Barrow County, GA Environmental Rules: Flood Elevation Requirements (2026)

Section 89-1258(d)(2)a sets Barrow County's freeboard standard for the areas of special flood hazard mapped in the county's Flood Insurance Study: where base flood elevation data are available, new construction and substantial improvement of any structure, including a manufactured home, must have its lowest floor, including any basement, elevated no lower than one foot above the base flood elevation. That one-foot margin is stricter than the bare federal floor of sitting at base flood elevation, and it applies to heating, air conditioning, electrical, ventilation and plumbing equipment too, which the same subsection requires to sit at or above that same one-foot-above-base-flood-elevation line.

Nonresidential structures in A1-30, AE or AH zones have an alternative: they may be flood-proofed instead of elevated, but section 89-1258(d)(2)b requires the structure and its utility and sanitary facilities to be designed watertight to one foot above the base flood elevation, with substantially impermeable walls and components capable of resisting hydrostatic and hydrodynamic loads, all certified by a registered professional engineer or architect. Manufactured homes get parallel treatment under section 89-1258(d)(2)c: either the lowest floor sits one foot above the base flood elevation, or, in an existing manufactured home park, the chassis is elevated on reinforced piers at least 36 inches above grade. Where no base flood elevation has been established at all, section 89-1258(d)(3)c instead requires the lowest floor to sit at least three feet above the highest adjacent grade at the building site. The Planning and Community Development Director certifies and permanently records the lowest floor elevation in the permit file for every project.