State Representative Eddie Lumsden says that he is not aware of any pending legislation in the Georgia General Assembly regarding building regulations.  The comments came after Chattooga County Commissioner Blake Elsberry told a local news blog that lobbyists in Atlanta were pushing legislation that would take away local control of building regulations.

In an article published by All on Georgia, the commissioner said: At the state capital we are seeing a huge push by lobbyists hired by developers and investors to get legislation passed that would mandate state building regulations on local governments, and take away local control. These preemptive bills would take away the individual county and/or city’s ability to regulate the development in their communities as needed, or what is referred to as ‘home rule”. 

Ben Housch, with Chattooga County Concerned Citizens asked State Representative Eddie Lumsden, who represents Chattooga County and a large portion of Floyd County in the state house about the potential of such legislation.  Lumsden replied:

I am not aware of any at this time. If such an effort is planned I am sure I will hear about it early in the coming session. The state already has building code standards. If a county chooses  to  have standards then the state standards are a minimum requirement they must work with but the state does not force a county to have them.
Rep. Lumsden went on to say that such an effort to push this type of legislation would have little chance of passing the General Assembly.  Lumsden said that in almost every situation the Georgia General Assembly does not override local control or “home rule”.