision shall only be applicable in the following zoning classifications: R-4, R-4A, R-4B and R-5.
(y)Natural Areas: Those portions of building lots which are maintained with their natural topographic features and on which plant material and water exist through natural growth and maturation.
(z)Nonaccess Reservation: A parcel of land through which no form of vehicular access is permitted.
(aa)Open Space: Land on which no structural elements are present.
(bb)Orderly Pattern of Development: A systematic, consistent arrangement of lots and residential structures.
(cc)Plat: A map of a subdivision.
(dd)Preliminary Plat: A map indicating the proposed layout of a subdivision and related information that is submitted for preliminary approval.
(ee)Reserve Strip: A parcel of land which is not a building lot and is retained for the future extension of a public street, or, a parcel of land which is dedicated as permanent open space and is owned by a homeowners association, or a not-forprofit organization, or is dedicated to the public.
(ff)Residential Access Street: A street that provides frontage for access to lots, carries traffic having destination or origin on the street itself, and is designed to carry traffic at slow speed. Traffic volume shall not exceed 800 ADT at any point of traffic concentration.
(gg)Residential collector: A street that conducts and distributes traffic between residential streets and major collector and arterial streets. Collectors shall be designed to prevent use as shortcuts by non-neighborhood traffic. Total traffic volume shall not exceed 4,000 ADT.
(hh)Residential subcollector: A street that provides frontage for access to lots and carries traffic to and from adjoining residential access streets. Traffic shall have origin or destination in the immediate neighborhood. Traffic volume shall not exceed 1,200 ADT at any point of traffic concentration.
(ii)Severe Slope: Ground that forms a natural or artificial incline of 60 degrees or greater from horizontal.
(jj)Site Plan: An accurately scaled development plan that illustrates the existing conditions on a lot as well as depicting details of a proposed development.
(kk)Street Grade: The slope of a street, or other public way, specified in percentage terms.
(ll)Subdivision: The division or redivision of one (1) or more parcels of land into two (2) or more building lots.
(mm)Subdivision Review Committee: A committee comprised of the city arborist, the commissioner of the department of city planning, and the commissioner of the department of transportation, or their respective designees.
(nn)Through traffic: Vehicular traffic not originating or terminating in the immediate vicinity.
(oo)Traffic Artery, or Major Traffic Artery: An arterial street as designated on the Street Classification Map, City of Atlanta, prepared February, 1958, and last revised January 1, 1982, which plan has been incorporated into the Comprehensive Development Plan of the City of Atlanta and is available for inspection in the Bureau of Planning.
(pp)Wetland: Any area of land which meets the definition of "wetlands" codified at 40 C.F.R. part 230.3(t) of the Code of Federal Regulations, and is subject to federal, state, or local regulations governing land meeting said definition, provided that those areas of land for which a permit has been issued by the United States Army Corps of Engineers pursuant to section 404 of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. section 1344, as amended, are exempt from this definition. (Code 1977, § 15-06.001; Ord. No. 1995-41, §§ 2, 3, 8-15-95; Ord. No. 2013-18(13-O-0426), § 1, 5-29-13; Ord. No. 2018-11(18-O-1023), §§ 3.A, 3.B, 5-16-18; Ord. No. 2020-33(20-O-1381), § 2, 6-23-20; Ord. No. 2023-15(23-O-1165), § 1, 4-2623)