Zoning & Ordinances

ZONING

The Zoning Department reviews all zoning issues for the unincorporated areas of the County as well as the Towns of Bainbridge and Roachdale. We work closely with the City of Greencastle and the Town of Cloverdale. If you have zoning issues inside the City of Greencastle or the Town of Cloverdale, please reach out to the City or Town for more information. The Putnam County Zoning is now a layer on the Putnam County GIS site!

To see the zoning for any parcel NOT inside the City of Greencastle, the Greencastle 2-mile fringe, Town of Bainbridge, Town of Roachdale, Town of Cloverdale, click on the layers icon and choose “zoning”. For zoning in the City of Greencastle or the 2-mile fringe, please contact the City. For zoning in the Town of Cloverdale contact Cloverdale Town Manager. For zoning in the Towns of Bainbridge or Roachdale, please contact our office. Currently the Towns of Russellville and Fillmore do not have zoning. As we update the Zoning Ordinance, we hope to have all the towns and the city zoning on the GIS site!

What is Zoning? Zoning is a method of planning in which the County divides land into areas called zones, each zone has a set of regulations for new development that differs from other zones. Zones may be defined for a single use (e.g., residential, industrial), they may combine several compatible activities by use. The Zoning Ordinance details the differing regulations for density, size, and shape of allowed buildings whatever their use. The planning rules for each zone determine whether planning permission for a given development may be granted. Zoning specifies the permitted uses and accessory uses allowed within each district. It indicates the size and dimensions of lots that land may be subdivided into. These guidelines are set in order to guide urban growth and development.

Putnam County is in the process of updating the zoning ordinance and subdivision control ordinance into a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO). The UDO will incorporate not only the unincorporated areas of the county, but also the Town of Bainbridge, Town of Cloverdale, Town of Roachdale, Town of Russellville, and the 2-mile fringe of the City of Greencastle. Thereby streamlining the process and bringing the county and towns together for better cohesiveness.