Mack Development Group builds custom homes in Dawsonville and Dawson County, Georgia, and in Big Canoe, the private mountain community spanning Pickens and Dawson counties. Our sister firm Mack Engineering LLC produces the topographic site plan, septic layout, grading, and erosion control design that both county and Big Canoe review require.

Neighborhoods & areas we build in

• Big Canoe — the private mountain community spanning Pickens and Dawson counties.
• Lake Lanier north — the upper end of the lake, where the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project boundary governs everything below the line.
• Amicalola Falls — the highest waterfall in Georgia, a landmark in northeastern Dawson County.
• The GA-400 north corridor into Dawsonville.
• The Etowah River corridor — a 100-foot buffer applies on both sides of the river in Dawson County.
• The Russell Creek Reservoir protection area — a permanent 150-foot buffer adjoins the reservoir property on all lots, with septic prohibited.

What’s different about building in Dawsonville & Big Canoe

Dawson County zoning is written around septic and well service, which tells you most of what you need to know about the market. RA Residential Agricultural requires 5 acres with 150 feet of width at the building line and 40-foot front, 25-foot side, and 40-foot rear setbacks; certain RA plats recorded between February 1998 and November 2020 sit at 1.5 acres. RRE Residential Rural Estate requires 3 acres with the same 150-foot width. RS, RSR, and RL Residential Lakefront all use a sliding scale by utility: 1.5 acres on septic and well, 1 acre on septic with public or private water, and 0.75 acre on sewer, with 100 feet of width and 25-foot front, 10-foot side, and 25-foot rear setbacks. RS-2 at 15,000 square feet and RS-3 at 12,000 square feet both require sewer. No sewer provider is published for the unincorporated county, which is another way of saying assume septic.

Watershed rules do more work here than zoning. The Etowah River Corridor Protection Overlay covers all areas within 100 feet horizontally on both sides of the Etowah River in Dawson County, measured from the uppermost part of the river banks. In water supply watershed protection areas, no impervious surface may be built within a 150-foot setback on both sides of a perennial stream, with a 100-foot undisturbed buffer inside limited development areas and a 50-foot buffer with 75-foot setback in other designated areas — and septic tanks and drain fields are prohibited in the setback. A permanent 150-foot protection buffer adjoins the Russell Creek Reservoir property on all lots. Any encroachment into the state’s 25-foot undisturbed buffer requires a variance from Georgia EPD.

Elevation matters. Georgia’s protected-mountain standard covers all land 2,200 feet or more above mean sea level with a slope of 25 percent or greater for at least 500 feet horizontally. On grades like these, driveway design, cut-and-fill balance, retaining walls, and drainage drive the site budget more than the house does. We could not locate a Dawson County steep-slope or ridgeline ordinance, so we confirm applicability directly with Dawson County Planning and Development for any high-elevation lot.

Permitting in Dawsonville & Big Canoe

Two approval tracks, and on a Big Canoe lot you need both.

County first. The Dawson County Planning and Development Department handles building permits, and it publishes a real standard: a minimum four-day review period on all complete residential permit applications, with email notification of permit status, and inspections typically performed within 72 hours of request. A land disturbance permit is required if you are disturbing land within 200 feet of state waters, disturbing land within a common development platted after 2000, or disturbing an acre or more. The erosion and sedimentation control plan, prepared by a certified design professional, goes to the Georgia Soil and Water Conservation Commission for review, and the stamped plan plus the permit application and Notice of Intent are then submitted through the county’s Citizen Self Service Portal. That state review step is the schedule item builders forget.

Big Canoe second, and it is not a formality. Plans, specifications, drawings, surveys, and other required information must be submitted to and approved by the Architectural and Environmental Control Department (AECD) before any alteration of the property begins — including clearing, tree removal, equipment mobilization, construction-material delivery, and grading. Flagging and staking are the only activities permitted before AECD approval. The AECD requires scaled site plans prepared by a Georgia registered architect, civil engineer, or land surveyor showing a topographic survey at two-foot intervals, property lines and required setbacks, all state and county buffers, structure siting that parallels the contours with minimal disturbance, finished floor elevations, driveways, walkways and retaining walls, grading and drainage, erosion control, clearing limits, specimen trees, and septic tank, drain field, and field-line locations. Architectural plans must show all elevations, materials, floor-to-floor heights, roof pitches, building height, and grades, and all exterior colors must be approved before application.

Tree control at Big Canoe is tighter than any county ordinance in North Georgia: no tree, flowering tree, shrub, or evergreen measuring six inches or more in diameter may be removed without prior written AECD approval, with narrow exceptions within 10 feet of an approved building site, 3 feet of an approved driveway, and 1 foot of an approved walkway or septic field. AECD approval is in addition to, not instead of, the Pickens or Dawson County permit, and a county health department inspection is required before backfilling tanks and drain fields.

Frequently asked questions