Effingham County, GA Accessory Structures: Tiny Homes (2026)

Effingham County's zoning ordinance treats tiny homes as a distinct use inside the R-4 planned manufactured home community district (Zoning Ordinance § 5.8), the same district that hosts mobile home parks, mobile home subdivisions and recreational vehicle parks. Section 5.8.16 requires that tiny home subdivisions sit on permanent foundations and meet all residential building codes, unlike the manufactured-home lots elsewhere in the same district, and the accompanying table sets the development standards: a minimum ten-acre development area, a 4,000-square-foot minimum lot, a 35-foot minimum lot width at the building line, a 15-foot front setback from the pavement, a ten-foot rear setback, a five-foot interior side setback and a 15-foot side setback measured from the pavement.

Because the use lives inside the R-4 district rather than in R-1 through R-6 conventional residential zoning, a landowner cannot simply place a tiny home on an existing single-family lot: the property must first be zoned or rezoned R-4 and processed as a subdivision, triggering the same site plan, perimeter setback (Section 5.8.2.1, 20 feet), and landscaped buffer (Section 5.8.2.2, 15 feet with 75 percent opacity screening) requirements that apply to the rest of the mobile home district. Utilities must run underground per Section 5.8.4, and applications are processed like the county's mobile home park and subdivision permits under Section 5.8.13, meaning a site plan, construction plans and a final plat of record before any building permit issues.