Corner Lot and Double-Frontage Setbacks in Arizona: The Street-Side Yard That Shrinks Your Buildable Area

A corner lot in Arizona is not as buildable as it looks. Because it touches a street on two sides, the zoning code treats both street frontages like a front yard, so the lot carries a second deep setback (the open distance a house must keep from a property line) where a mid-block lot would have only a narrow side yard. That extra setback is the street-side yard, and it quietly shrinks the footprint you can build. The same thing happens on a through lot (also called a double-frontage lot), one that runs from one street to another with a front line on each end. This page explains the rule, shows each metro city's number, and flags why it trips up plan review.

What a street-side yard is

On a normal interior lot, the house keeps a deep front yard from the street, a deep rear yard, and two narrow side yards from the neighbors. A corner lot replaces one of those narrow side yards with a street-side yard, because that side now faces a street. The street-side yard is wider than an interior side yard, though usually not as wide as the true front. A through lot gets a front-style setback on both street ends, so it loses depth on both sides instead of keeping a rear yard.

The effect is the same in every case: the open border around the house grows, and the buildable area (the footprint left after you subtract the setbacks) shrinks. On a corner lot the squeeze hits the width on the street side. On a through lot it hits the depth. Either way, a floor plan that fits a mid-block lot may not fit the corner or through lot next door.

Each metro city sets its own street-side rule

The street-side number is set by each jurisdiction's own zoning code, so it varies across the cities Jematell Homes builds in:

• Phoenix. Districts like R1-14 and RE-24 set an interior side yard of 10 feet but a street side yard of 15 feet, so the corner frontage gives up 5 extra feet. The ordinance lists them separately.
• Scottsdale. A corner lot carries a front yard on each street frontage, so both streets get the full front setback, which can squeeze the buildable area more than a single interior side would.
• Mesa. A through lot whose rear faces an arterial street must keep that rear yard at least 30 feet deep, which pushes the house forward and can leave two front-style yards on a double-frontage lot.
• Cave Creek. In the R-18 Single Residence zone the interior side yard is 10 feet but the street side yard is 20 feet, double the interior side, on the corner frontage.
• Apache Junction. Table 5-2 sets a separate street side column for every district. On an RS-7 lot the interior side is 7 feet while the street side is 10 feet; on the large RS-GR lot both interior and street side run 20 feet.
• Fountain Hills. The Section 10.09 yard chart carries footnotes that adjust some yards for corner and canyon-side conditions, common on the town's sloped terrain.

So the same corner condition can cost you 5 extra feet in Phoenix, 10 extra feet in Cave Creek, or a full second front yard in Scottsdale. Apache Junction's code spells out how broadly a corner lot's footprint gets counted against the coverage cap, naming every roofed structure:

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.

The setback that shapes the footprint changes city to city, so you have to read your specific district's street-side number, not assume it matches the city next door.

When this comes into play

The street-side yard shapes the site plan before the house is drawn, and it is a recurring setback trap at plan review:

• Reused plans. A plan that fit an interior lot gets dropped onto a corner lot, and the street-side yard cuts into the footprint. This is one of the most common corrections a residential plan gets on a corner parcel.
• Garages and driveways. A corner lot often has to place the garage and driveway off the lower-traffic street, and the street-side setback plus sight-distance rules at the intersection limit where the driveway can go.
• Lot coverage stacks on top. The street-side setback shrinks the footprint, and the lot coverage cap limits it again. The house has to pass both tests, so a corner lot can feel smaller than its square footage suggests.

For example, take a Cave Creek R-18 lot. A mid-block R-18 house keeps 10 foot interior side yards. The corner lot next door keeps a 10 foot interior side on the neighbor side but a 20 foot street side on the street side, so it loses 10 feet of buildable width that the mid-block lot keeps. Drop the same floor plan on both and only the mid-block one fits without a redesign or a variance.

What this means for you

Check whether your lot is a corner or through lot before you design, because the street-side or second-front setback changes the buildable area and the answer is in your district's own code. Pull the exact street-side number for your zone (Phoenix 15 feet on many districts, Cave Creek 20 feet in R-18, Apache Junction per Table 5-2, Scottsdale a full front yard on each street), since it varies city to city. Plan the garage and driveway around the corner setback and the intersection sight lines early, because they often decide which street you enter from. We map both street frontages, the street-side setback, and the lot-coverage cap together on day one of a corner-lot project, so the floor plan fits the parcel the first time instead of bouncing through review.

This explainer ties the per-city zoning entries together. For your district's full yard table, see the per-city zoning pages: Scottsdale , Phoenix , Mesa , Cave Creek , Fountain Hills , Apache Junction , Casa Grande , and Maricopa County . For the underlying terms, see setback and lot coverage . For the full build sequence, see the steps to building a custom home in Arizona .

Source

The street-side and corner-lot setbacks above are published in each jurisdiction's zoning code: the City of Phoenix Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 6 , the City of Scottsdale Zoning Ordinance, Article V , the City of Mesa Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 5 , and the Apache Junction Land Development Code, Section 1-5-2 . Each city's full district table is confirmed in its per-city zoning entry above.

This page is general information, not a zoning determination. Corner and through-lot rules change with overlays, hillside standards, and amendments, so confirm your lot's classification and street-side setback with the local planning department before you design.