Bartow County, GA Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

Sec. 1 of the Bartow County Zoning Ordinance defines child day care as a use providing care, personal-services assistance or supervision to children for more than four and less than 24 hours per day, expressly excluding any facility that provides medical or rehabilitative treatment. Sec. 3(D) then lists in-home child day cares and kindergartens for six or fewer children among the permitted uses in the A-1 agricultural district and every conventional residential district, RE-1, RE-2, R-1, R-2, R-3 and R-4, without requiring a conditional use hearing.

That permitted-use status comes with three conditions repeated across the individual district sections (for example Sec. 7(C) for R-1): at least 35 square feet of indoor space per child, at least 100 square feet of outdoor play area per child enclosed by a fence at least six feet high, and proof of registration and licensing with the Georgia Department of Human Resources filed with the zoning application before the county will approve the use. Larger, non-residential day care and kindergarten operations are handled separately: Sec.

7(F) permits nursery schools, adult and child day care centers and kindergartens in the C-N neighborhood commercial district under the same 35-square-foot indoor and 100-square-foot fenced outdoor standards, and Sec. 8(I) extends similar standards to child day cares operating in the C-1 general business district alongside hospitals, clinics and other institutional-residential uses referenced by Sec. 1. Community Development reviews the site plan for the indoor-space, outdoor-play and fencing figures, and the state separately licenses the operation before children can be enrolled.