Wauwatosa, WI Animal Ordinances: Pet Groomer Rules (2026)

040, which defines "Sales & Grooming" as the sale and grooming of dogs, cats and similar small animals, giving pet stores, dog bathing and clipping salons and pet grooming shops as typical examples. 030 confirms where that use may locate: Sales & Grooming is a permitted, by-right use in the CO, C1 and C2 commercial districts, plus the SP-RP special-purpose district and the MID-TRN and MID-MIX mixed-use districts, but it carries a prohibited designation in every one of Wauwatosa's six residential districts, GR, SR, NR, MR, LDM and MDM, and in the M1 and M2 industrial districts.

That means a groomer or pet-supply shop with an in-store bathing and clipping service can open by right in the city's commercial corridors without a conditional use permit, but cannot operate out of a house or in an industrial-zoned building. The use table draws a sharp line between grooming and boarding: if an operation keeps more than three animals overnight for compensation it becomes a "Shelter or Boarding Kennel" use instead, which needs a conditional use permit in C2 and is permitted by right only in the M1 and M2 industrial districts, so a groomer that adds overnight boarding must re-check its zoning classification and district.