Apache Junction Residential Zoning and Setbacks: Where Your New Home Can Sit on the Lot

Before you draw a floor plan in Apache Junction, find your zoning district, because the district sets how far the house must sit from each property line. That open distance is called a setback, and it is the rule that decides where the house can go on the lot. Apache Junction, in Pinal County, names its single-residence districts RS, from the large-lot RS-GR (general rural, 1.25 acres) down to RS-5 (5,000 square feet). One published table, Table 5-2, carries the numbers for all of them.

What the districts require

The Land Development Code, Section 1-5-2, sets the residential bulk regulations. The required lot, yards, height, and coverage change by district. Here are the numbers for the single-residence districts:

• RS-GR: 1.25 acre min lot, front 40 ft, interior side 20 ft, street side 20 ft, rear 40 ft, height 35 ft, lot coverage 30%.
• RS-54 / RS-54M: 1.25 acre min lot, front 30 ft, interior side 10 ft, street side 20 ft, rear 30 ft, height 35 ft, lot coverage 20%.
• RS-20 / RS-20M: 20,000 sq ft min lot, front 25 ft, interior side 10 ft, street side 10 ft, rear 20 ft, height 35 ft, lot coverage 30%.
• RS-10 / RS-10M: 10,000 sq ft min lot, front 20 ft, interior side 10 ft, street side 10 ft, rear 20 ft, height 30 ft, lot coverage 40%.
• RS-7 / RS-7M: 7,000 sq ft min lot, front 20 ft, interior side 7 ft, street side 10 ft, rear 20 ft, height 30 ft, lot coverage 50%.
• RS-5: 5,000 sq ft min lot, front 20 ft, interior side 7 ft, street side 10 ft, rear 15 ft, height 30 ft, lot coverage 60%.

The code defines lot coverage so you count every roofed structure, not just the house:

The footprints of all principal and accessory structures, including garages, carports, covered patios, and covered porches, shall be added together in order to calculate lot coverage.

So a covered patio and a detached garage both eat into the coverage cap, which matters most on the smaller RS-7 and RS-5 lots where the cap is already a tight share of the land.

When setbacks come into play

Setbacks and coverage drive the site plan before you draw the house:

• Build-on-your-lot. For example, on an RS-GR 1.25 acre lot, the 40 foot front and rear plus 20 foot sides carve a deep border out of the parcel before the house even starts. Your designer subtracts those yards to find the buildable area, the footprint left for the home.
• Corner lots. A corner lot carries a street-side setback on the second frontage, so the buildable pad is smaller than on an interior lot.
• Accessory structures. Sheds, casitas, and detached garages have their own setbacks in Table 5-2, and a covered front porch may project up to 10 feet into the front yard under set conditions.

A setback miss on the site plan is a common reason an Apache Junction plan gets kicked back, so the city confirms each yard distance before the permit moves forward.

What this means for you

Confirm your exact RS district before you buy or design, because the jump from RS-7 to RS-GR changes the front yard from 20 feet to 40 feet and the sides from 7 feet to 20 feet. Watch lot coverage alongside the yards, since RS-5 allows up to 60% coverage while RS-54 allows only 20%, which caps the house size on a rural lot. Note the height too: the rural RS-GR and RS-54 districts allow 35 feet, while the smaller RS-10 through RS-5 lots cap at 30 feet. We run the setbacks, coverage cap, and buildable area on the first day of an Apache Junction project, because they decide whether a floor plan fits or has to change.

This entry pairs with the rest of the Apache Junction module. The codes your plans are checked against are in Apache Junction Adopted Building Codes , and the filing steps are in Apache Junction Residential Building Permit Requirements . For the full build sequence, see the steps to building a custom home in Arizona .

Source

The per-district lot sizes, setbacks, heights, and coverage limits are published by the City of Apache Junction in Table 5-2 of the Land Development Code, Section 1-5-2: view Section 1-5-2 on amlegal.com . The city's zoning hub is the Apache Junction Zoning Ordinance , and parcels are mapped at the Pinal County Assessor .

This page is general information, not a zoning determination. Setbacks and coverage change with overlays, modular (M) sub-districts, and amendments, so confirm your lot's district and standards with Apache Junction Building Safety before you design.