Non-conforming use

A non-conforming use is an activity a district's current rules would not permit, continuing lawfully because it predates them — the factory in a residence district, the store where zoning no longer contemplates one. The Resolution tolerates continuation under conditions while pushing toward eventual conformity: rules govern enlargement, changes to other non-conforming uses, and what happens after damage or discontinuance, where lapses can extinguish the right.

Diligence treats claimed non-conforming status skeptically and documentarily: the right rests on continuous lawful history, so the evidence is records — certificates, permits, tax and license trails — establishing the use existed lawfully before the change and never lapsed since. An asserted grandfather with no paper behind it is an assertion.