What to Know Before Clearing Land Around Jackson and Butts County
Permits sit with the county and the state. Butts County Planning and
Development, at 625 West 3rd Street in Jackson, issues building permits and handles land
disturbance permits. In the county's water supply watershed districts, buffers along perennial streams run wider than the state's 25 feet. On top of that, Georgia's construction stormwater permit covers
a disturbance of one acre or more, and the Notice of Intent goes in before work starts. Ask the
county about a parcel first; requirements vary by parcel, scope and jurisdiction, and the
governing authority makes the determination.
Clay and creek bottoms set the pace. Red clay holds water, and a tracked
machine on wet clay cuts ruts and sheds mud into the creek below. Low ground along the
creeks is where privet grows thickest and where the buffers apply, so those stretches are
walked first, worked in dry spells and priced up front. A harvested pine tract is the opposite
job: open ground, dense young pines and hardwood saplings, and a faster day.
Summer closes burning. Butts, Spalding, Henry, Clayton, Rockdale and DeKalb
counties are all on the list where yard and land-clearing debris cannot be burned from May 1
through September 30. From October to April a burn still needs a Georgia Forestry Commission
permit for land-clearing fires. Our crew grinds the brush in place, so there is no pile to
permit, watch or haul.