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

County Code § 23-2.1.4 defines "Veterinary hospitals/services" as "a place where animals are given medical care and may include the boarding of animals as a secondary use," a definition that also covers veterinary clinics. The same section separately clarifies, in the definition of "Office," that "Veterinary hospital/services shall not be deemed to be an office use," so a veterinary practice cannot rely on the county's office-district permitted-use lists; it must instead be reviewed under its own veterinary classification wherever that classification is listed.

That listing varies by district. Veterinary hospitals/services appear as a by-right permitted use, subject to site plan approval, in the county's general business district, Commercial 1 (C-1), under § 23-6.17.2, alongside personal service and retail establishments. In the agricultural districts, however, the same use is placed on the special-use list rather than the permitted-use list, meaning a veterinary clinic proposed on agriculturally zoned land needs board of supervisors approval through the § 23-4.5 special-use process, including a public hearing before the planning commission and board findings on traffic, neighborhood compatibility, and environmental impact under § 23-4.5.7(a).

Parking for the use is set separately in the off-street parking schedule at § 23-5.9.3, which assigns spaces based on the building's gross floor area, exclusive of any area used to house or board animals, reflecting that boarding is treated as a secondary, lower-traffic function of the primary medical-care use. Because boarding is only a secondary use under the definition, an operation whose primary business is animal boarding or kenneling instead falls under the separate "kennel" or "animal shelter" use classifications, which carry their own, generally more restrictive, siting standards.