Barrow County, GA Building Setbacks & Zoning: Structure Height Limits (2026)

Section 89-405 of the Unified Development Code sets the county's building and structure height framework. 1: each zoning district carries its own ceiling, running from 50 feet in the AG and AR agricultural districts down to 40 feet in the R-3 and MH districts and up to 75 feet in the M-1 and M-2 industrial districts. 1 would otherwise permit for the underlying zoning district. Outside the AHO District, subsection (b)(2) exempts specific structures, including farm buildings such as barns, silos and grain elevators, rooftop equipment like water tanks and cooling towers, and features such as church spires, water towers and utility substations, from the normal height cap, but even these exempt structures cannot exceed 200 feet measured from the average finished grade at the base.

Fences and freestanding walls get their own, much lower limits under subsection (b)(3): in the AG and AR districts a front-yard fence or wall tops out at five feet while a side or rear yard fence or wall can reach eight feet, and the code sets parallel, generally similar limits for the R-1, R-2, R-3 and multi-family districts, plus an eight-foot cap on decorative subdivision walls along county roads. Radio, television and telecommunication towers follow yet another height schedule under section 89-182 rather than this section.