Bossier City, LA Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

Sec. 5.6.24 of the Unified Development Code divides veterinary service into two sub-categories with different zoning footprints. General Veterinary Service covers all veterinary medical services for large and small animals and includes overnight boarding of animals in outdoor pens; because of that outdoor boarding, the Code restricts this sub-category to the R-A Residence-Agricultural District and the I-1 Light Industrial District, keeping outdoor kennels away from denser commercial and residential areas. Small Animal Hospital covers veterinary medical services where the establishment boards domestic pets and other small animals, generally under 100 pounds, overnight in indoor pens rather than outdoor runs; that indoor-only boarding lets the Code allow small animal hospitals in a wider set of districts, R-A, B-3 General Business, B-4 Downtown Business, and I-1 Light Industrial.

A veterinary use that does not fit within these boarding definitions, or that seeks to locate outside its assigned districts, has to seek relief through the Code's use-table procedures rather than operate by right. The distinction tracks the same B-3 General Business District logic used elsewhere in the Use Regulations article, where the Code allows lower-impact indoor operations into commercial districts while pushing outdoor-animal uses back to agricultural or industrial land.