Fort Collins, CO Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

5 of the Transitional Land Use Code sets four zoning conditions on any small animal veterinary clinic or hospital in Fort Collins. First, every part of the operation, including treatment rooms, cages, pens, kennels, and exercise runs, must sit inside a completely enclosed, soundproof building; outdoor kennels or exercise yards are not allowed regardless of screening. Second, the clinic must be designed and built to eliminate any offensive odor reaching neighboring properties, whether those properties are owned, occupied, or simply patronized by the public. Third, the building's sound isolation must keep noise from the clinic to 65 decibels or less at any abutting property line, a design standard rather than a one-time noise-complaint test, meaning it is enforced at the building-permit and inspection stage.

Fourth, the clinic cannot board animals for any length of time except where the boarding is necessary to provide surgical or other medical care, which rules out routine overnight or long-term kennel boarding as a side business at a veterinary practice. Together these four conditions are stricter than the standards applied to general animal boarding facilities elsewhere in the Code, reflecting the clinic's likely placement in commercial districts closer to residences. This section governed veterinary clinic site plans and building permits reviewed under the Transitional Land Use Code, the version Fort Collins used before its current Land Use Code, adopted by Ordinance No. 055, 2024, took effect for applications filed on or after May 17, 2024.