Land Surveying in Waleska, GA

Land Surveying in Waleska, Georgia

Waleska is Cherokee County and only Cherokee County, out on the northwest side of it. The city is unusual in the numbers rather than the map. The 2020 Census counted 921 residents inside the city limits but only 115 housing units across 1.58 square miles of land. Reinhardt University's campus on Reinhardt Circle also falls inside those limits, and the city code carries an Office and Institutional district alongside its residential ones.

Deeds and plats go to the Cherokee County Clerk of Superior Court at 90 North Street, Suite G-170, in Canton, about eight road miles south-southeast on State Route 140.

Zoning here is administered by one office rather than a department. Chapter 28 of the city code, codified through Ordinance No. 2025-3 adopted June 23, 2025, places administration, interpretation and enforcement with the zoning administrator, and a development permit application is made to that office with plans drawn to scale showing the actual shape and dimensions of the lot, the exact sizes and locations of anything already standing on it, and the lines within which the new structure is to be built. Approval of a preliminary plat under the subdivision regulations counts as approval of the development permit for that subdivision. Cherokee County's Planning and Zoning Department in Canton lists Waleska planning among the duties of its Planning Division, so a question can land in Canton as readily as at Waleska City Hall on Fincher Road.

The zoning map is short by design. Waleska has six districts in total: R-80 Estate Residential, R-40 and R-30 Single Family Residential, OI Office and Institutional, NC Neighborhood Commercial, and GC-LU General Commercial Limited Use. Conservation subdivision design is available as a use by right in all three residential districts, with each application considered by the city council, and the stated purposes of that article include preserving exceptional terrain from inconsequential placement of homes, roadways and utilities, and preserving the Etowah River with its streams and tributaries. Where the centerline of a street, alley or railroad right of way serves as a district boundary, the zoning of the abutting property is deemed to run to that centerline, which matters when a setback is being measured from a line that is not the deed line.

Waleska also carries a cemetery preservation article, and it names a surveyor outright. An applicant seeking a permit under O.C.G.A. section 36-72-4 to disturb a burial place must file, among other items, a survey prepared by or under the direction of a registered surveyor showing the location and boundaries of the cemetery or burial ground, based on an archaeologist's report. If human remains surface during work on a development of two or more residential units, land disturbing activity stops, and once the county coroner has established the approximate boundaries the site takes a protective buffer of not less than 50 feet with a six foot chain link fence and access provided. Family plots on old Cherokee County acreage make that a live question on rural tracts rather than a curiosity.

Moore Creek crosses the city limits, and the city operates its own water system with a published water line extension policy, so a new lot may need the water line and the creek buffer resolved before the building line is fixed. S&S Land Surveying works from 549 West Ave in Cedartown. Bart Sims is the licensed Georgia land surveyor at the firm and signs and seals every plat. Estimates are free.