Bartow County, GA Noise from Specific Sources: Bar & Nightclub Noise (2026)

A 'beer garden' under Bartow County Code § 44-169 is an establishment with an open-air area where beer, wine or distilled spirits may be served along with food. To obtain a consumption-on-the-premises license for that open-air area, the operator must locate it in a commercial zoning district and meet a set of siting rules built around noise from entertainment. The baseline location restriction keeps the alcohol service area at least 100 feet from any residentially zoned parcel. That buffer widens automatically to 250 feet whenever the beer garden offers entertainment, music, bands, groups, amplification systems or loud noise of any kind, measured from the point of the beer garden area closest to a residential zone to the closest property line of that zone.

The open-air area itself must also be separated from non-licensed property and public rights-of-way by a fence, barrier, vegetation or similar demarcation, and the operator must show the county how noise and other nuisances toward adjacent properties will be mitigated and how patrons will be kept from carrying alcohol off the permitted area. Sales through drive-thru windows or other openings to the street or sidewalk are prohibited outright. Because the ordinance folds noise regulation into the alcohol licensing process rather than setting a decibel limit, the practical rule for any bar or beer garden with live or amplified entertainment near a residential zone is the 250-foot setback, not a sound-level cap.