Jackson County, GA Accessory Structures: ADU Rules (2026)

UDC Sec. 3-003, Accessory housing for family care, is the county's only path to a second dwelling on a residential lot, and it is narrow by design. The public development department may authorize an accessory manufactured home on a lot with a dwelling zoned PCFD or A-2 only where the housing is needed for family care, meaning watchful oversight and help with daily activities like eating, bathing, grooming, dressing and toileting. A bona fide medical hardship must be a physical or mental condition intense or continuous enough that the patient and caregiver must live in close proximity, and the person needing care must be a relative of the property owner/occupant, limited to two generations up or down or laterally no farther than a sibling, niece or nephew.

The manufactured home's floor area can't exceed the principal dwelling's, must sit only in a side or rear yard, must meet the district's side and rear principal-building setbacks, and must connect to an approved water supply and an on-site septic system cleared by the Jackson County Environmental Health Department. Applications go to the public development department with a letter of intent, a site plan, a description of the existing dwelling, and a physician's letter confirming the hardship dated within the current calendar year; the department has 30 calendar days to decide, and an administrative denial can be appealed under the UDC's appeals provisions for administrative decisions.