Wicomico County, MD Animal Ordinances: Veterinary Clinic Zoning (2026)

Wicomico County's home-based business ordinance names animal-care operations directly among the uses barred from smaller home businesses. Subsection C, headed Type I and Type II prohibited home-based businesses, opens by stating that prohibited home-based businesses include, but are not necessarily limited to, a list of specific uses, and the very first item in that list is kennels, stables, veterinary hospitals, animal grooming. A Type I home-based business allows no employees or customers on site at all, and a Type II home-based business allows only one non-resident employee, so under § 225-97 neither classification can host a veterinary hospital, a boarding kennel, a stable or a pet-grooming operation regardless of how small the setup is.

The prohibited list in Subsection C also names medical and dental clinics, restaurants, drugstores, funeral parlors, adult uses, group homes, and boarding or rooming houses alongside the animal-care uses, showing the county treats these as businesses whose customer traffic, odor, noise or animal-welfare concerns are incompatible with a residential accessory use at the Type I or Type II scale. Subsection E, which lists the uses a Type III home-based business, allowing up to two non-resident employees, may run, does not include veterinary hospitals, kennels, stables or animal grooming among its examples of beauty services, agriculture-related work, septic and well service, trucking, small automotive repair, carpentry and similar trades. Anyone in unincorporated Wicomico County looking to operate an animal-care business needs a commercial or agricultural zoning district rather than a home-based business approval.