In Victoria, a dog daycare is an agricultural use
That is not a turn of phrase. It is what the instrument says.
Clause 73.03 of the Victoria Planning Provisions sets out the state's land use terms. Domestic animal boarding is defined there as "Land used to board domestic animals, such as boarding kennels and a cattery. It includes domestic animal day care." The table's nesting columns then place that term inside Domestic animal husbandry, which sits inside Animal husbandry, which sits inside Agriculture (planning-schemes.app.planning.vic.gov.au).
So a dog daycare in a suburban warehouse is, in Victorian planning language, an agricultural use. Nobody opening one expects that, and it decides which line of a zone table you read before you sign anything.
Do not over-read it. The nesting is the definition hierarchy and nothing more. It does not mean day care belongs on farmland, and it does not tell you whether you need a permit. Where a use is allowed is set separately, by the Section 1, Section 2 and Section 3 tables inside each zone.
This guide is general information for Victorian pet business owners. It is not legal, planning, accounting or financial advice, it does not account for your circumstances, and it does not account for your site. Australian development approval is set across state legislation, state planning instruments and local planning schemes, each published separately, and this guide brings that fragmented material together in one place. It is based on publicly available information, verified on 9 August 2026, and linked at the point each fact is stated so you can read the original. We maintain those links and re-check them, but we do not control what those bodies publish, and planning instruments change. You remain responsible for your own position: confirm it with your council or a qualified town planner and make your own decision before you act. Petboost accepts no responsibility for any action taken on the basis of this article. Planning outcomes are site specific and discretionary. Two identical businesses on two streets in the same council can get different answers, and nothing in this guide predicts what an authority will decide. If anything here is inaccurate, tell us and we will correct it.
1. What it is called here, and who decides
The approval is a planning permit, under the Planning and Environment Act 1987, currently Authorised Version No. 167, incorporating amendments as at 3 August 2026 (content.legislation.vic.gov.au).
The Act never says you need a permit for a grooming salon or a kennel. Section 47 says you must apply if a planning scheme requires a permit. The trigger always sits in the scheme, in the table of uses inside your zone. The decision maker is the responsible authority, which section 13 makes the municipal council for land in its district. Section 61 lets it grant a permit, grant one with conditions, or "refuse to grant a permit on any ground it thinks fit".
Victoria has no private certifier for planning. A town planner here prepares and argues your application; they have no power to approve it. The private approver sits in the building system instead: a building permit can come from a municipal or a private building surveyor, but that surveyor must first be satisfied that "any relevant planning permit or other prescribed approval has been obtained" (content.legislation.vic.gov.au). Planning first, building second, by statute.
2. Your pathways here
| Pathway | What triggers it | The clock | Fee | Can neighbours object |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| No permit needed (Section 1 of the zone) | Your use is named in Section 1 and any condition beside it is met | None | None | No |
| VicSmart (Clause 71.06) | The application is in a class the scheme specifies as VicSmart, and no other clause also triggers a permit | VCAT is open to you after 10 business days | 13.5 to 29 fee units, $233.10 to $500.80 | No, notice and objector review are switched off |
| Ordinary permit (Section 2 of the zone) | Your use is in Section 2, or is caught by the catch-all "Any other use not in Section 1 or 3" | VCAT is open to you after 60 days | Use only, 89 fee units, $1,537.00 | Yes |
| Permit with a referral | The scheme names a referral authority for that kind of application | The referral adds 28 days | As above | Yes |
| Prohibited (Section 3 of the zone) | Your use is listed in Section 3 | There is no application to make | None | Not applicable |
That catch-all is the triage in one line. In the Commercial 1 Zone table, Section 2 ends with "Any other use not in Section 1 or 3" (api.app.planning.vic.gov.au). If the scheme does not name your use in Section 1 or Section 3, you need a permit. There is a separate general exemption list at Clause 62.01, and nothing on it is a pet business; beekeeping is the only animal activity there (api.app.planning.vic.gov.au).
The clock is a remedy, not a deadline. No Victorian council is obliged to decide within any period. Section 79 gives you the right to ask VCAT to review a failure to decide once a prescribed time has passed, and that time is 60 days, or 10 business days for a VicSmart application (content.legislation.vic.gov.au). It restarts from the day you supply further information and pauses while public notice is being given, so a permit that takes six months has not necessarily breached anything.
Fees are state fees, not council fees. They are set in fee units, which is why the same class costs the same everywhere in Victoria. The FY2026-27 fee unit was gazetted at $17.27 (gazette.vic.gov.au). A use only application is 89 fee units, $1,537.00, and development costing $100,000 or less is 77.5 fee units, $1,338.40. Combine a change of use with a fit-out and you pay the highest of the fees plus half of each of the others (greaterdandenong.vic.gov.au).
VicSmart will not fast track your change of use
VicSmart is Victoria's fast lane and it is genuinely fast. There is no public notice, objectors get no review rights, the council must ask for further information within 5 business days, and VCAT is open to you after 10 business days (api.app.planning.vic.gov.au).
It is also useless for the thing this guide is about. The state VicSmart classes are boundary realignments, subdivision, front fences, buildings and works, tree removal, heritage, special building overlay, signs and car parking. Not one of them is a use. Clause 59.15 lets a council add local classes in a schedule, and the schedule we read specifies none (api.app.planning.vic.gov.au). VicSmart may cover your signage or your fit-out works. On everything we could read, it cannot cover your change of use.
3. What your use is called here
| Your business | Victorian land use term | The definition |
|---|---|---|
| Boarding kennel or cattery | Domestic animal boarding | "Land used to board domestic animals, such as boarding kennels and a cattery. It includes domestic animal day care." |
| Dog day care | Domestic animal boarding | The same term. Day care is named in the definition. |
| Dog obedience school | Domestic animal husbandry | "Land used to keep, breed, board or train domestic animals." |
| Veterinary clinic | Veterinary centre | A standalone term, nested inside nothing. |
| Grooming salon | Not named | The word groom does not appear anywhere in Clause 73.03. |
Two of those catch people out. A dog obedience school is not "Animal training", because that term is defined as land used to train animals "other than domestic animals, horses, or racing dogs". And "Animal keeping" and "Animal boarding" are not Victorian terms at all. They are Queensland and New South Wales words, and searching a Victorian scheme for them returns nothing.
Grooming sits between exactly two terms
Clause 73.03 says a term that is not listed must not be treated as a separate use if it is obviously or commonly included within a listed one. So grooming has to be characterised, and two listed terms are each arguable on the face of their own definitions.
Shop, "Land used to sell goods or services, or to hire goods", expressly includes Hairdresser and Beauty salon, the two closest human analogues, and nests up into Retail premises.
Service industry, "Land used to launder, repair, service or wash articles, machinery, or vehicles", nests up into Industry, and its own sub-term Dry cleaner is the professional cleaning of clothing or household articles. Washing is the pull towards it. "Articles, machinery, or vehicles" is the push away, because a dog is none of those.
We are not going to tell you which one applies. No Victorian planning authority we could read characterises pet grooming, and characterisation of a use is the responsible authority's job under Clause 63.02.
Key Takeaway: The choice between those two terms is not academic. In an Industrial 1 Zone unit, a grooming salon read as Service industry sits in Section 1 and needs no permit at all. Read as Shop, it sits in Section 3 and is prohibited. Same unit, same business, opposite answers.
One aside, because it explains why this is a harder question over the border. The New South Wales term reaches the "keeping or caring" of animals commercially, and grooming is arguably caring. Every Victorian animal term is limited to four verbs: keep, breed, board or train. There is no caring limb here. That is a difference in drafting, not advice about your site.
Where boarding and day care land, by zone
Domestic animal boarding is a named term, so it is easier to trace. In the scheme we read it needs a permit in the Commercial 1, Commercial 2, Industrial 1, Rural Living and Farming Zones, and it is listed by name as a Section 2 use in the Farming Zone table (api.app.planning.vic.gov.au). In the General Residential Zone table at Clause 32.08-2 of that same scheme it sits in Section 3, prohibited. A home based dog day care in an ordinary residential street is therefore not a permit application, because no permit is available. Read the equivalent table in your own council's scheme, because schedules are local.
One useful negative. Clause 53.10, the provision that sets threshold separation distances for uses with potential adverse impacts, contains no threshold distance for a boarding kennel, a cattery, a day care or a grooming salon (api.app.planning.vic.gov.au). Victoria has no state-wide setback for domestic animal uses. Interstate figures such as Brisbane's 800 metre kennel setback are Queensland instruments and do not apply here. A Victorian setback or acoustic condition comes from the council's own assessment, not from a state number.
Get it answered in writing: the certificate of compliance
Part 4A of the Act lets any person ask the responsible authority to certify that an existing use complies with the planning scheme, or that a proposed use would comply. The council must refuse the certificate if the use would in fact require a permit or is prohibited, which is itself a clear answer. The prescribed time to issue one is 30 days.
That is the instrument to use before you sign a lease where the landlord says no permit is needed. It turns an encouraging phone call into a written position from the body that decides. A dispute about a certificate also sits in VCAT's Fast Track List, where a refused permit application does not.
4. Existing use rights here
Victoria publishes the clearest existing use rights in the country, at Clause 63 of every planning scheme (api.app.planning.vic.gov.au).
A right is established if, among other limbs, "The use was lawfully carried out immediately before the approval date", or proof of continuous use for 15 years is made out under Clause 63.11. Clause 63.02 then characterises the use by the purpose of the actual use at the relevant date rather than by the Clause 73.03 table, so the classification argument above does not defeat a right that already exists.
And it expires. Clause 63.06: a right ends if "The use has stopped for a continuous period of 2 years, or has stopped for two or more periods which together total 2 years in any period of 3 years."
The commercial point is straightforward. If you are buying an existing Victorian salon, kennel or daycare as a going concern, the right runs with the land rather than with the seller. But a tenancy that has sat empty for more than two years has, on the face of Clause 63.06, lost whatever right it had. Ask how long the doors have been shut, and get the answer in writing.
5. If you are refused
Reviews go to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, which publishes them under the case type "Planning disputes" (vcat.vic.gov.au).
- Refused permit. Section 77, within 60 days after the council gives notice of its decision.
- No decision at all. Section 79, after 60 days, or 10 business days for a VicSmart application.
- An objector challenging your approval. Section 82, within 28 days of the notice of decision.
You get 60 days to challenge a refusal; an objector gets 28 days to challenge your approval. A Victorian permit is not settled on the day it is granted.
Fees are fee units again, in three columns for corporate, standard and concession payers, with a $300,000 turnover figure in the definition of a standard fee payer (content.legislation.vic.gov.au). For a section 77 or 79 proceeding that is not a major case, with a development cost of nil, it is 68.0 fee units for a standard payer and 205.9 for a corporate one. At $17.27 a unit that is $1,174.36 and $3,555.89, which is our calculation from two published figures rather than a number VCAT publishes. VCAT expects about 12 weeks from lodgement to hearing for a short case (vcat.vic.gov.au).
6. The registration that is not a permit
If you board, run day care, offer in home care, train dogs, breed, or run a pet shop or shelter, you also need a Domestic Animal Business registration with your council under the Domestic Animals Act 1994. Different Act, different question: welfare standards and codes of practice, not whether the land may be used that way at all. One council says it plainly on its own page, that depending on the planning zone of the property you may also require a council planning permit (whitehorse.vic.gov.au). Our full guide to that registration is here.
Grooming is not on that council's list of domestic animal businesses, so a grooming only salon is likely outside the registration regime and still squarely inside the planning question.
What we could not verify
- Whether any Victorian responsible authority has published a characterisation of pet grooming. We could not find one, which is why this guide gives you two candidate terms rather than an answer.
- Local VicSmart classes. Clause 59.15 lets each council specify its own. We read one council's schedule and it specified none.
- The Department's own VicSmart and practitioner guides. Every page on www.planning.vic.gov.au refused automated access on the day we checked, so we worked from the scheme ordinance and the legislation instead.
- Any state level operating hours condition or decibel limit specific to animals. We read the relevant provisions and found none published.
What to do before you sign
- Find the zone for the exact address, then read the Section 1, 2 and 3 tables for that zone in your council's planning scheme.
- Ask the council one specific question in writing: for this address, in this zone, what land use term applies to what I do, and does it need a permit.
- Consider a certificate of compliance under section 97N. Thirty days and a written answer beats an encouraging phone call.
- Make the lease conditional on the permit if the answer is not settled before you commit.
- If you are taking over an existing pet business, ask how long the use has been running, and how long it has been stopped.
Verified 9 August 2026 against the sources below. Planning instruments change, and planning decisions are made on the merits of each site, so nothing here predicts what your authority will decide. Check the linked source and confirm your own position with your council or a qualified town planner before you act.
Sources
- Victorian Legislation, Planning and Environment Act 1987, Authorised Version No. 167: content.legislation.vic.gov.au
- Victorian Legislation, Planning and Environment Interim Regulations 2026: content.legislation.vic.gov.au
- Victorian Legislation, Building Act 1993, Authorised Version No. 149: content.legislation.vic.gov.au
- Victorian Legislation, Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Fees) Regulations 2026: content.legislation.vic.gov.au
- Department of Transport and Planning, Victoria Planning Provisions Clause 73.03 Land use terms: planning-schemes.app.planning.vic.gov.au
- Department of Transport and Planning, Clause 34.01 Commercial 1 Zone: api.app.planning.vic.gov.au
- Department of Transport and Planning, Clause 35.07 Farming Zone: api.app.planning.vic.gov.au
- Department of Transport and Planning, Clause 62.01 Uses not requiring a permit: api.app.planning.vic.gov.au
- Department of Transport and Planning, Clause 71.06 Operation of VicSmart applications and process: api.app.planning.vic.gov.au
- Department of Transport and Planning, Schedule to Clause 59.15 Local VicSmart applications: api.app.planning.vic.gov.au
- Department of Transport and Planning, Clause 53.10 Uses and activities with potential adverse impacts: api.app.planning.vic.gov.au
- Department of Transport and Planning, Clause 63.01 Extent of existing use rights: api.app.planning.vic.gov.au
- Victoria Government Gazette No. S 234, Fixing the Value of a Fee Unit and a Penalty Unit: gazette.vic.gov.au
- City of Greater Dandenong, Planning and Subdivision Fee Schedule 2026/27: greaterdandenong.vic.gov.au
- VCAT, Planning disputes: vcat.vic.gov.au
- VCAT, Short cases, Planning disputes: vcat.vic.gov.au
- Whitehorse City Council, Domestic Animal Businesses: whitehorse.vic.gov.au