Hempstead Town, N.Y., Code of Ordinances ch. 88 (eCode360 ed. 2026) § 88-1

The following definitions shall apply in the interpretation and enforcement of this chapter: BASEMENT That space of a building that is partly below grade which has more than 1/2 of its height, measured from finished floor to finished ceiling, above the average established curb level or finished grade of the ground adjoining the building. CELLAR That space of a building that is partly or entirely below grade which has more than 1/2 of its height, measured from finished floor to finished ceiling, below the average established curb level or finished grade of the ground adjoining the building. DORMITORY Any room occupied for sleeping purposes by five or more persons. A cubicle is a small, partially enclosed sleeping space within a dormitory, with or without a window. DWELLING Any building which is wholly or partially used or intended to be used for living or sleeping by human occupants; provided that temporary housing as hereinafter defined shall not be regarded as a dwelling. DWELLING UNIT One or more rooms with provision for living, cooking, sanitary and sleeping facilities arranged for the use of one family. ELEVATOR A hoisting and lowering mechanism, equipped with a car or platform, which moves in guides in a substantially vertical direction and which serves two or more floors of a building or structure. EXTERMINATION The control and elimination of insects, rodents or other pests by eliminating their harborage places; by removing or making inaccessible materials that may serve as their food; by poisoning, spraying, fumigating, trapping; or by any other recognized and legal pest-elimination methods approved by the Health Officer. FAMILY A. Shall mean one or more persons related by blood, marriage or legal adoption, residing or cooking or warming food as a single housekeeping unit, with whom there may be not more than two boarders, roomers or lodgers, who must live together in a common household. A boarder, roomer or lodger residing within the family household is a person who does or does not pay a consideration therefor to such family for such residence. B. If consisting of more than one person, shall consist only of: (1) A husband and wife. (2) Parent or parents and child or children and grandchild or grandchildren and/or grandparent or grandparents. (3) Brother and/or brothers. (4) Sister and/or sisters. (5) Any combination of those listed in (1) through (4) above. (6) other person or persons of a more distant relationship shall be considered as boarder or another family or families. The enforcement office may require substantiation of family status by affidavit or by other legal proof or documents. FIRE-DETECTING SYSTEM An approved installation of equipment which automatically actuates a fire alarm when the detecting element is exposed to fire or abnormal rise in temperature. FIRE-RETARDING MATERIAL Any material that has successfully withstood the one-hour fire test as prescribed by the National Board of Fire Underwriters or other nationally recognized agency. FIRE WINDOW A window frame with sash and glazing, having a fire-resistive rating of at least 3/4 of an hour. Where moving sash is used, such window shall close automatically by the action of a heat-actuated device or other approved means of effecting closure. FLAMEPROOF Refer to materials which will not readily ignite and will not propagate flame under test conditions. Flameproof materials are usually combustible materials with the addition of some treatment or coating to modify their burning properties. Flameproof denotes a lower degree of resistance than fire retardant. FLAME SPREAD The surface propagation of flaming over a given distance in a specified time. Numerical classification is established by the performance of the material as compared with that of asbestos-cement board and select-grade red flooring oak, which have been arbitrarily established as zero and 100 respectively. FRAME DWELLING A dwelling of which the exterior walls or any structural parts of such walls are of wood. GARBAGE The animal and vegetable waste resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking and consumption of food. HABITABLE ROOM A room or space occupied by one or more persons for living, sleeping, eating or cooking, and includes kitchens, but does not include kitchenettes, bathrooms, water-closet compartments, laundries, serving and storage pantries, rest, dressing, locker, utility, heater and boiler rooms, corridors, cellars and similar spaces that are not used frequently or for extended periods. HOTEL Be deemed a building or structure occupied, maintained, used, advertised or offered to the public as an inn or place where sleeping accommodations are furnished for rent, lease or hire with or without meals, in which sleeping accommodations for 20 or more persons are provided, arranged or maintained for the accommodation or comfort of guests. INFESTATION The presence within or around a dwelling of any insects, rodents or other pests. KITCHEN AND KITCHENETTE Any space designated, designed, used or intended for use in which the warming, cooking or preparation of food is carried on. A. A kitchen is a cooking space with 60 or more square feet of floor area. B. A kitchenette is a cooking space with less than 60 square feet of floor area but not less than 48 square feet of floor area. LODGING HOUSE A dwelling, other than a hotel, in which persons are housed in a dormitory or dormitories, whether or not the space for sleeping accommodations therein is divided into cubicles for a single night or for less than a week at a time. MOTEL Be deemed, in all respects, a hotel, and is generally considered as the temporary refuge along the highway for transient motorists, and is not more than two stories in height, in which the exit from each dwelling unit or sleeping room is directly to the exterior. MULTIPLE RESIDENCE A residence which is either rented, leased, let or hired out, to be occupied or is occupied as the temporary or permanent residence or home of three or more families living independently of each other, including, but not limited to, the following: A tenement, flat house, maisonette apartment, apartment house, apartment hotel, garden apartment, motel, tourist house, bachelor apartment, studio apartment, duplex apartment, kitchenette apartment, hotel, lodging house, rooming house, boardinghouse, boarding and nursery school, furnished-room house, club, sorority house, fraternity house, college and school dormitory, convalescent, old-age, senior citizens', rest or nursing home or residence, but not including private or public hospitals or public institutions. It shall also include a dwelling with three or more roomers, boarders or lodgers residing with a family. For further clarification of this definition, "multiple residences" are divided into two classes: Class A and Class B. A. CLASS A MULTIPLE RESIDENCE A multiple residence which is occupied, as a rule, for permanent residence purposes and not transiently. This class shall be deemed to include all occupancies as mentioned above and all other multiple residences, except Class B multiple residences, as defined below, whether or not such other multiple residences are specifically designated by name. B. CLASS B MULTIPLE RESIDENCE A multiple residence which is occupied, as a rule, transiently and is the more or less temporary abode of individuals or families who are lodged with or without meals. This class shall be deemed to include and shall include hotels, motels, lodging houses, boardinghouses, boarding schools, furnished-room houses, lodgings, clubhouses and college and school dormitories. NURSING HOME A building used for the accommodation and care of persons with, or recuperating from, illness or incapacity, where nursing services are furnished. OCCUPANCY POSTER A sign designating the lawful number of occupants permitted in a room, floor or space which is open to the public as a place of public assembly. OCCUPANT Any person over 12 years of age, living, sleeping, cooking or eating in, or having actual possession of, a dwelling unit or rooming unit. OPERATOR Any person who has charge, care or control of a building or part thereof in which dwelling units or rooming units are let. ORDINARY MINIMUM WINTER CONDITIONS The temperature 15° F. above the lowest average recorded temperature for the previous ten-year period taken at the nearest official recording station. OWNER Any person who, alone or jointly or severally with others: A. Shall have legal title to any dwelling or dwelling unit with or without accompanying actual possession thereof, or B. Shall have charge, care or control of any dwelling as owner, agent of the owner or as executor, executrix, administrator, administratrix, trustee or guardian of the estate of the owner. Any such person thus representing the actual owner shall be bound to comply with the provisions of this chapter and of rules and regulations adopted pursuant thereto, to the extent as if he were the owner. PERSON And include any individual, firm, corporation, association or partnership or other interested party. PLACE OF ASSEMBLY A room or space which is occupied or arranged to be occupied by 75 or more persons and which is used for educational, recreational, amusement, social, religious, patriotic, civic, travel and similar purposes, and shall include assembly halls, lecture rooms, exhibition halls, museums, auditoriums, instruction rooms, dance shall or studios; cabarets, nightclubs, restaurants, any room or space used for private banquets, feasts, socials, card parties, bingo or weddings; lodge or meeting halls or rooms; skating rinks, gymnasiums, swimming pools, billiard rooms, bowling alleys, archery ranges, halls used for public or private catering purposes; funeral parlors, recreation rooms, concert halls, broadcasting studios, theaters, motion picture theaters; passenger stations and terminals of air, surface, underground and marine public transportation facilities; or any other building, shed or enclosure coming within the occupancy and other similar classifications of this definition as determined by the officer charged with the enforcement of this definition. Nothing in this definition shall be construed to apply to any room or space used exclusively for dwelling purposes in a private or multiple dwelling, places of incarceration, an asylum, convalescent, old-age or nursing home, or designated areas for religious worship only, or nonparochial elementary or high schools; colleges licensed to operate by the State Board of Regents, provided such rooms are used solely and exclusively by the students of such schools or colleges. All places of assembly shall substantially comply with Rule 36 of the New York State Standard Building Code and/or with all rules, regulations, ordinances, zoning and directives of the designated enforcing authority of the Town of Hempstead, where such conditions are not definitely specified or are more restrictive. PLUMBING And include all of the following supplied facilities and equipment: water pipes, garbage disposal units, waste pipes, water closets, sinks, installed dishwashers, lavatories, bathtubs, shower baths, installed clothes-washing machines, catch basins, drains, vents and any other similar supplied fixtures, together with all connections to water, sewer or gas lines. ROOMING UNIT Any room or group of rooms forming a single habitable unit used or intended to be used for living and sleeping, but not for cooking or eating purposes. ROOMING HOUSE Any dwelling containing one or more rooming units in which space is let by the owner or operator to two or more persons who are not husband or wife, son or daughter, mother or father, or sister or brother of the owner or operator. RUBBISH Combustible and noncombustible waste materials, except garbage; the term shall include the residue from the burning of wood, coal, coke and other combustible material, paper, rags, cartons, boxes, wood, excelsior, rubber, leather, tree branches, yard trimmings, tin cans, metals, mineral matter, glass, crockery and dust. SELF-CLOSING DOORS As applied to fire doors or other opening protectives, shall mean doors which are normally kept in a closed position and which close automatically after having been opened. SINGLE-ROOM OCCUPANCY The occupancy by one or two persons of a single room or of two or more rooms which are joined together, separated from all other rooms within an apartment in a multiple residence so that the occupant or occupants reside separately and independently of the other occupant or occupants of the same apartment. When a Class A multiple residence is used wholly or in part for singleroom occupancy, it shall remain a Class A multiple residence. STORY That portion of a building which is between one floor level and the next higher floor level or the roof. If a mezzanine floor area exceeds 1/3 of the area of the floor immediately below, it shall be deemed to be a story. A basement shall be counted as a story when its ceiling height is six feet or more above the average finished grade. A cellar shall not be deemed to be a story. An attic shall not be deemed to be a story if unfinished or without human occupancy. SUPPLIED Paid for, furnished or provided by, or under the control of, the owner or operator. TEMPORARY HOUSING Any tent, trailer or other structure used for human shelter which is designed to be transportable and which is not attached to the ground, to another structure or to any utilities system on the same premises for more than 30 consecutive days. THE MANAGER OF THE BUILDING DEPARTMENT The legally designated Building Inspector of the Town of Hempstead, New York, or his authorized representative. THE MEANING OF CERTAIN WORDS Whenever the words "dwelling," "dwelling unit," "rooming house," "rooming unit," "premises" are used in this ordinance, they shall be construed as though they were followed by the words "or any part thereof." UNTENANTED HAZARD A multiple residence or any part thereof, or any structure on the same premises with a multiple residence, which has been untenanted for a period of 60 days or more and either is not guarded continuously by a resident caretaker or has any exterior openings which are not sealed in a manner approved by the Building Department; and is, in their opinion, a fire hazard or in a condition dangerous or detrimental to human life, health or morals.