Mack Development Group builds custom homes in Milton, Georgia, in north Fulton County — AG-1 acreage, equestrian estates, and large-lot new construction. Our sister firm Mack Engineering LLC handles the septic soil evaluation coordination, lot-coverage math, grading design, and land disturbance permitting in-house, so a Milton lot is proven buildable before you buy it.

Neighborhoods & areas we build in

• The Manor Golf & Country Club — City of Milton (commonly marketed with an Alpharetta mailing address).
• The Homestead at Milton — a large-lot subdivision off Hopewell Road with parcels from 3.04 to 10.33 acres on the former Trophy Club property.
• Champions Close — adjacent to The Homestead.
• Manor Estates — the 6-lot estate subdivision Mack Engineering engineered here.
• The Freemanville Road and Hopewell Road corridors — the core of Milton’s AG-1 acreage market.
• Crabapple — downtown Crabapple is Milton’s historic district, governed by the Crabapple Form Based Code and the Crabapple Crossroads overlay.
• Birmingham and the Rural Milton Overlay area — viewshed setbacks and no clear-cutting apply.

What’s different about building in Milton

Milton is the hardest of our eight markets to engineer, and that is the reason to hire us here. AG-1 requires 1 acre with frontage on a paved road or 3 acres on an unpaved road, 150 feet of lot width (100 feet on a cul-de-sac), a 60-foot front yard, 25-foot interior side, 40-foot street side, and 50-foot rear yard. On top of that, Milton adopted permanent lot-coverage standards in April 2026: a maximum 20% lot coverage for parcels touching a public street right-of-way and 25% for parcels of 3 acres or larger, a unified impervious cover definition, and a 20-foot natural-area setback along roads on any new minor plat. Two surveys are now mandatory — a Foundation Survey when coverage is within five percentage points of the maximum or within 5 feet of a minimum setback, and an As-Built Survey verifying impervious cover, lot coverage, and setbacks before a certificate of occupancy.

The tree ordinance is the strictest in north Fulton. The Tree Canopy Conservation Ordinance requires 57% canopy on AG, R-1, and R-2 land, dropping to 40% on lots of 1.5 to 2.99 acres and 25% at 3 acres or more, with at least a third from existing trees, 150% replacement for specimen trees, and a removal permit at 15 inches diameter at breast height — 8 inches for dogwood and redbud. Inside the Rural Milton Overlay there is no clear-cutting, a two-story and 28-foot-to-eave limit, a 40-foot primary and 20-foot secondary rural viewshed setback, and City Architect review. Unauthorized disturbance carries a three-year development bar.

Milton’s estate market runs on septic, not sewer. Georgia rules require connection to public or community sewer only where it is available within 200 feet of the property line or in an abutting right-of-way; a subdivision may go on septic where no system exists within 500 feet. Because septic controls the house location, we get the soil work done early: Georgia denies a permit where bedrock or seasonal high groundwater sits less than two feet below the bottom of the proposed absorption field. Stream buffers are 50 feet undisturbed plus a 25-foot impervious setback — 100 and 50 feet in a protected small water supply watershed — and no septic tank or drain field may sit in either.

Permitting in Milton

Milton issues every permit itself. The Community Development Department issues permits for all construction activity through the CityView web portal, and its Land Development staff reviews all land disturbance plans. Milton does not defer building permits to Fulton County; the septic side goes to the Fulton County Board of Health.

Milton publishes a review standard: once a permit has been accepted for review, approval or revision comments are issued for all permit types within 10 business days. No resubmittal turnaround is published.

Land disturbance thresholds are where builders get caught. The city lists three triggers — more than 1 acre of disturbance, work within 200 feet of state waters, or more than 5,000 square feet of new impervious surface — and the UDC extends the 5,000 square foot trigger to all development, construction, utilities, and demolition inside the city. On an estate build with a long driveway, a pool, and an outbuilding, assume you need one.

The AG-1 subdivision moratorium is no longer in effect. Council lifted it in connection with the April 13, 2026 meeting and replaced it with the permanent lot-coverage, natural-area setback, and survey standards described above. AG-1 minor-plat subdivision in Milton is open again, but under stricter permanent rules than existed before 2026.

Demolition is the harshest of our markets. Milton requires Design Review Board review with a public hearing for all demolitions, with 30 to 45 days of published notice, and unauthorized demolition carries a five-year permit ban.

Frequently asked questions