Augusta-Richmond County, GA Building Setbacks & Zoning: Lot Coverage Limits (2026)

Section 8-9 sits inside Section 8, the R-1 zone article of Title 8's Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance, incorporated into the County Code by Section 8-5-1. It reads simply: no more than 30 percent of an R-1 lot's area may sit under buildings or structures, with a floor of 800 square feet so a very small recorded lot is never squeezed below that footprint. The other residential zones scale up from there: 40 percent in the R-2 (Two-Family) Zone under Section 15-4(d), the same 40 percent carried into the R-3A and R-3B multiple-family zones by cross-reference, and 50 percent in the denser R-3C zone under Section 18-6.

The R-1D and R-1E zones, reserved for attached and cluster housing, set no maximum lot coverage at all (Sections 12-6 and 13-4), relying instead on their own open-space and density rules. Manufactured Home Residential (R-MH) lots cap at 40 percent under Section 14-6. Even commercial mini-warehouse facilities in the B-2 zone carry a coverage limit: no more than 70 percent of the site, with the remaining 30 percent held as Augusta Tree Ordinance canopy. Planned Unit Developments set their own maximum impervious surface ratio in the approved Development Plan under Section 19-3(B)(IV) rather than a fixed county-wide number. The Augusta Planning and Development Department reviews lot coverage at the building-permit and site-plan stage before construction can begin.