Land use designation: the same as zone or zoning district.

Landing field: a runway or landing area which is designed, used or intended to be used by private aircraft, including necessary taxiways, storage, and tie-down areas.

Landscaping: the artificial application of plants and manmade materials to improve the appearance of real property.

Landslide: downslope movement of a mass of soil, rock, snow or ice including, but not limited to, rock falls, slumps, mudflows, debris flows, torrents, earth flows and snow avalanches.

Landslide hazard area: areas that, due to slope and soil permeability, are susceptible to land sliding.

Level of service: a qualitative measure used in the context of traffic and transportation analysis, describing operational conditions of the transportation system and acceptable adequacy requirements. Level-of-service standards consist of six (6) alphabetical categories corresponding to the amount of average delay per vehicle at signalized and unsignalized intersections, and average travel speed for urban street segments as defined in the most current version of the Highway Capacity Manual (HCM). The Highway Capacity Manual defines six (6) levels of service for each type of facility for which analysis procedures are available. They are given letter designations, from A to F, with level-of-service A representing the best operating condition and level-of-service F the worst, as calculated by a methodology endorsed by the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE).

Light manufacturing: processing and fabricating activities which provide minimal hazards or nuisance related to noise, vibration, glare, odor, smoke, dust, air pollution, toxins, fire, explosion, or traffic. Light manufacturing uses include, but are not limited to, the processing, fabrication, assembly, treatment, packaging, incidental storage, and distribution of previously prepared materials or finished products or parts. Light manufacturing uses do not include the basic industrial processing of unfinished unprocessed raw materials.

Lightwell: a below-grade entrance or recess designed to allow light into basements.

Liner building: a building specifically designed to mask a parking structure from a frontage.

Loading space: an area required to be maintained on certain business, commercial and industry lots, in addition to regular yard requirements, used for the loading and unloading of trucks and other vehicles.

Log storage: a facility for open or enclosed storage of logs, including incidental offices and repair facilities for on-site equipment.

Lot: a piece of land having fixed boundaries, either as part of a subdivision or through metes and bounds description. The term does not include easements, divisions, or descriptions created solely for access purposes, utility purposes, open space or mitigation purposes, or tax record purposes by the Snohomish County Assessor’s Office.

Lot area: the total measured horizontal area contained within the lot lines of a lot, typically in acreage or square footage.

Lot, corner (corner lot): a lot with two (2) frontages on intersecting streets.

Lot coverage: the area of a lot covered with a structure.

Lot, interior: a lot bounded by no more than one (1) street, road, or private road with the remainder of the lot lines abutting other lots, tracts, or alleys.

Lot line: see Property line.

Lot, parent: the initial lot from which unit lots are subdivided pursuant to SMC 14.215.125.

Lot width: the distance between the side lines of a lot, as measured by scaling a circle of the applicable diameter within the boundaries of the lot; provided, that an access easement shall not be included. Examples of how lot width is measured are shown in the following diagram:

Lots, contiguous: lots with a common property line.

Low impact development (LID): a stormwater and land use management strategy that strives to mimic pre-disturbance hydrologic processes of infiltration, storage, and transpiration by emphasizing conservation, use of on-site natural features, site planning, and distributed stormwater management practices that are integrated into a project design.

Low impact development (LID) facilities: distributed stormwater management practices, integrated into a project design, that emphasize pre-disturbance hydrologic processes of infiltration, filtration, storage, evaporation, and transpiration. LID best management practices include, but are not limited to, bioretention, rain gardens, permeable materials, roof downspout controls, dispersion, soil quality and depth, minimal excavation foundations, vegetated roofs, and water reuse.

Lowest floor: the lowest floor of the lowest enclosed area of a building, including the basement and excluding unfinished or flood resistant enclosures, used solely for parking of vehicles, building access, or storage in an area other than a basement area; provided, that such enclosure is not built so as to render the structure in violation of the applicable nonelevation design requirements of Chapter 14.270 SMC (i.e., provided there are adequate flood ventilation openings). (Ord. 2401, 2020; Ord. 2429, 2021)