Spalding County, GA Environmental Rules: Flood Zones (2026)

Article 20 of the Spalding County Zoning Ordinance, Appendix IV, creates the S-1 Sensitive Land Flood Damage Prevention overlay district, most recently repealed and reenacted in full by Resolution No. A-10-06 on September 20, 2010. Section 2001 grounds the overlay in the county's constitutional police power and O.C.G.A. § 36-1-20(a), finding that flood hazard areas are subject to periodic inundation that causes loss of life and property, and that unregulated development in floodplains increases flood heights and erosion elsewhere. Section 2003 draws the district's actual boundaries from the Federal Emergency Management Agency's flood insurance study for Spalding County, dated June 1, 2010, together with its accompanying maps; those FEMA-mapped areas of special flood hazard, plus AO and AH shallow-flooding zones, are declared part of the S-1 District by reference.

The overlay layers on top of, rather than replacing, whatever base zoning district, agricultural, residential or commercial, already applies to the parcel, and where the two sets of rules conflict, the more stringent provision prevails. Any development inside the mapped S-1 boundary needs a development permit from the zoning administrator before grading, filling, or construction begins, under Section 2003(B). The FEMA study and maps defining the district are kept on file for public inspection at the Department of Community Development, Spalding County Annex, 119 East Solomon Street, Suite 203, in Griffin.

Violating the overlay's terms, including building without the required permit, is punishable under Section 2003(G) by a fine of up to one thousand dollars, up to thirty days in jail, or both, with each day of continuing violation charged separately.