Barrow County, GA Landscaping Rules: Tree Removal & Heritage Trees (2026)

The Unified Development Code (chapter 89) devotes Article VIII, Division 3 to tree conservation across every zoning district in unincorporated Barrow County. Section 89-893 flatly prohibits clear-cutting any lot in a residential subdivision; land may be cleared only as necessary for the home, driveways and sidewalks, utilities and detention ponds, septic systems, roads, and decks and patios, plus proper drainage, and clearing cannot extend more than ten feet beyond that specific construction footprint. The rule reaches every recorded residential lot in the county's subdivisions, not just larger tracts.

Section 89-892 carves out narrow exemptions: individual homeowners adding to an existing home, building accessory structures such as a pool or guest quarters, or removing diseased, dying or hazardous trees are not subject to the tree conservation article, but that exemption never reaches protective buffers along streams, creeks or reservoirs. Agricultural tree harvesting is exempt only if it follows the county's timber-harvesting notice rules and state law; a property that is systematically thinned or clear-cut outside a bona fide agricultural use, or harvested without following those rules, is barred from receiving a preliminary plat or project site plan for five years, a penalty only the board of commissioners can waive by majority vote.

Once construction starts, section 89-894 requires a valid tree-protection barrier, for example a four-foot orange safety fence, wide caution tape or a lumber fence, placed around the critical root zone of every tree marked to survive. No one may store building materials, dump solvents, park equipment or run heavy machinery inside that barricaded root zone while work is underway. The planning and community development department reviews the tree-save plan as part of the required landscaping plan submittal before any development approval is issued.