Harnett County, NC Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

021 as "a place where animals are given medical care and the boarding of animals is limited to short-term care incidental to the hospital care," distinguishing it from a full veterinary hospital or kennel elsewhere in the code. 105 lists "Veterinarian service, indoor" and "Veterinarian service, with outdoor facilities" as separate line items, each requiring one parking space per 300 square feet of floor area, and each subject to footnote 3 sending the applicant to the supplemental standards. 111(A)(1), Commercial Uses, Animal services, Veterinarian services.

Any outdoor yard area used by the clinic must be enclosed by a solid, opaque fence or masonry wall at least eight feet in height, well above the four-to-six-foot fences allowed for ordinary residential yards elsewhere in the UDO. The animal hospital structure itself must be soundproofed to minimize loud and disturbing noises reaching adjoining structures, and the noise emitted from the facility must independently comply with the county's noise regulations enforced by the Harnett County Sheriff's Department under Chapter 92. Depending on the zoning district shown on the use table, a veterinarian service is either permitted by right (P), allowed only with a special use permit (S), or allowed with a special use permit plus the asterisked outdoor-facility conditions, so the district matters as much as the use itself.

A property owner in a district marked S must apply for a special use permit through Harnett County Development Services before opening or expanding a clinic with any outdoor animal area.