Counties of the State of Georgia are authorized by the Georgia State Constitution, Article 9, Section 2, Paragraph 4, and Chapter 66 of Title 36 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, to exercise the powers of planning and zoning; and it is hereby determined by the Board of Commissioners of Schley County, Georgia, that it is necessary and desirable to adopt these zoning regulations under the authority of the above cited Constitutional and statutory provisions.

The Board of Commissioners of Schley County, Georgia, as authorized by the Constitution of the State of Georgia, and having created herewith a Zoning Commission known as the Schley County Zoning Commission, does hereby adopt these zoning regulations for the following purposes: (1) to define certain words used herein; (2) to create district boundaries; (3) to regulate the location of trades, professions, businesses, and industries; (4) to regulate the density in distribution of population; (5) to provide for the gradual elimination of nonconforming uses of land, buildings and structures; (6) to provide for the method of administration, amendment and enforcement; (7) to provide for imposition of penalties for violations; (8) to repeal conflicting ordinances and resolutions; (9) and for other purposes.

This zoning ordinance shall govern the use of all land and development within the unincorporated limits of Schley County, Georgia, in accordance with O.C.G.A. § 36-70-5.

This ordinance is designed to sustain the community's historic development pattern, which is an overwhelming majority of land in agriculture and forest interspersed with a very low level of single-family residential development, and an even lower level of a combination of other types of land use. In support of general policy statements in the most recent comprehensive plans standards are hereby established to protect existing development, maintain the rural character with similar ratios of land uses, and encourage the concentration of higher intensity land uses, commercial and industrial, etc., in, and on the periphery of, the City of Ellaville. With this regulatory structure in place the county is positioned to respond promptly to the need for higher intensity land uses and "spillover" from the city.