DEFINITIONS.
Madison General Ordinances § 29.04
in effect29.04 - DEFINITIONS.
Accessory Building or Use. An accessory building or use is one which:
1. Is customary and clearly incidental to the principal building or principal use.
2. Is subordinate to and serves a principal building or principal use.
3. Is subordinate in area, extent, and purpose to the principal building or principal use served.
4. Contributes to the comfort, convenience, or necessity of occupants of the principal building or principal use served, and is located on the same zoning lot as the principal building or principal use served, with the single exception of such accessory off-street parking facilities as are permitted to locate elsewhere than on the same zoning lot as the building or use served.
Air Temperature. Air temperature shall measure the temperature of the air and not radiant heat.
Adequate shall mean adequate as determined by the Director of the Building Inspection Division under the regulations of this chapter or adequate as determined by an authority designated by law or this chapter.
Adequately shall mean the same as adequate.
Alley. An alley is a public right-of-way which affords only a secondary means of access to abutting property, and which is not more than twenty-four (24) feet in width.
Alteration means any change, addition or modification in construction.
Apartment means one (1) or more rooms with provisions for living, cooking, sanitary, and sleeping facilities arranged for use by one (1) family.
Apartment House is any building which is occupied as the home or residence of two (2) or more families living independently of each other and doing their own cooking in the said building.
Approved or Approved as to Materials and Types of Construction means approved by the Director of the Building Inspection Division as the result of investigation and tests conducted by them, or by reason of accepted principals or tests by nationally recognized and accepted technical or scientific organizations.
Awning. An awning is a rooflike cover, temporary in nature, which projects from the wall of a building.
Balcony. (See Mezzanine Floor)
Basement. Basement means that portion of a dwelling between floor and ceiling which is below or partly below and partly above grade but so located that the vertical distance from the grade to the floor below is more than the vertical distance from grade to ceiling.
Boarding or Lodging House is a building other than a hotel, where, for compensation, meals, lodging or lodging and meals are provided for persons not members of a family unit, and including fraternities and sororities.
Building means a combination of materials to form a construction that is safe and stable, and adapted to permanent or continuous occupancy for assembly, business, educational, high hazard, industrial, institutional, mercantile, residential, or storage purposes; the term "building" shall be construed as if followed by the words "or portion thereof". For the purposes of this code each portion of a building completely separated from other portions by an unpierced fire wall shall be considered as a separate building.
Court is an open, exterior space providing required natural light or ventilation for the building or providing a pathway for public egress from a building exit to a public thoroughfare.
1. Outer Court is a court bounded on three sides by walls and on the remaining side by a street, alley or other open space not less than 15 feet wide.
2. Inner Court is a court surrounded on all sides by walls.
3. Outer Lot Line Court is a court with one side on a lot line or property line and opening to a street or open space not less than 15 feet wide.
4. Inner Lot Line Court is a court bounded on three sides by walls and on the remaining side by a lot line or property line.
Dwelling is a place of abode, a residence or a house for use by one (1) or more persons, excluding hotels or motels.
1. Single-family Dwelling. A single-family dwelling is a building containing one (1) dwelling unit only.
2. Two-family Dwelling. A two-family dwelling is a building containing two (2) dwelling units only.
3. Multiple-family Dwelling. A multiple-family dwelling is a building, or portion thereof, containing three (3) or more dwelling units.
Dwelling, Detached. A detached dwelling is one which is entirely surrounded by open space on the same lot.
Dwelling Unit means one (1) or more rooms with provisions for living, cooking, sanitary, and sleeping facilities arranged for use by one (1) family.
Exits.
1. Exit Doorway means the doorway opening: directly to the exterior; to a horizontal exit; to an exit stairway, or to a similar place of safety.
2. Exitway means the exit doorway or doorways, or such doorways together with connecting hallways or stairways, either interior or exterior, or fire escapes, by means of which occupants may proceed safely from a room or space to a street or to an open space which provides safe access to a public alley, street, or open court connected with a street. One (1) or more separate exitways may use the same corridor or hallway.
Extermination. Extermination shall mean the control or elimination of infestation by eliminating harboring places and removing or making inaccessible materials that may serve as food; and by poisoning, spraying, trapping, fumigation by a licensed fumigator or any other effective elimination procedure.
Family. A family is an individual, or two (2) or more persons related by blood, marriage or legal adoption living together as a single housekeeping unit in a dwelling unit, including foster children, domestic servants and not more than four (4) roomers, except that the term family shall not, in R1, R2, R3, R4A and R4L residence districts, include more than one roomer except where such dwelling unit is owner-occupied. In any residence district, a family may consist of two unrelated adults and the minor children of each. Such family may not include any roomers except where the dwelling unit is owner-occupied. For the purpose of this section, "children" means natural children, grandchildren, legally adopted children, stepchildren, foster children, or a ward as determined in a legal guardianship proceeding. Up to two (2) personal attendants who provide services for family members or roomers who, because of advanced age or a physical or mental disability, need assistance with activities of daily living shall be considered part of the "family". Such services may include personal care, housekeeping, meal preparation, laundry or companionship.
Fence. A fence is a structure providing enclosure or serving as a barrier, but not protecting against the elements (as distinguished from a building).
Filling Station is a place where gasoline, kerosene, or any other fuel, lubricating oil or grease for operating motor vehicles is offered for sale at retail to the public and where deliveries are made at time of sale and directly into motor vehicles, including greasing and oiling on the premises.
Garage, Community. A space or structure, or a series of structures, for the storage only of noncommercial vehicles of residents of the neighborhood.
Garage, Private. An enclosed attached or detached building to house self-propelled vehicles for the personal use by occupants of single and two-family dwellings.
Garage, Public. A space or structure other than a private or community garage, for the storage, sale, hire, or repair of motor vehicles, or vehicles used in connection therewith.
Gasoline Service Station. A space or structure other than a public garage, used in connection with liquid fuel dispensing stations where one (1) or more vehicles can be accommodated for washing, greasing, oil changing, tire or battery replacement or similar minor operations or adjustments.
Habitable Space is one (1) or more rooms in a dwelling used primarily for sleeping, living, or dining purposes.
Hotel. A hotel is a building in which lodging accommodations, with or without meals, are provided to the public for compensation, and which is open to transient guests in contradistinction to a lodging house. A hotel is commonly known as a hotel in the City and provides customary hotel services, such as mail, telephone and secretarial, bellboy, and desk services, the use and upkeep of furniture, and the furnishing and laundering of linen.
Hotel, Apartment. An apartment hotel is a building in which at least ninety percent (90%) of the accommodations are dwelling units or are occupied by permanent guests renting on a monthly basis.
Impervious to Water. Impervious to water shall mean material approved by the Director of the Building Inspection Division, and having tight fitting joints, and not having more than four and one-half percent (4½%) absorption by test.
Infestation. Infestation shall mean the sustained presence of household pests, vermin, or rodents.
Insulation. Normally a low-density material used to reduce heat loss. It is made of wood fiber, cotton fiber, mineral or glass wool or fiber, vermiculite, expanded plastics, and others. It is made in several forms including:
1. Flexible - in blanket or batt form.
2. Fill - a loose form which can be poured or blown.
3. Rigid - includes insulating board or other materials in sheet or block form. Often used as sheathing material, as perimeter insulation, etc.
4. Reflective - a polished surface such as aluminum foil which has high reflectivity and low emissivity.
Living Room shall mean a room used primarily for living, dining, or cooking purposes.
Lodging House is a dwelling containing lodging rooms that will accommodate five (5) or more persons not members of the family.
Lodging Room is a portion of a dwelling used primarily for sleeping and living purposes, excluding cooking facilities.
Mezzanine Floor. An intermediate balcony-like floor located between a main or full floor and the main ceiling next above and not exceeding in area more than one-third (⅓) of such main or full floor.
Mixed Occupancy. Mixed occupancy shall be occupancy of a building in part for residential use and in part for some other use not accessory thereto.
Mobile Home. A mobile home is a trailer designed and constructed for dwelling purposes.
Motel. A motel is an establishment consisting of a group of attached living or sleeping accommodations with bathroom and closet space, located on a single zoning lot, and designed for use by transient automobile tourists. A motel furnishes customary hotel services such as maid service, and laundering of linen, telephone and secretarial or desk service, and the use and upkeep of furniture. In a motel less than fifty percent (50%) of the living and sleeping accommodations are occupied or designed for occupancy by persons other than transient automobile tourists.
Occupant means one who occupies or has actual possession of usable space.
Ordinary Minimum Winter Conditions. Ordinary minimum winter conditions shall mean a temperature minus twenty (-20) degrees Fahrenheit.
Owner. The term owner shall mean every person, firm, partnership, or any individual member thereof, corporation, business organization of any kind, the state, the county, the city, any sewer district, drainage district, the University of Wisconsin, and any corporation or organizations connected therewith, and any other public or quasi-public corporation having a legal or equitable interest in property and shall include the representative, officer, agent or other person having the ownership, control, custody or management of any building. Owner does not include any person whose legal or equitable interest in the building is a security interest derived solely from the extension of credit to permit construction or remodeling of the dwelling or purchase of the dwelling by a third party.
Perm. A measure of vapor movement through a material; i.e., grains per square foot per hour per inch of mercury difference in vapor pressure at standard test conditions.
Permeance. Rate of water vapor transmission through a material, measured in perms. Thus, the lower the permeance, the better the vapor barrier.
Person. A person shall mean and include an individual, firm, corporation, association, or partnership.
Plumbing. Plumbing shall include all gas pipes and gas burning equipment, waste pipes, water pipes, water closets, sinks, lavatories, bathtub, catch basins, drains, vents, and any other provided fixtures together with the connections with the water, sewer or gas lines.
Provided. Provided shall mean furnished, supplied, paid for or under control of the owner.
Radiation. Transfer of heat energy in the form of waves or particles which have no effect on the medium through which they pass.
Rooming House. See definition for lodging house.
Sleeping Room. Sleeping room shall mean a room used for sleeping purposes.
Stairways means one (1) or more flights of steps and the necessary platforms connecting them to form a continuous passage from one level to another within or without a building or structure.
Story is that portion of a building, other than a basement or mezzanine included between the surface of any floor and the surface of the floor next above it, or if there be no floor above it, then the space between the floor and the ceiling next above it. For the purpose of this Ordinance, a basement shall be counted as a story when more than five (5) feet of such basement height is above the established curb level or above the finished lot grade level where curb level has not been established. A mezzanine shall be deemed a full story where it covers more than fifty percent (50%) of the ground story.
Street. A street is a public or private right-of-way which affords traffic circulation and a principal means of access to abutting property. An alley shall not be considered a street.
Structural Alteration is any change, other than incidental repairs, which would prolong the life of the supporting members of a building, such as bearing walls, columns, beams, girders or foundations.
Structure. Structure is anything constructed or erected, the use of which requires more or less permanent location on the ground, or attached to something having permanent location on the ground.
Sun Shade. A permanent projection over the windows of a building to shade the windows from the sunshine and which is not supported by posts or columns, and which cannot be used for human occupancy.
TD (Temperature Difference). The difference between the inside design temperature and the outside design temperature. (For Madison, the inside design temperature is +70 degrees for all rooms except bathrooms and the outside design temperature is -20 degrees, therefore, the TD is 90 degrees.)
Townhouse. A townhouse is a place of abode having not more than two (2) stories, not including the attic, with or without a basement, which consists of three (3) or more dwelling units with sleeping rooms on the second story level and in which the dwelling units are arranged in such a manner so that one (1) or more units are separated from the other units by three (3) unpierced interior walls.
U. Overall heat transmission coefficient; the amount of heat expressed in one hour through one square foot of a building section for each degree temperature difference between air on the inside and air on the outside of the building section.
Vapor Barrier. A film, duplex paper, aluminum foil, paint coating or other materials which restrict the movement of water vapor from an area of high vapor pressure to one of lower pressure. Material with a perm value of 1.0 or less is normally considered a vapor barrier.
Ventilation. The replacement by outside air of the air within the building.
Yard. Yard shall mean an open unoccupied space on the same lot with a dwelling and lying between the front, rear, or sides of the dwelling and the lot line.
(Rpld. and Recreated by ORD-21-00024, 3-26-21)
Source: City of Madison, Wisconsin, Madison General Ordinances (Municode Library, library.municode.com)URL: https://library.municode.com/wi/madison/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=COORMAWIVOIICH20--31_CH29BUCO_GEPR_29.04DEFetched: 11/1/2026