How Rezoning Works in Forsyth County: Steps, Fees and Timeline

Rezoning in Forsyth County is a public hearing process that ends with a vote by the Board of Commissioners. You file through the county’s online portal, sit down with staff at a zoning review meeting, hold a public participation meeting for your neighbors, then go to the Planning Commission for a recommendation and to the Board of Commissioners for the decision.

We pulled the county’s own register of pending zoning cases on November 5, 2026 and measured it. Across the rezoning cases that have a full set of dates on them, the median case takes 136 days from the day it is filed to the day it is scheduled for a Board vote. That is about four and a half months, and only if nothing changes along the way.

Below is the process in the order you will actually live it, with the code section behind each step. The rules are in Chapter 8 of the Forsyth County Unified Development Code, Zoning and Application Procedures. Rezonings specifically are Article V, sections 8-5.1 through 8-5.5.

The process at a glance

If you read nothing else here, read this table. It is the whole process in order, with the typical clock taken from the county’s own file of pending cases.

Step	What happens	Who runs it	Typical clock
1. Check your zoning	Confirm what you have and whether you need a rezoning at all	You, with county staff	Before you file
2. File	Survey, legal description, site plan, tax receipt, disclosures	You	No fee at this stage
3. Zoning review meeting	Staff hand you a written review of your project	County staff	About 27 days after you file
4. Applicant work time	Neighbor letters, a sign, a public meeting, a written report	You	10 days minimum, 180 days maximum
5. Notice	Newspaper ad and a hearing sign on the property	County and you	15 to 45 days before the hearing
6. Planning Commission	Public hearing, then a recommendation only	Planning Commission	About 83 days after the review meeting
7. Board of Commissioners	The vote that decides it	Board of Commissioners	About 30 days after the hearing

Everything below is the detail behind one of those seven rows.

Who actually decides

Only the Board of Commissioners can change the official zoning map, and it does it by resolution (8-5.2 and 8-5.5(g)). The Planning Commission holds the first public hearing and sends up a recommendation, and that is all it does: every finding of the Planning Commission on a rezoning is a recommendation to the Board (8-3.4(e)). The Zoning Board of Appeals hears variances and appeals of staff decisions and has no role in a rezoning at all (8-3.2(b)).

That matters for how you spend your effort. The Planning Commission hearing is where the record gets built and where the opposition shows up, and the commissioners read the recommendation. But five elected commissioners cast the only vote that counts.

Step 1: Confirm what you are zoned, and whether you need a rezoning at all

You need a rezoning only when the use or the development you want does not conform to the district you are already in (8-5.3(a)). If the project complies with the existing district, there is nothing to apply for. If it is a use the district allows only with a conditional use permit, that is a different and usually cheaper application.

The county will put your current zoning in writing. A Certificate of Zoning Compliance costs $75 through the Customer Self Service portal and will confirm either the current zoning of a property with all of its conditions, or whether a specific intended use is allowed in that district. It is not required. Planning and Community Development recommends getting one as soon as you have a property in mind, and on an older parcel with conditions attached to a 1990s case, it is the cheapest money you will spend.

If you want the district rules themselves, we have written them up: residential districts, A1 and AG RES, and the commercial districts.

Step 2: The application

Everything is filed electronically through the county’s Customer Self Service portal. There is no fee to file a rezoning for zoning review. The fee comes later, when you submit for board consideration.

Every application has to arrive with the following (8-2.1):

Ten copies of a boundary survey by a registered land surveyor, plus one reduced to 8.5 by 11 inches
A written metes and bounds legal description, with all parcels combined into one description
Ten copies of a site plan, plus a reduced copy
A paid tax receipt for the property
A corporate disclosure naming officers, members and any stockholder holding ten percent or more, and anyone else with a direct financial interest in the application, including the intended developer or commercial occupant if you know it

Two of those have teeth. On a tract over ten acres the site plan has to be prepared, stamped and sealed by a surveyor, engineer, landscape architect or architect licensed in Georgia. And unless the board says otherwise, the site plan you file is binding on you. It is not an engineered drawing and it does not have to be, but the locations and the uses on it are what you are promising to build. People lose money on that sentence.

A rezoning of ten acres or more also needs a written evaluation of the project covering five factors: conformance with section 10-1.8, the effect on population density and on schools, utilities and roads, whether there are substantial reasons the property cannot be used as currently zoned, consistency with the Comprehensive Plan, and anything else relevant to balancing the public interest against your right to reasonable use of your own land (8-5.4(d)).

Staff then run a completeness review within five business days of the submittal deadline. If they find it incomplete, nothing moves until you fix it, and the fixed version counts as a brand new application. If they do not finish the review in five business days, the application is deemed complete (8-2.1(a)(1)).

Step 3: The zoning review meeting

Once the application is accepted, the department schedules a zoning review meeting and circulates your submittal to the other county departments. Across the pending cases we measured, the median gap from filing to that meeting is 27 days.

At the meeting staff hand you a written review that covers which county policies and requirements apply, whether the project fits the Comprehensive Plan, the scope of public participation and the minimum contact list, site plan problems, concerns about public rights of way and public improvements, land use and design concerns, possible alternatives, and what has to be done before the case can go in front of a board (8-5.5(b)(1)).

Read that document closely, because it does not stay between you and staff. It becomes available to the public and goes to both the Planning Commission and the Board of Commissioners. It is the first written opinion anyone will read about your project.

Step 4: Applicant work time, and the meeting with your neighbors

The day after the zoning review meeting a clock starts. You have a minimum of ten days and a maximum of 180 days to finish your site plan, run the public participation plan and settle your proposed conditions (8-5.5(c)). Let 180 days pass without submitting for board consideration and the director withdraws the case administratively, with prejudice (8-2.2(b)), which locks the property out of a substantially similar application for twelve months (8-2.3).

Public participation is not optional and it is not a formality. In this window you must:

Mail a public participation letter to every property owner within 500 feet of any part of the site, and to the homeowner associations within 500 feet that have contact information available, postmarked no earlier than the date of the zoning review meeting
Collect a public participation sign from the county and post it on every public road frontage at least ten days before the meeting, then file an affidavit with a dated photograph of the sign against a verifiable landmark within two business days of the zoning review meeting
Hold the meeting near the property, no earlier than twelve days after the zoning review meeting, Monday through Friday, starting between 6:00 and 7:30 in the evening, somewhere with parking and shelter
Record the meeting in audio and video if the project is a major subdivision or involves at least 5,000 square feet of building space that is not residential
File a public participation report listing every concern raised, which concerns you will address on the site plan or in conditions, and which you will not address and why

If that report does not meet the requirements, the application is incomplete and will not be scheduled for a hearing (8-5.4(c)(2)). No report, no hearing.

Here is the trap in this stage. The instinct after a hostile neighborhood meeting is to redesign the plan. But a major application change sends you back to a new zoning review meeting and a new public participation meeting (8-5.5(d)). The code lists what counts: any change to a more intense district, any change in the method of sewage treatment, any change in use or housing type, any change to the property boundary, adding a variance or a conditional use, ten percent or more additional lots, ten percent or more density, or ten percent less open space. Concessions have to be designed to stay inside those lines, or the calendar restarts.

This is also where the time goes. The median gap from the zoning review meeting to the Planning Commission hearing across the cases we measured is 83 days, three times longer than anything else in the process.

Step 5: The sign in the yard and the ad in the paper

Once the department determines the application complete, it advertises and schedules the hearing (8-3.3). Notice runs in a newspaper of general circulation at least 15 and not more than 45 days before the hearing, carrying the case number, the date, time, place and purpose, and both the existing and the proposed zoning classifications. A public hearing sign goes up on the property at least 21 and not more than 45 days before the hearing, and the sign affidavit is due by the twenty first day. Miss that affidavit deadline and you have bought yourself another zoning review meeting.

Two side effects worth knowing. First, you can withdraw without prejudice right up until the newspaper notice runs. Once it runs, withdrawal is with prejudice unless the board grants an exception (8-2.2(a)), so the decision to pull a case has a hard date on it. Second, after the final decision the signs are yours to remove, and the fine is $100 a day starting three days after the vote.

Step 6: The Planning Commission hearing

The Planning Commission holds the public hearing on rezonings (8-3.2(a)). Each side gets at least ten minutes, and the chair can extend that equally (8-3.4(c)). Anyone who speaks, for or against, has to give a name and address on a form and disclose any campaign contribution or gift of $100 or more made to a Forsyth County elected official in the previous two years (8-3.4(b)).

The commission can recommend approval, approval with conditions, or denial. It can also recommend less acreage than you asked for, a district less intense than the one you asked for, or added or deleted conditions (8-5.5(f)(1)). It aims to vote the night of the hearing but has until its next regular meeting or 31 days, whichever is later. If it does not act in that window, the case is automatically scheduled for the Board without a recommendation.

Step 7: The Board of Commissioners vote

The Board can approve, approve with conditions, deny, send the case back to the Planning Commission or staff for further study, cut the land area, drop the district to something less intense, or let you withdraw with or without prejudice (8-5.5(f)(2)). Only the Board can table a case (8-3.4(d)). The median gap from the Planning Commission hearing to the Board date, across the cases we measured, is 30 days.

The code tells the Board exactly what to weigh, in two lists (8-5.5(f)(2)a and b). If you are preparing to speak at a hearing, for or against, these are the only arguments the Board is required to consider.

List	What the Board weighs
General	Conformity with the Comprehensive Plan. Whether the use suits nearby development. Whether it would hurt the usability of adjacent property. Whether it would burden existing streets, utilities or schools. Whether conditions in the area have changed enough to support the request.
Special	Land values and the effect on neighboring values. The character of boundary roads and intersections. Floodplain and drainage. Consistency with the county sewer and water master plans. Buffers, noise, odor, fire protection, topography, schools, lighting and hours of operation.

Two sentences in that section are worth quoting back when you hear the opposite argued at a podium. The code says the fact that there is already ample land in the district you are requesting does not of itself justify denying your application, and that the zoning classification in place when you bought the property does not preclude you from asking for a new one.

One procedural wrinkle on the residential side: if you ask the Board to approve a less intense residential district than the one that was advertised, you have to send written notice to everyone you notified the first time, plus the public participation attendees who left a legible address, at least 15 days before the Board takes final action.

Board decisions are final, subject to appeal under Chapter 8, Article XII. And approval does not promise you infrastructure: the code says in as many words that granting a rezoning does not ensure the availability of utilities.

What a rezoning costs

There is no fee for the application for zoning review. Fees are due when you submit for board consideration, and they are set by acreage with a floor.

Requested district	Fee
A1, AG RES, Res1, Res2, Res3	$20 per acre, $300 minimum
Res4, Res6, MHP	$30 per acre, $300 minimum
MPD, MCD, MRD	$30 per acre, $500 minimum
NS, UV, HB, CBD, HC, BP, O&I, OR, OCMS	$40 per acre, $400 minimum
M1	$40 per acre, $500 minimum
M2, MINE	$50 per acre, $2,500 minimum

Add on what you file alongside it: a variance is $250 per code article in agricultural and residential zoning and $350 in commercial and industrial, doubled if work has already started; a conditional use permit is $400; a sketch plat is $250; a zoning condition amendment is $300.

None of that is the real cost. On most tracts the survey, the metes and bounds description, a sealed site plan, any traffic or sewer work the county asks for, the certified mailings and a zoning attorney all cost more than the county filing fee does.

How long it actually takes

Forsyth County publishes a live spreadsheet of every pending zoning case with its application date, zoning review date, Planning Commission date and Board of Commissioners date. We read it on November 5, 2026. It held 80 pending applications: 28 conditional use permits, 25 rezonings, 15 zoning condition amendments, 10 alternate designs, one sketch plat and one home occupation permit.

Thirteen of the 25 rezoning cases carry all four dates. Their medians:

Stage	Median days
Application to zoning review meeting	27
Zoning review meeting to Planning Commission hearing	83
Planning Commission hearing to Board of Commissioners date	30
Application to Board of Commissioners date	136

Widen it to all 15 pending rezonings that have a Board date and the median goes to 167 days, with a range from 104 days to 1,840 days. The 1,840 day case is ZA4043, filed in January 2022 to rezone land off Jot Em Down Road from A1 to Res3. It is now on the December 17, 2026 agenda, five years after it was filed. That is what a request the county does not want looks like on a calendar.

One caveat we will not paper over: these are scheduled board dates, not finished decisions. Cases get tabled, continued and withdrawn. Read the medians as the shape of the calendar when things go normally, not as a promise.

What you cannot rezone to right now

Three separate restrictions are in force as of this writing, and they are the reason a lot of Forsyth rezoning conversations end early.

The residential rezoning moratorium. The Board extended it again on October 15, 2026, through and including April 13, 2027. It bars the county from accepting new applications to rezone to any district in Chapter 11 of the code, the residential districts, or Chapter 20B, the specialty districts, with three exceptions: Res1, MRD and MCD. It has run continuously since April 2025. We track it in our moratorium post.

The sketch plat and land disturbance permit moratorium. A separate moratorium blocks any sketch plat or land disturbance permit application on property that was zoned into a Chapter 11 or Chapter 20B district before April 13, 2017. The Board extended it on May 21, 2026 through November 17, 2026. That means it lapses in under two weeks unless the Board extends it again, which it has done every time so far. If you own older residential zoning you have been sitting on, that date is the one to watch.

Eleven legacy districts are closed permanently. Section 8-5.3(a)(1) says no rezoning to R1R, CR1, R1, R2R, R2, R3, R4, LR, OSR, PUD or CR2 will be made or accepted, and conservation subdivisions are not accepted either. Those districts still cover plenty of land on the map. You simply cannot ask to join them any more. This is the legacy code phase out, and the direction of travel has been one way: every county initiated rezoning of a legacy parcel that we have tracked has moved the owner to lower density, not higher. We wrote that up in Forsyth County Wants to Rezone Your Land?

The combined effect is visible in the register. Of the 25 rezoning cases pending right now, exactly three ask for a residential district. One is the county itself moving a Res3 property down to Res1. One is an A1 to MRD request, in an exempt district. The third is that January 2022 Res3 case. The other 22 are commercial, industrial, agricultural or office.

What this means if you own land in Forsyth County

Entitlement is the scarce thing in this county now, and the process above is why. Four and a half months is the median path to a vote, and that is for a case nobody fights.

Our own read of the market is that Res3 is close to impossible to get approved in Forsyth County at the moment, given the political climate, and the register supports it: not one new private Res3 request is pending. If your plan for your land depends on getting residential density approved, price in both the wait and a real chance of a no.

Approval is also not forever. You have 18 months after a rezoning to commence development, which the code defines as applying for and being issued a land disturbance permit, under the version of the code in effect when your application was accepted (8-3.4(f)). Go past 18 months with no land disturbance permit application and the county sends notice that it may initiate a rezoning back to a constitutional designation if you do not file within 30 days (8-5.5(i)). An approval you do not build on is a clock, not a right.

And if you are selling, this is the whole reason a developer’s contract looks the way it does. A buyer who has to rezone is buying a calendar and a risk, and both get priced into your number and into a long due diligence period with the rezoning as a contingency. Zoning you already have is worth cash. Zoning somebody else has to go get is worth a conditional contract.

Where a landowner should start

Five things, in this order, before you talk price with anybody:

Pull a Certificate of Zoning Compliance for $75 so you know exactly what you have and what conditions ride with it
Check whether your district is one of the eleven that are closed for good, and whether either moratorium touches what you want to do
Work out whether you need a rezoning at all, or whether a conditional use permit or a variance does the job for less money and less time
If a buyer is the one who will rezone, settle in writing who pays for the survey, the sealed site plan and the attorney, and what happens to the contract if the Board says no
Assume five to seven months to a decision and put that in the contract rather than in your hopes

If you own land in Forsyth County and want to know what your zoning is actually worth, or what it would be worth rezoned, call us at 404-983-6710 or start with what your land is worth.

Frequently asked questions

How long does rezoning take in Forsyth County?

Plan on five to seven months. Of the 25 rezoning cases pending with Forsyth County on November 5, 2026, the 13 that carry a full set of dates show a median of 136 days from application to the scheduled Board of Commissioners date: 27 days to the zoning review meeting, 83 more to the Planning Commission hearing and 30 more to the Board date. Across all 15 pending cases that have a Board date the median is 167 days, and the range runs from 104 days to 1,840 days.

How much does it cost to rezone land in Forsyth County?

There is no fee to file a rezoning for zoning review. Fees are due when you submit for board consideration and are charged by the acre: $20 an acre with a $300 minimum for A1, AG RES, Res1, Res2 and Res3; $30 an acre for Res4, Res6, MHP, MPD, MCD and MRD; $40 an acre for the commercial districts and M1; and $50 an acre with a $2,500 minimum for M2 and MINE. On most tracts the survey, legal description, sealed site plan, mailings and legal fees all cost more than the county filing fee.

Who approves a rezoning in Forsyth County?

The Board of Commissioners, by resolution. The Planning Commission holds the first public hearing and makes a recommendation only. The Zoning Board of Appeals hears variances and appeals of staff decisions and has no role in a rezoning.

Can I rezone my land to residential in Forsyth County right now?

Mostly no. A moratorium adopted in April 2025 and extended again on October 15, 2026 runs through April 13, 2027 and bars new rezoning applications to any residential district in Chapter 11 of the code or any specialty district in Chapter 20B, except Res1, MRD and MCD. Separately, the code permanently refuses applications to eleven legacy districts: R1R, CR1, R1, R2R, R2, R3, R4, LR, OSR, PUD and CR2.

Do I have to meet with my neighbors before a rezoning hearing?

Yes. Forsyth County requires a public participation meeting before a rezoning can be scheduled for a hearing. You mail notice to every owner within 500 feet and to the homeowner associations within 500 feet, post a county sign at least ten days ahead, and hold the meeting near the property on a weekday evening starting between 6:00 and 7:30, no earlier than twelve days after your zoning review meeting. Then you file a report listing every concern raised and how you did or did not address it. Without that report the county will not schedule the hearing.

What happens if my rezoning is denied in Forsyth County?

You cannot file a substantially similar application on the same property for twelve months. The same twelve month bar applies if you withdraw with prejudice, and a withdrawal becomes a withdrawal with prejudice once the newspaper notice has run. A Board of Commissioners decision is final but may be appealed under Chapter 8, Article XII of the code.

Sources

Forsyth County Unified Development Code, Chapter 8, Zoning and Application Procedures, read November 5, 2026. Article V (8-5.1 to 8-5.5) covers rezonings; Article III (8-3.1 to 8-3.4) covers hearings and notice: https://library.municode.com/ga/forsyth_county/codes/code_of_ordinances?nodeId=PTIICOOR_APXAUNDECO_CH8ZOAPPR

Forsyth County Planning and Community Development, Zoning, which carries the current moratorium language and the In Process Zoning Applications register: https://www.forsythco.com/government/departments/planning-community-development/zoning/

Forsyth County Zoning Division Applications register, the county spreadsheet of every pending case with its application, zoning review, Planning Commission and Board of Commissioners dates, read November 5, 2026: https://www.forsythco.com/app/uploads/2026/10/Zoning-Division-Application-1.xlsx

Forsyth County, Zoning and Land Use Information and Guides, with the rezoning guide and every required form: https://www.forsythco.com/government/departments/planning-community-development/zoning/zoning-land-use-information-guides/

Forsyth County Planning and Community Development Fee Schedule: https://www.forsythco.com/government/departments/planning-community-development/fee-schedule/

Forsyth County, 2026 Public Hearings and Meeting Schedule Calendars: https://www.forsythco.com/app/uploads/2026/04/2026-Schedule-Calendars.pdf

Forsyth County Board of Commissioners, Residential Rezoning Moratorium Extension, October 15, 2026: https://www.forsythco.com/app/uploads/2026/10/2026.10.15-Residential-Rezoning-Moratorium-Extension.pdf

Crawford Lands, LLC is a licensed real estate brokerage in the State of Georgia, license #81852. This article is general information, not legal, tax or appraisal advice. Code provisions, fees, moratoriums and hearing calendars change; confirm anything you rely on with Forsyth County Planning and Community Development at 770 781 2115 before you act on it. Contact us.