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

Zoning Ordinance § 5.5.3, the 'Lot and building requirements' table for the R-1-A Single-Family Residential District (Alternative), sets 'Maximum building height' at 35 feet for principal buildings, five feet above the 30-foot cap the county's standard R-1 district carries under its own table at § 5.4. The R-1-A table measures height alongside a 100-foot building line, a 35-foot front yard, a 25-foot rear yard, and the district's 30-percent maximum lot-coverage limit, all under the same 'Principal buildings' heading, so the height cap applies to the same structures the setbacks govern.

R-1-A is Effingham County's alternative to standard R-1, carrying over every permitted use in the base district under § 5.5.1 and adding specific construction standards for single-family manufactured homes, including a minimum 3:12 roof pitch and masonry curtain-wall foundation skirting, while keeping its own, taller, height allowance in § 5.5.3 rather than the R-1 figure. Development Services measures height at the building-permit review stage against the plans submitted for the principal structure; the ordinance's agricultural-district table elsewhere exempts farm accessory buildings from height limits, but no such exemption appears in the R-1-A table, so garages, workshops and other accessory structures in R-1-A remain subject to the same standard.

A homeowner proposing a structure taller than 35 feet needs a variance from the board of zoning appeals before Development Services will issue a building permit.