Orlando, FL Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

Section 58.896 governs pet boarding facilities, the zoning category that captures veterinary clinics offering overnight animal care. A pet boarding facility 'shall be permitted only as an accessory use to a permitted primary pet-oriented use,' meaning it cannot stand alone, it must be 'established only in conjunction with another pet-oriented use, including a veterinary clinic, grooming parlor, pet-oriented retail shop or pet day care facility.' If the primary use needed a Conditional Use Permit, the boarding operation needs its own sign-off within that same approval.

Every boarding operation must keep animals inside 'a fully enclosed structure designed to limit noise and odor,' capped at the Class A noise standards of Chapter 42 and barred from generating off-site odors, with indoor density limited to one animal per ten square feet. Waste must go through a licensed or state-approved pet-waste disposal system.

An attached outdoor exercise yard is allowed only if it sits at least 500 feet from any residential zoning district or residential area of a planned development, a distance that can shrink only through a Conditional Use Permit showing no adverse impact on neighbors. The yard must be enclosed by a masonry wall or wood fence at least six feet tall, animals are barred from it between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m., no more than four animals may use it at once, no animal may stay more than two hours a day, and waste must be picked up daily. Separately, Section 58.895 confines kennels, including any veterinary use that boards animals overnight, to zoning categories allowing intensive service uses; a clinic offering only daytime medical care is a lower-intensity 'service use' under the code's definitions.