Columbia County, GA Right to Farm: Agricultural Zoning Protection (2026)

Section 90-41 establishes the R-A district to keep intensive residential building out of land that lacks full public water, sewer, and services, reserving it for rural farm and very-low-density use. The minimum lot size is 2½ acres, though the ordinance grandfathers legal lots of record that existed before the section was enacted, so an existing small parcel does not lose its buildable status when the zoning rules changed. Permitted and limited land uses for the district are set by the countywide use table in § 90-50, and dimensional standards, lot coverage, setbacks, height and frontage, come from the § 90-53 lot and structure requirements table.

Under that use table, general agricultural operations are an allowed (by-right) use in the R-A district, while a barn, pole barn, or other agricultural storage structure is a limited use subject to its own cross-referenced use standard. Small-scale agriculture is not confined to the R-A district: the table lists it as a limited use in all ten residential zoning districts, from R-A through A-R10, meaning even single-family and multifamily zones countywide can host it under the applicable use standard. Timber harvesting is a limited use only in the R-A, R-1, and R-1A districts. Columbia County Planning and Development administers rezonings and use approvals; developing land inconsistent with the R-A district's permitted uses or lot standards requires a rezoning application to the board of commissioners rather than a simple building permit.