Fulton County Inland wind zone

Barndominium Builders in Sandy Springs, GA

Sandy Springs is 37.66 square miles of fully incorporated inner-ring Atlanta metro, wrapped around the top of I-285 with the Chattahoochee River as its northern and western boundary. The city has run its own permitting since it incorporated in 2005, and its Development Code has no agricultural district at all — RE-2, at a two-acre minimum, is the largest-lot district in the city. For most people asking about a barndominium here, the honest answer involves land in Forsyth, Cherokee or Dawson County rather than inside these city limits.

Sandy Springs at a glance

County
Fulton County
Population
104,328
Start your project

Building conditions in Sandy Springs

What actually changes from one Georgia jurisdiction to the next: who issues the permit, what wind speed the structure has to be engineered to, and what the ground is like. These are the numbers your drawings have to satisfy.

Build conditions for Sandy Springs, Fulton County: design wind speed Confirmed per parcel, inland. BUILD CONDITIONS SANDY SPRINGS, GAFulton CountyINLAND WIND ZONEOUTSIDE WBDR DESIGN WIND SPEED Confirmed per parcelGeorgia's Table R301.2 is filled in by the jurisdiction, and Sandy Springs has not published itsown figure. We confirm it with Community Development before design.ZONING · RE-2 (RESIDENTIAL ESTATE)2-acre minimumThe largest-lot district in the city. RE-2 also caps lot coverage…DEVELOPMENT IMPACT FEE$6,854.82 per single-family detached dwellingParks and recreation, public safety, roads and 3% administration…WHO ISSUES THE PERMITCity of Sandy Springs Community Development Depa…1 Galambos Way. Applications, fees and inspection requests run thr…
Build conditions for Sandy Springs, drawn from the sourced facts on this page. Every figure above is cited in the quick-facts panel below, with its source and vintage.
Permitting authority
City of Sandy Springs Community Development Department, 1 Galambos Way. The city has issued its own permits since it incorporated on 1 December 2005 — Fulton County does not permit here.

sandyspringsga.gov/residential-building-permits/ and /permitting-process/, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Codes enforced
All eight mandatory state construction codes — IBC, IRC, IFC, IPC, IMC, IFGC, NEC and IECC — as adopted and amended by the Georgia DCA, plus IRC appendices G, J and O.

Sandy Springs Code of Ordinances Sec. 105-19, codified through Ord. No. 2026-03-006 (17 Mar 2026, Supp. 24), fetched 31 Aug 2026

Largest-lot zoning district
RE-2 Residential Estate: 2-acre minimum lot, 200 ft minimum width, 25% maximum lot coverage, 40 ft height cap. There is no agricultural district anywhere in the Sandy Springs Development Code.

Sandy Springs Development Code Secs. 2.1.1 and 2.2.1, Ord. No. 2023-12-21 (5 Dec 2023), fetched 31 Aug 2026

Minimum tree canopy
35% of the entire lot on residential sites, city-wide, with the City Arborist as a named plan reviewer. Large canopy trees count 1,000 sq ft each, medium 500, small 250.

Sandy Springs Development Code Sec. 9.3.2, Ord. No. 2023-12-24 (5 Dec 2023), fetched 31 Aug 2026

Prohibited exterior wall materials
Non-architectural metal panel systems, exposed standard CMU, OSB and vinyl siding are prohibited on nonresidential buildings in the residential districts and on all buildings in the corridor, Perimeter Center and RT/RM/RX districts. Standing seam metal roofing is on the approved list.

Sandy Springs Development Code Secs. 6.6.1 and 6.6.2, Ord. No. 2023-12-22, amended Ord. No. 2025-09-22, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Development impact fee
$6,854.82 per single-family detached dwelling — $4,543.67 parks and recreation, $1,666.69 roads, $444.80 public safety, plus 3% administration. Assessed at permit issuance and adjusted annually, so we confirm the current figure with the city.

Attachment A, Sandy Springs Impact Fee Schedule, Ord. No. 2016-10-33, linked from sandyspringsga.gov/impact-fees/, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Also worth knowing before you build in Sandy Springs

Design wind speed
Confirmed per parcel. Georgia's Table R301.2 is a jurisdiction fill-in table and Sandy Springs has not published its own adopted figure, so we confirm it with the building official before any structural design is stamped.

Sandy Springs Code of Ordinances Ch. 105 Art. II reviewed in full; 2024 IRC with Georgia Amendments Table R301.2; fetched 31 Aug 2026

Building permit fee
$5.00 per $1,000 of building valuation for residential work, valuation taken from the current ICC Building Valuation Data table. Fees are paid before plan review begins.

City of Sandy Springs Community Development Fee Schedule, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Plan review timing
Each round of plan review runs roughly 3 to 10 business days depending on complexity, and the permit card issues up to five business days after approval. Inspections requested before noon are scheduled for the next business day.

sandyspringsga.gov/permitting-process/ and the city's Residential Permitting Information Sheet, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Detached shop and garage limits
A major residential accessory structure caps at 24 ft in height, cannot sit between the house and the street, and must meet the full building setbacks once its footprint passes 500 sq ft.

Sandy Springs Development Code Sec. 7.8.24, Ord. No. 2025-09-22 (16 Sept 2025), fetched 31 Aug 2026

Chattahoochee River corridor
The Metropolitan River Protection Act corridor runs 2,000 ft from either bank and covers the city's whole northern and western edge: 50 ft undisturbed buffer, 150 ft impervious surface setback, and a $250 River Corridor Certificate through the Atlanta Regional Commission.

Sandy Springs Development Code Sec. 9.2.4 and the city fee schedule; O.C.G.A. 12-5-440 et seq., fetched 31 Aug 2026

Water, sewer and septic
The city runs no utility of its own. A new water meter needs City of Atlanta approval, a sewer tap needs Fulton County Public Works, and a parcel without sewer needs Fulton County Health Department plans showing both the primary and the reserve drain field.

City of Sandy Springs Residential Site Plan Checklist, Single Family House, rev. October 2022, fetched 31 Aug 2026

Below the slab

The expensive surprises are in the ground, not the building

Most of Fulton County rates poorly for dwellings in the soil survey, and the reason is water sitting close to the surface rather than weak ground. That makes the pad elevation and the drainage plan the two line items most likely to move your budget. We price the dirt before we price the building.

What we build in Sandy Springs

All nine services are available across Fulton County. The three below are where a project on a Fulton County parcel usually starts — the permit, the drawings, and the build itself. What a build costs depends far more on the parcel than on square footage, so we price against your land rather than publishing a rate card.

Permitting & Engineering

Sealed structural engineering and the permit that depends on it, from submittal through final inspection.

Custom Plans

Barndominium floor plans drawn to your land, your family, and the 2024 Georgia residential code.

Turnkey Builds

Start to finish barndominium construction: we handle permits, slab, shell, and full interior finish.

All nine services we build in Fulton County

What a build looks like

Three stages every Sandy Springs project passes through, from a raw parcel to a finished home. Site work first, because that is where the budget is decided.

Aerial view of an undeveloped rural Georgia lot with cleared grass, pine treeline and a red clay access track.
Stage one

The parcel

Zoning, setbacks, flood zone and utility access get checked before anything is drawn.

An excavator grading a compacted building pad on a cleared lot, with survey stakes and a drainage swale visible.
Stage two

Pad and permit

Clearing, grading and a compacted pad, while the submittal works through Fulton County.

A finished barndominium at dusk with warm interior lighting glowing through its large windows.
Stage three

Frame to finish

Shell erected and dried in, then systems, insulation and interior finish through to CO.

Those are the rules for Fulton County. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it to them.

Start your project

Where we build around Sandy Springs

Fulton County and the rural land around it. The buildable acreage for a project this size usually sits outside the city limits, which is frequently what changes who issues your permit.

Our Sandy Springs service area, covering Fulton County and the surrounding rural acreage. We build across this area from our office in Macon, GA — this map marks the territory we serve, not a branch location.

Keep reading

The questions that usually come next once you know what Sandy Springs allows.

Barndominium Cost Guide

Sourced per-square-foot ranges by tier and by size, with a calculator built on the same figures.

Read it

Is It Legal in Georgia?

Classification, zoning, the HOA gate, and the agricultural exemption that does not cover a home.

Read it

How Long Does It Take?

Census build-duration data, and the Georgia statute setting the permit clock.

Read it

Sources for this page

The primary documents behind the Sandy Springs figures above. We would rather you checked them than took our word for it.

Nearby areas we build in

Others we cover in this part of Georgia. The permitting authority, the adopted design criteria and the zoning can all differ from one to the next.

Atlanta

Fulton County
Forsyth County

Forsyth County
Cherokee County

Cherokee County

Building in Sandy Springs: common questions

6 questions we get asked most often about building in Sandy Springs. If yours is not on the list, ask it directly.

Start your project
Can I actually build a barndominium inside Sandy Springs city limits?
Rarely, and you should hear the reasons before you spend money looking. Sandy Springs is 37.66 square miles with no unincorporated land left in it, and its Development Code contains no agricultural district — the largest-lot district in the city is RE-2 at a two-acre minimum. On top of that, every residential site in the city has to hold 35% tree canopy across the whole lot, RE-2 caps lot coverage at 25%, and buildings top out at 40 feet. A wide, low, clear-span building is exactly the shape those two rules squeeze hardest. It is not that a permit is impossible. It is that the parcels where the math works are scarce and expensive, and we would rather tell you that up front than after you have a lot under contract.
Does Sandy Springs enforce the building code, or is that Fulton County?
Sandy Springs. The city incorporated on 1 December 2005 and has run its own plan review, permitting and inspections ever since — Fulton County does not issue building permits here. Section 105-19 of the city code adopts all eight mandatory state construction codes as amended by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs, including the International Residential Code, which since 1 January 2026 means the 2024 edition with Georgia Amendments. One wrinkle worth knowing: the ordinance that establishes the building official also allows the city to contract those duties to a third party, a holdover from the contracted-services model Sandy Springs was built on. The permit is a city permit either way, but the reviewer on the other end may work for a contractor rather than the city payroll.
Are metal walls allowed on a building in Sandy Springs?
The answer depends on what the building is and which district it sits in, and it is worth reading closely. The Development Code lists non-architectural metal panel systems as a prohibited exterior building material, alongside exposed standard block, OSB and vinyl siding. That prohibition reaches all buildings in the corridor, Perimeter Center and RT, RM and RX districts, and it reaches nonresidential buildings in the residential neighbourhoods. A single-family house in RE-2 or RD-27 is residential, so the rule does not catch the dwelling itself by its own terms — but a detached metal shop or barn on the same lot is where the classification gets decided by the planning director, not by us. Metal roofing is a different story: standing seam metal is expressly on the approved roof list. Before anyone orders a package, we get the material and use classification confirmed by Community Development in writing.
Where near Sandy Springs can I realistically build one?
North. Forsyth County starts roughly 15 miles up GA 400, Cherokee County about 20 miles northwest via I-575, and Dawson County further up 400 past them both. Those are the counties where the acreage, the agricultural zoning districts and the land prices all line up for this building type, and they are close enough that a Sandy Springs household can commute or treat it as a weekend property. That second option is more common than people expect: buy the land out where it is affordable, build the shop-and-house there, and keep the metro address. We have separate pages for Cherokee, Forsyth and Dawson with each county's own permitting authority and design criteria.
What does the land cost compared with the counties north of here?
It is the difference that decides most of these projects. Undeveloped land listed in and around Sandy Springs averages roughly $790,000 per acre in asking price across a couple of hundred listings, with a median parcel of about 1.28 acres. Put that against the RE-2 two-acre minimum and the land alone is a seven-figure number before a single footing is poured. The same budget buys twenty to forty acres in Dawson County. If the appeal of this building type is space and cost per square foot, spending it on Sandy Springs dirt works directly against the reason you wanted it.
What are the permit costs and how long does review take in Sandy Springs?
The residential building permit fee is $5.00 per $1,000 of building valuation, taken from the ICC valuation table, and fees are paid before plan review starts. The larger number is the development impact fee: $6,854.82 per single-family detached dwelling under the adopted schedule, made up of parks and recreation, roads, public safety and a 3% administrative charge, assessed when the permit issues. That schedule adjusts annually, so we confirm the current figure with the city rather than quoting it as fixed. On timing, the city says each round of plan review runs about three to ten business days depending on complexity, with the permit card issued up to five business days after approval. Statewide, Georgia law also requires the building official to tell you within five business days whether your application is complete.

Building in Sandy Springs?

Start with the plan. Tell us what you want to build and we will draw it, then confirm what Fulton County will actually let you put on the parcel and what wind load it has to meet. That conversation costs nothing.

Start your project