Roswell, GA Outdoor Cooking: Outdoor Kitchen Permits (2026)

Roswell Unified Development Code § 9.7.17 defines an outdoor kitchen as "a permanent outdoor or covered area used for the preparation of food" and regulates it as an accessory use in Article 9. Where the Article 9 use table lists outdoor kitchen as a Limited Use, § 9.7.17.B requires one off-street parking space for every 300 square feet of outdoor kitchen area, on top of whatever parking the principal use already provides.

The use table treats outdoor kitchen differently by zoning category. Across the ten single-family and attached Residential Districts, AG-43, RS-87, RS-30, RS-18, RS-12, RS-9, RS-6, RS-4, R-CC and R-TH, it is a Permitted Use (P), meaning it needs no extra standard beyond the rest of the UDC. It drops to a Limited Use (L), subject to the § 9.7.17 parking ratio, in the RM-2 and RM-3 multi-family districts. It is a Limited Use across every district listed in Article 4 (Corridor and Nodes Districts) and every district listed in Article 6 (Employment Districts). In the Article 8 overlay use table it is Limited in two of the four listed categories and not permitted in the other two, and in the Article 7 Civic and Open Space Districts table it carries a dash in all three columns, meaning it is not an allowed use there at all.

Per UDC § 9.1.2.A-B, a Permitted Use is "also subject to all other applicable requirements of this UDC," while a Limited Use is "permitted in the respective district, subject to a use standard found in the right-hand column of the use table," which for outdoor kitchen is the § 9.7.17 parking ratio. Enforcement runs through the Zoning Director, who under § 13.14.1.A "has primary enforcement authority over Articles 1 though 10" of the UDC, the article group that includes § 9.7.17.