FORSYTH COUNTY, GA — Forsyth County commissioners have agreed to partially lift a moratorium on some residential building projects, allowing certain development applications to move forward.
With the vote, commissioners will now allow rezoning applications for homes built on one-acre lots. The move comes after leaders paused new housing developments last year due to what they described as explosive growth in one of the fastest-growing counties in metro Atlanta.
While some residents wanted the building ban to remain in place longer, county attorney Ken Jarrard said state law does not allow for that.
“There’s no such thing as a permanent moratorium. It needs to be temporary, it needs to be reasonable, it needs to be justified,” Jarrard said.
Jarrard added, “What the law would say is, now it’s time to take the governor off and allow there to be some people being able to come in and petition their government to be able to have their property rezoned.”
County commissioners have until the middle of May to take further action on the remaining moratorium, otherwise it will expire.
Forsyth County spokesman Russell Brown said the partial lift also comes after the county worked through updates to building standards.
“But even before that, and probably more importantly the board is actually able to make sure that they’ve made some updates that they’ve really been after for the tree ordinance as well as design standards for the community,” Brown said.
Brown said additional changes could be considered before the rest of the moratorium expires.
“They’ve worked very hard and are planning a community development team as well as some other county staff, and expert consultants to come up with the best solution possible for the future,” Brown said.
The partial lift marks the first step in ending the full building ban that has been in place since last year.
Forsyth County has grown by more than 100,000 residents over the past 15 years. Commissioners first began taking steps to slow that growth two years ago by raising impact fees for residential construction and increasing assessments for single- and multi-family homes.
WSB Radio’s Keith Cromwell contributed to this story.