Rockdale County, GA Animal Ordinances: Pet Groomer Rules (2026)

Section 106-1 of the Unified Development Ordinance (Title 2 of the Code) defines 'animal services, limited' as a use that provides grooming and training services for dogs or cats or other small animals, distinguishing it from full kennels and pet boarding uses defined separately in the same section. The table of permitted uses at § 218-1 then fixes where that use may legally operate: in the A-R (agricultural-residential) district it requires a special use permit under the procedures of chapter 238, but the table lists no entry at all for the R-1 or R-2 single-family and two-family residential districts, meaning the use is prohibited there outright, along with the CRS, CSD, MRU and RM residential-adjacent districts.

The use is listed as permitted by right, however, across the county's commercial and light-industrial districts: CID, O-I, NC, MxD, C-1, C-2, OBP, M-1 and M-2. A homeowner grooming pets informally as an unlisted home occupation would separately run into § 218-13(dd)'s home occupation standards, which bar any use that is not clearly incidental to the residential use of the dwelling and cap home-occupation floor area at 25 percent of one story. Practically, that leaves formal, for-fee pet grooming and training businesses confined to the county's agricultural or commercial zoning districts rather than ordinary residential subdivisions.