Springfield, IL Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

City Code Sec. 034(b)(1) lists 'Animal hospitals, including boarding or breeding' among the retail and service establishments permitted in the B-2 General Business Service District, alongside the separate use 'Animal pounds and kennels' listed in the same subsection. Because both uses appear on the permitted list rather than the conditional permitted use list in Sec. 034, a veterinary hospital, an animal hospital that also boards or breeds animals, or a kennel can locate in a B-2 zone without appearing before the Springfield Planning and Zoning Commission or city council.

Sec. 034(a) explains why animal hospitals are grouped with other B-2 service uses: the district is meant to accommodate establishments involving 'objectionable influences, such as noise, vibration, smoke, or other particulate matter, heat, humidity, glare, odor, danger of fire' that make them incompatible with residential development and the lighter commercial districts. Animal hospitals do not appear on the permitted use lists for the S-1, S-2, S-3 or B-1 districts covered elsewhere in Chapter 155, so a clinic proposing to locate in one of those districts, or in any residential district, would need a rezoning rather than a zoning permit.

Building plans still go through the Office of Public Works, Department of Building and Zoning for a building permit and any occupancy inspection, and the clinic needs whatever business license the city's licensing chapter requires. State veterinary licensing, administered separately by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, is not part of this zoning provision.