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

Section 6.5 of the Clayton County Zoning Ordinance, labeled HT-01, applies to every zoning district in unincorporated Clayton County. Subsection A sends you to the Two-Page Layout for each district in Article 3 for the maximum height, so the number depends on the zoning of the lot. Subsection B then bars anyone from erecting a structure, or changing one, so that it exceeds the limit for its district, except for three listed exceptions.

The first exception covers church steeples, private water towers and utility transmission towers. These can exceed the district height by twofold, with a hard ceiling of 150 feet measured from grade. A steeple in a district capped at 35 feet therefore tops out at 70 feet, while a tower in a 75-foot district stops at 150 feet. The second exception lets necessary mechanical appurtenances and elevator bulkheads rise up to 15 feet above the permitted height, but only if design features of the building shield them completely from view. The third sends telecommunication towers and antennas to Section 6.37, where monopoles are capped at 220 feet, lattice or guyed towers at 350 feet, and concealed support structures at 160 feet in residential districts and 180 feet in industrial, commercial and agricultural districts. Attached antennas cannot add more than 20 feet to an existing building or structure, and a tower must sit back from the property line by a distance equal to its own height.

The Definitions section measures Structure Height as the vertical distance from the average elevation to the finished grade surrounding the structure of the highest point of the structure, and defines Building Height and Height by pointing to it. A story is capped at 14 feet, and any portion over 14 feet counts as an additional story for each 14 feet or fraction thereof. Examples of district numbers printed in the text: the Warehouse district and the Industrial Park district allow 75 feet for the primary structure and 35 feet for accessory structures, the RMTSF and RTH residential districts allow 35 feet and 25 feet, and the Urban Village district allows five stories or 64 feet for residential over nonresidential mixed use.