Does zoning matter? Who cares what I do with my property? This is one of the questions we’re going to tackle today because it’s important. If you have a unique idea or you would like to do something with your property, you might want to find out what the zoning will allow before you do it and find out it’s something that you need to change.
First, let’s define what zoning actually is. According to Merriam-Webster, it’s “the act or process of partitioning a city, town, or borough into zones reserved for different purposes such as residences or businesses.” Essentially, local governments make rules about how properties can be used. If you live in an HOA community, the HOA often imposes even more restrictions, such as controlling grass height, house color, fencing, and tree removal.
Most residential houses fall under residential classifications, which vary by county and use different letters or numbers. In Cherokee County, the classification system was redefined from its original 1969 ordinances to the 1992 resolution.
Typically, any classification with an “R” in front of it refers to residential zoning. For example, “R40" usually indicates a lot size of an acre or less. The smaller the number, the smaller the lot; the larger the number, the larger the lot. Agricultural zoning, labeled “A,” often includes residential houses and doesn’t necessarily mean the property is a farm. (You can find detailed zoning information on the Cherokee County Zoning website.)
Common questions arise, such as, “If I’m in an ‘R’ classification, can I run a home-based business?” The answer is, well, it depends. You’ll need to consult a legal expert because the specific use case will be the defining factor.
I’ll give you an example: if you have a home-based office and run a direct sales business like Mary Kay or any other direct sales where you’re making phone calls and shipping products, you can likely do that from home. I work from home in real estate. The key difference is whether or not you’re bringing in the public. I don’t have a real estate office at my house because I don’t meet clients there for consultations; we have a commercial office for that. However, I do have a home office where I find houses for clients, negotiate contracts, and handle other tasks.
So it’s a little bit different. Where you run into issues is if, for example, you have a couple of acres with a large barn or outbuilding and you’re a mechanic. If you have a hobby of restoring vehicles—let’s say you buy a 1969 Mustang Fastback, stick it in the barn, and over weekends and nights, you rehab it and eventually sell it for a profit—that’s likely okay. However, if you put out a sign or advertise online and people start coming to you for car repairs in a residential setting, that’s going to be a problem because it’s not a permitted use.
Now, the break between those two scenarios isn’t as clear-cut as you might want. Here’s how they tend to decide: whether it’s allowed or not often depends on public safety and protecting the rights of nearby homeowners. These are two major factors. For instance, if you’re trying to run a factory out of a 3,000-square-foot metal building on your 2-acre parcel, and it’s noisy and affects your neighbors, it’s going to be an issue unless it’s zoned for manufacturing.
Another consideration is whether you’re bringing the public in. For example, we had a case with a piece of real estate on 10 acres where a ministry wanted to run a retreat-style ministry from a separate structure on their property. According to Cherokee County zoning, with that amount of acreage and an agricultural zoning designation, they could do this without changing the zoning as long as it falls under church or ministry use. Now, that doesn’t mean they can immediately invite the public because the building has to conform to commercial specs for public safety. We’ll cover that in a separate article because it’s an interesting story.
If you were going to turn that same property into a wedding venue, you would need to go through planning and zoning to alter the zoning. It might not just mean changing it from agricultural; it could require a special use permit. This permit would be specific to that owner and purpose without changing the overall zoning. However, you still need to do public notices, hold a hearing, let the neighbors voice their opinions, and have the commission vote on it. They will then decide yes or no and outline any restrictions for that property.
So even if zoning allows and says, “Hey, you can do this,” there are still other hurdles to jump through. Generally speaking, if it was built as a house and zoned anywhere in the agricultural or residential zones, these would be perfect use cases for this. If you have a piece of real estate and you’re wondering if your zoning is going to be affected or whether you can use it for the purposes you want, give us a call.
Now, that purpose can be for business like we just talked about. It can even be: “I want to live here, but I want to build a second house on my property or an outbuilding that has living quarters for a family member.” These are all zoning questions that you’re going to want to ask: is it allowed to be done? So if you have one, send us the address. You can private message us or direct message us, and we will go ahead and help you find the right answers to that.
If you are interested in this process and have more questions, please reach out by calling (678) 389-3887 or email us at [email protected]. Get a free consultation about your property!
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