Mack Development Group builds custom homes in Cumming, Georgia and throughout Forsyth County, including Lake Lanier waterfront and lake-access lots. Because a Cumming mailing address may fall inside the city or in unincorporated Forsyth County, our sister firm Mack Engineering LLC confirms jurisdiction, buffers, and septic capacity before design begins.

Neighborhoods & areas we build in

• Lake Lanier waterfront and lake-access lots — the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers project boundary governs everything below the line.
• South Forsyth — the GA-400 corridor between Windward Parkway and Bethelview Road.
• The Ronald Reagan Boulevard / Union Hill Road overlay area — stream buffers here are 50 feet plus a 25-foot impervious setback, wider than the county default.
• The Big Creek small water supply watershed — 100-foot buffer and 150-foot impervious setback within seven miles upstream of the intake.
• The Etowah and Upper Chattahoochee large water supply watersheds — 100-foot buffer and 150-foot impervious setback.

What’s different about building in Cumming

The first thing to establish on any Cumming project is who has authority over it. The City of Cumming Department of Planning and Zoning reviews and approves all development plans, issues land disturbance and construction permits, inspects trade work, and issues certificates of occupancy inside the city limits at 100 Main Street. Everything outside those limits is unincorporated Forsyth County, administered by the Department of Planning and Community Development, and the City of Cumming has no permitting authority there. A great many lots with a “Cumming, GA” address are county lots.

Forsyth’s residential districts are written explicitly around whether a lot has sewer. Res1 requires 37,000 square feet on either septic or sewer with 100 feet of width and 50-foot front, 25-foot side, and 25-foot rear setbacks. Res2 requires 30,000 square feet on septic but only 22,000 on sewer. Res3 drops to 14,750 square feet with an 18,500 square foot average and 80 feet of width. Sewer service in the unincorporated county comes from the Forsyth County Department of Water and Sewer, and no building permit issues without Forsyth County Environmental Health septic approval plus proof of water supply.

Buffers are layered. The county baseline is a 25-foot undisturbed buffer along all state waters and 50 feet on trout streams, but overlays override that: 50 feet plus a 25-foot impervious setback in the Ronald Reagan/Union Hill overlay, 100 and 150 feet in the Big Creek small water supply watershed within seven miles upstream of the intake and 50 and 75 feet outside it, and 100 and 150 feet in the Etowah and Upper Chattahoochee large water supply watersheds. Septic setbacks are statewide and unforgiving: 100 feet from wells, springs, and sinkholes, 50 feet from the normal water level of any impoundment, stream, or wetland, and 24 inches of vertical separation to bedrock or seasonal high groundwater below the absorption field. On a lake lot, that 50-foot normal-water-level setback and the drain field usually decide where the house goes.

Permitting in Cumming

Jurisdiction first, then schedule. Inside the city, the City of Cumming Planning and Zoning Department issues the land disturbance permit, the construction permit, and the certificate of occupancy; the city does not publish a residential plan review turnaround. Outside it, unincorporated Forsyth County does — and Forsyth’s published standards are the clearest of any jurisdiction we work in. Building permit application reviews are conducted within three business days after any applicable design review is satisfactorily completed. Land disturbance plans are due by 5:00 p.m. each Monday, and a plan review meeting is held nine business days after the submittal deadline; the permit must be issued within 12 months of initial submittal. Certificates of occupancy are issued within two business days after passing inspections.

A land disturbance permit is required in the unincorporated county for any excavation, grading, or clearing. Single-family construction is exempt where it disturbs less than one acre and is not part of a larger common plan of development of an acre or more — but that exemption does not apply within 200 feet of the bank of any state waters, which is exactly where lake and creek lots sit.

Lake Lanier adds a second, federal approval track that has nothing to do with the county. Lake Sidney Lanier is U.S. Army Corps of Engineers property managed under the Lake Lanier Shoreline Management Plan, and any structure — including roads, trails, signs, buoys, docks, or landscape features — placed under, upon, in, or over project lands or waters is prohibited without written authorization from the District Commander; unauthorized structures are subject to summary removal. Shoreline Use Permits are available only to owners adjacent to public land zoned limited development, run a maximum of five years, are nontransferable, grant no real estate rights and no exclusive use, and first-time applicants for new facilities must meet on site with a ranger. Plan the dock and shoreline work on a separate, longer clock than the house.

Frequently asked questions