Black Hawk County, IA Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

Two sections of the county zoning ordinance address veterinary use, and both apply the same 660-foot buffer. 010(A)(8) lists veterinary clinics as a principal permitted use, but not nearer than 660 feet from any zoned residential district, incorporated boundary line, or dwelling other than that of the site's own lessee or owner. 010(A)(3) groups an animal hospital, veterinary clinic, or commercial kennel together, requiring any exercising runway serving the facility to meet the identical 660-foot standard from an "R" residential district, an incorporated boundary line, or a dwelling other than the owner's or lessee's own.

Because the ordinance measures the buffer from an incorporated boundary line as well as from a residential district, a clinic proposed near the edge of Waterloo, Cedar Falls, Evansdale, Hudson, La Porte City, Dunkerton, Gilbertville, Elk Run Heights or Raymond must clear 660 feet from that city limit too, not just from mapped residential zoning inside the unincorporated county. 105 BHCC and, where public utility or agricultural review triggers apply, recommendation from the County Planning and Zoning Commission with approval by the Board of Supervisors accompany any use requiring discretionary review in these districts. This ordinance governs only land outside the county's incorporated cities; each of those cities zones veterinary uses under its own separate municipal code.