Henry County has voted to extend its residential moratorium for six months until October 2025 on new residential rezoning requests. Any requests already submitted may continue through the rezoning process.
Henry County Residential Moratorium 2025
The Henry County Board of Commissioners has enacted a six-month moratorium on all residential rezoning requests. The moratorium lasts through October 12, 2025. While the moratorium is in place, the county will not accept any new rezoning requests for residential projects. This includes rezoning requests for any residential zoning district. It also prevents requests for new conservation subdivisions.
The moratorium does not affect any request already submitted. It also does not apply to any requests inside city limits. Henry County staff shared in March they had about thirty pending cases. This includes some associated cases, such as a rezoning request and comp plan amendment for the same property.
The board of commissioners first added the moratorium as a walk-on agenda item at the March 18 meeting. It went into effect immediately. The board’s action on April 15 extends it for an additional 180 days.
State law governs the use of moratoriums. Local governments i.e. counties and cities can adopt a moratorium when they are updating some aspect of their zoning and / or development procedures. In this case, the county is presently updating its zoning code. The zoning code, known as the Unified Land Development Code or ULDC, governs the county’s zoning districts and development standards. The code update intends to revise the existing zoning districts with new standards and / or new zoning districts.
The moratorium prevents potential applicants from applying now and being grandfathered into the existing zoning districts. Instead, any future requests after the county adopts the code update will need to follow the new districts. The county expects the code update will conclude later this year.
The county had other moratoriums already in effect for the North Ola, Kelleytown and Speedway Airport areas. Those moratoriums support ongoing master planning efforts. Most recently, the county hired a consultant for the Speedway Airport area plan in December 2024.
Featured image shows a suburban subdivision under construction. Adobe stock photo.
