Pismo Beach, CA Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

Section 17.38.190 of the 1998 Zoning Code is short and specific. It makes two demands of every veterinary clinic and animal hospital: a location at least five hundred feet from any residential zoning district, and all facilities for keeping animals during diagnosis or treatment located entirely within a structure. The section prints no exception or reduction for the distance.

The 1998 definitions in § 17.62.020 give the category a wider reach than exam rooms. "Veterinary Clinics, Animal Hospitals, Kennels, Boarding" covers office and indoor medical treatment facilities used by veterinarians, including large and small animal veterinary clinics and animal hospitals. It also covers commercial facilities for the keeping, grooming, boarding or maintaining of four or more dogs four months of age or older, or four or more cats, for commercial purposes, and it excludes dogs or cats in pet shops. The definition groups kennel and boarding facilities under the same heading, but § 17.38.190 itself names only clinics and animal hospitals.

Parking comes from § 17.34.040, which requires every proposed land use to provide the minimum number of off-street parking spaces, except where a greater number is required through land use permit conditions of approval. Its table sets veterinary clinics and animal hospitals at 1 space per 200 sq. ft. of gross floor area.

The city code also prints a 1983 Zoning Ordinance, which defines an animal hospital in § 17.006.0065 as any building or portion thereof designed or used for the care, observation or treatment of dogs, cats or other household pets. The commercial districts use table in Chapter 17.12 cross-references § 17.38.190, but its column headings do not print, so which districts allow the use and under what permit is not stated here. The Planning Division can confirm the district for a specific site.

Pismo Beach uses two adopted zoning codes. The city's Zoning and Land Use page states that properties inside the Coastal Zone are regulated by the 1983 Zoning Code, and properties outside the Coastal Zone are regulated by the 1998 Zoning Code.