Renton, WA Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

Renton Municipal Code 4-11-220 defines a veterinary office/clinic as "a place where common household pets are given medical care and the accessory indoor boarding of animals is limited to twenty five percent (25%) of the net floor area or no more than five (5) days of short-term care incidental to the hospital use." That 25%/five-day cap is what separates a lawful veterinary clinic from a kennel, which the Zoning Use Table at RMC 4-2-060 regulates as a wholly separate use with its own, more restrictive permit requirements in most zones.

The Master Zoning Use Table at RMC 4-2-060 lists veterinary offices/clinics as a permitted (P) use outright in the Resource Conservation (RC) zone and in all three industrial zones (IL, IM, IH), plus the Commercial Arterial (CA) and Commercial/Office/Residential (COR) zones. The use is not listed at all, meaning it is not allowed, in the standard residential zones R-1, R-4, R-6, R-8, RMH, R-10, RMF, RMF-2, or in the Commercial Neighborhood (CN) zone.

In the Residential-14 (R-14) zone, the table marks the use "AD42," meaning it needs an Administrative Conditional Use Permit and, per footnote 42 to RMC 4-2-080, "Specified uses are only permitted for properties located along South 4th Street." That confines any R-14 veterinary clinic to that specific corridor. In the Commercial/Visitor (CV), Commercial/Office (CO), and Urban Center (UC-1, UC-2) zones the use is permitted but tied to footnoted siting conditions in RMC 4-2-080, including architectural-integration standards for shopping-center parcels under footnote 82.