Paulding County pauses new R-55 and NPR rezonings, reviews multimillion-dollar road and utility contracts

Paulding County planning staff on Jan. 28 proposed a six-month moratorium on accepting rezoning applications for the county's two newest residential categories — Master Plan Residential (NPR) and Active Adult Residential (R-55) — and county departments updated commissioners on pending public-works contracts and a change order for the county radio system.

The moratorium, presented by planning staff, would stop the planning division from accepting rezoning requests for up to six months while staff prepares a text amendment for the county code. Planning staff told commissioners that, over roughly the past five years, those two zoning categories have resulted in nearly 3,000 approved lots countywide. Planning staff also said they expect to present a draft text amendment to the planning commission at its March meeting and hope to lift the moratorium as soon as that text amendment is adopted.

Why it matters: Planning staff said the two districts allow smaller lots (the R-55 district permits lots as small as about 8,000 square feet) and have accumulated recurring stipulations on approvals; the moratorium is intended to let staff convert commonly used stipulations into baseline code requirements to create clearer, consistent expectations for developers and communities.

Infrastructure and contracts discussed

County staff reviewed several large procurement items and project agreements during the same session. Highlights discussed by staff included:

- 2025 County asphalt project: Staff said the county received seven bids for a contract to mill, level and plant-mix-surface about 26.95 miles of county through roads in Post 2 and Post…