Stafford County, VA Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

Section 28-25 defines a veterinary clinic as a facility staffed with medical personnel licensed in Virginia to attend to animals' medical needs, and separately defines a narrower veterinary vaccination clinic, one that only administers vaccinations, heartworm testing and preventatives to dogs and cats and flea and tick preventatives, which can be established as an accessory use at a pet store. 1 in Section 28-35 then splits how the county treats a full veterinary clinic depending on whether it boards animals. In the A-1 Agricultural district, a veterinary clinic without boarding facilities sits on the list of uses permitted by right, alongside agriculture, home occupations and single-family dwellings, so no discretionary approval is needed beyond a standard zoning permit.

A veterinary clinic with boarding facilities, by contrast, is listed only among A-1's special exception uses, alongside uses like commercial kennels and animal feeding operations that raise similar noise, odor or traffic concerns for neighbors. Getting a special exception means filing an application with a generalized development plan and a nonrefundable fee, going through Planning Commission review and a public hearing, and then a Board of Supervisors public hearing and vote under Section 28-185, with the Board able to attach conditions addressing noise, buffers, setbacks and parking specifically because of the boarding component.

1 also lists a plain "Veterinary clinic" by right in at least one other business district, showing the boarding distinction, not the veterinary use itself, drives the extra review in A-1.