Chatham County's fence regulations expressly do not restrict necessary retaining walls: Sec. 5-1 states the wall-and-fence rules 'shall not prohibit the construction of any necessary retaining wall.' A retaining wall is still a structure, so a building permit under Sec. 5-1.1 and any engineering required by the building code still
Sec. 5-1 of the county zoning ordinance opens by clarifying that its wall-and-fence provisions do not prohibit the construction of any necessary retaining wall, nor waive the buffer and screening requirements found elsewhere in the regulations. In practice this means a retaining wall needed to hold back soil is not capped by the 6-/8-foot fence height limits, but it must still obtain a building permit (Sec. 5-1.1) and meet the drainage, buffer and structural standards of the county code. Taller or load-bearing retaining walls typically require engineered plans reviewed by the county building official before construction.
Building a retaining wall without the required permit or engineered plans can bring a stop-work order, after-the-fact permit fees, and code-enforcement fines until the wall is permitted or corrected.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
Chatham County, GA
Chatham County has no standalone hoarding statute, but it curbs hoarding through hard numeric pet limits (8 cats, 6 dogs per acre) and its cruelty/neglect pr...
Chatham County, GA
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Chatham County, GA
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Chatham County, GA
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Chatham County, GA
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Chatham County, GA
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