South Fulton, GA Building Safety: Childcare Center Rules (2026)

Sec. 12 applies once a facility serves seven or more children, excluding staff. The site must meet the landscape strip, buffer and improvement setback standards written for the O-I (Office-Institutional) zoning district in Article 4, and a minimum six-foot-high opaque fence has to be installed interior to those buffers around the entire perimeter of the play yard, which itself must sit in the rear or side yard, never facing the street. No parking is allowed in the minimum front yard, and driveways must be designed so vehicles exit in a forward direction rather than backing into traffic.

Operators must submit a Noise Study Report under Article 8. Facilities in the MHP (Manufactured Home Park) district may only operate as an accessory use tied to an approved development plan, and every facility must be served by public sewer rather than septic. Sec. 12(k) also sets a minimum distance separation between two day cares fronting the same road, scaled to the road's functional class: none on an Urban Principal Arterial, 1,000 feet on an Urban Minor Arterial, and a half mile on an Urban Collector or Local Street. The section was added by Ord. No. 2021-024, § 1, adopted 10-26-2021.