---
title: O.C.G.A. § 36-36-4. Creation of unincorporated islands prohibited; authorization to provide services or functions.
collection: code
id: 36-36-4
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 36-36-4 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-36-4
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-36-4.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-36-4/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t35-t36-ch1-59-(v27)-2025-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=66569db4_0#page=729
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/36-36.md
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index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Session of the General Assembly of Georgia
heading_path: LOCAL GOVERNMENT / Provisions Applicable to Municipal Corporations Only / ANNEXATION OF TERRITORY / GENERAL PROVISIONS
---

# O.C.G.A. § 36-36-4. Creation of unincorporated islands prohibited; authorization to provide services or functions.

(a) The creation of unincorporated islands as described in paragraph (1), (2), or (3) of this subsection shall be prohibited:

(1) Annexation or deannexation which would result in the creation of an unincorporated area with its aggregate external boundaries abutting the annexing municipality;

(2) Annexation or deannexation which would result in the creation of an unincorporated area with its aggregate external boundaries abutting any combination of the annexing municipality and one or more other municipalities; or

(3) Annexation or deannexation which would result in the creation of an unincorporated area to which the county would have no reasonable means of physical access for the provision of services otherwise provided by the county governing authority solely to the unincorporated area of the county.

(b) When requested by resolution of the county governing authority, a municipality is authorized to provide any service or exercise any function within an unincorporated island. Such authority shall be in addition to any other authority of the municipality to provide extraterritorial services or functions. As used in this subsection, the term “unincorporated island” shall have the same meaning as set forth in Code Section 36-36-90.

(c) The prohibition contained in subsection (a) of this Code section shall not apply to a local Act providing for deannexation of territory from a municipality that would create an unincorporated island where another local Act annexing the same territory into another municipality takes effect on the same date as the local Act providing for deannexation of such territory.

## History

Code 1981, § 36-36-4, enacted by Ga. L. 1992, p. 2592, § 3; Ga. L. 2000, p. 164, § 2; Ga. L. 2015, p. 1345, § 1/HB 432; Ga. L. 2025, p. 1029, § 36(9)/SB 153, effective July 1, 2025.

## Code Commission Notes

Pursuant to Code Section 28-9-5, in 1992, “subsection” was substituted for “Code section” in subsection (a), and “subsection” was substituted for “subparagraph” in subsection (b).

## Law Reviews

For annual survey of local government law, see 57 Mercer L. Rev. 289 (2005).

For annual survey of zoning and land use law, see 57 Mercer L. Rev. 447 (2005).

For annual survey of local government law, see 58 Mercer L. Rev. 267 (2006).

For annual survey of zoning and land use law, see 58 Mercer L. Rev. 477 (2006).

## Amendments

The 2025 amendment, effective July 1, 2025, part of an Act to revise, modernize, and correct the Code, rewrote the last sentence of subsection (b), which read: “For purposes of this subsection, ‘unincorporated island’ shall have the same meaning as contained in paragraph (3) of Code Section 36 36 90.”.