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

Before you draw a floor plan in Scottsdale, you need to know your zoning district, because the district sets how far the house must sit from every property line. That open distance is called a setback, and it is the single rule that decides where the house can go on the lot. Scottsdale's single-family districts are named for their minimum lot size, from R1-7 (7,000 square feet) up to R1-190 (190,000 square feet), and the setbacks get deeper as the lots get bigger.

What the districts require

Each Scottsdale single-family district has its own property development standards section in Article V of the Zoning Ordinance. The required yards, the minimum lot, and the height ceiling all change by district. Here are the numbers the city publishes for the common districts:

• R1-7: 7,000 sq ft minimum lot, front yard 20 ft, side yard 5 ft each side, rear yard 25 ft, height 30 ft.
• R1-18: 18,000 sq ft minimum lot, front yard 35 ft, side yard 10 ft, rear yard 30 ft, height 30 ft.
• R1-35: 35,000 sq ft minimum lot, front yard 40 ft, side yard 15 ft, rear yard 35 ft, height 30 ft.
• R1-43: 43,560 sq ft minimum lot, front yard 40 ft, side yard 20 ft, rear yard 35 ft, height 30 ft.
• R1-190: 190,000 sq ft minimum lot, front yard 60 ft, side yard 30 ft, rear yard 60 ft, height 30 ft.

The ordinance states the building-height limit the same way in each district:

No building shall exceed thirty (30) feet in height, except as otherwise provided in Article VII.

So a one-acre R1-43 lot and a small R1-7 lot share the same 30 foot height cap, but their yards are very different. The R1-43 house sits 40 feet back from the street; the R1-7 house can come within 20 feet.

When setbacks come into play

Setbacks shape the build from day one, before design starts:

• Build-on-your-lot. Your designer subtracts the front, side, and rear setbacks from the lot to find the buildable area, the footprint left for the house. For example, a 100 by 200 foot R1-43 lot loses 40 feet off the front, 35 off the rear, and 20 off each side, leaving a buildable band roughly 60 feet wide and 125 feet deep.
• Corner lots. In Scottsdale, a corner lot has a front yard on each street frontage, which can squeeze the buildable area more than a standard interior lot.
• Patios and garages. The main house, garage, and any casita must stay inside the setback lines. Some features like eaves and certain front porches have separate allowances under Article VII.

A setback violation is one of the most common reasons a Scottsdale residential plan gets corrected at review, which is why the city checks the setback distances on the site plan before the permit issues.

What this means for you

Confirm your exact zoning district before you buy or design, because the difference between R1-7 and R1-43 changes the front yard from 20 feet to 40 feet and reshapes the whole footprint. Scottsdale's single-family height limit is a flat 30 feet, so your roofline is capped the same in every R1 district. Watch lot coverage and the buildable area together, since deep setbacks on a big lot can still leave a narrow building pad. We run the setbacks and buildable area on the first day of a Scottsdale project, because they decide whether a floor plan fits or has to change.

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

Source

The per-district setbacks, lot sizes, and the 30 foot height limit are published by the City of Scottsdale in Article V of the Zoning Ordinance: View the District Regulations on municode.com . The district list and minimum lot sizes are set in Article IV, Table 4.100.A , and the city's zoning hub is at Scottsdale Zoning Ordinance Resources .

This page is general information, not a zoning determination. Setbacks change with overlays, hillside rules, and amendments, so confirm your lot's district and standards with Scottsdale Planning and Development before you design.