Plainfield, NJ Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

Section 17:9-42(J) of the Plainfield Municipal Code sets the off-street parking schedule, and the Table of Parking Regulations lists a veterinary hospital at 1 space per 300 square feet of gross floor area. The schedule applies in all zone districts except the Central Business District (CBD) and the North Avenue Historic District Zones, and it is triggered when a building or structure is erected, enlarged, increased in capacity or has a change of use. A change of use into a veterinary hospital therefore brings the ratio into play.

The 300-square-foot ratio matches the table entries for retail sales and service, personal service, banks and art studios, and it is a lighter ratio than the 1 space per 175 square feet printed for medical office. Subsection K treats the table figures as minimum standards: parking beyond them is permitted, but provided parking for nonresidential uses cannot exceed the minimum by more than ten percent (10%). A use not described in the table gets its requirement from the approving authority at a public hearing.

Other parking rules in the same section reach a veterinary site. Required spaces go on the same lot as the use or on an adjacent lot in common ownership (subsection L). Spaces must be at least nine by eighteen feet (subsection Q). A parking lot belongs to the rear or interior of the site and is prohibited in a required side yard setback or the front yard (subsection E). Loading areas stay on the lot, out of the front yard, and forty feet from any intersection of two public rights-of-way (subsection M).

The code text this page was read from does not reproduce where a veterinary hospital is a permitted use. The zone district entries in Part I read "Permitted Uses. See Schedule A," and Schedule A, Use Restrictions, is an attachment to Chapter 17. Section 17:9-46 separately prohibits any use not expressly permitted in the chapter and any use that causes noise, odor or disturbance to surrounding properties. In Chapter 5, § 5:5-7 exempts a veterinarian's establishment where dogs are kept for diagnostic, medical, surgical or other treatment from the dog impounding article.