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

Forsyth County Code of Ordinances section 46-83 sets the county's freeboard requirement for any building inside the special flood hazard area (SFHA) mapped in FEMA's March 4, 2013 flood insurance study. For residential structures, once the site-plan requirements of sections 46-73 through 46-75 are satisfied, new construction and substantial improvements may not have a lowest floor, including the basement, set any lower than three feet above the base flood elevation, or one foot above the future-conditions flood elevation if that number is higher. Where a builder uses solid foundation perimeter walls to reach that elevation, the code requires flood openings sized to automatically equalize hydrostatic pressure on the exterior walls, per the general standards in section 46-82(5)(a).

Non-residential buildings carry the identical three-foot/one-foot freeboard rule under subsection (2), but may instead be floodproofed to that same elevation if a licensed professional engineer or architect certifies the design and files a FEMA floodproofing certificate with the county. The Director of the Forsyth County Department of Engineering, appointed under section 46-35 to administer this article, reviews and records the as-built elevation of every new or substantially improved structure's lowest floor. Property outside the SFHA but adjacent to the future-conditions floodplain faces the same three-foot/one-foot standard under section 46-84.

Anyone who disagrees with the director's determination of the flood boundary or elevation can appeal to the Forsyth County Zoning Board of Appeals, and a variance may be granted only on a finding of good and sufficient cause and exceptional hardship, per section 46-91.