Maricopa, Arizona zoning

A plain-language summary of the Maricopa zoning ordinance, organized by district and topic. Source: the official ordinance on Code Publishing Company / General Code (municipal.codes), Maricopa City Code Title 18, Zoning, last reviewed July 3, 2026.

Zoning districts

RAResidential
Rural Agricultural
District intended to provide for agricultural areas within the city and to protect and conserve these areas within and adjacent to urban development (MCC 18.30.010). Main use is animal and food production, growing, processing, and selling. Incidental residential uses with septic systems may be allowed and are subject to Pinal County review and approval, an explicit county-city overlap on legacy rural/agricultural parcels. Minimum lot area 3 acres. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
GRResidential
General Rural
District intended to prevent urban residential and related uses from developing near agricultural operations and to provide large-lot, low-density residential buffers adjacent to agricultural lands (MCC 18.30.010). Minimum lot area 54,450 square feet (approximately 1.25 acres). Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RS-1Residential
Low Density Residential
Transitional district between rural zoning districts and medium density residential districts (MCC 18.35.010). Single-unit detached and attached housing on lots of at least 12,000 square feet. Also allows parks, group and residential care homes, family day care, park and recreation facilities, and educational facilities. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RS-3Residential
Medium Density Residential
Medium density residential district (MCC 18.35.010). Single-unit detached and attached housing on lots of at least 9,000 square feet. Clustered development allowed to permit smaller lots if overall average gross density is maintained. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RS-4Residential
Medium Density Residential
Medium density residential district (MCC 18.35.010). Single-unit detached and attached housing on lots of at least 7,000 square feet. Clustered development allowed to permit smaller lots if overall average gross density is maintained. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RS-5Residential
Medium Density Residential
The most common standard single-family lot district (MCC 18.35.010). Single-unit detached and attached housing generally on lots of at least 5,000 square feet; up to 25 percent of lots in a subdivision may be smaller, but no lot may be under 4,500 square feet. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RMResidential
Multiple Unit Residential
District for a variety of housing types subject to general plan density standards of six to 12 units per net acre (MCC 18.35.010). Appropriate types include small-lot single residences, townhouses, condominiums, cluster housing, and multiple residence housing; also allows assisted living, transitional supportive housing, day care, and community and religious facilities. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RHResidential
High Density Residential
District for a variety of housing types subject to general plan density standards of 12 to 24 units per net acre (MCC 18.35.010). Accommodates attached single residences, townhomes, condominiums, garden apartments, and multi-unit buildings; allows a limited number of public/semi-public uses such as day care and assisted living. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RMHPResidential
Residential Manufactured Home Park
District for seasonal or permanent housing where residence is exclusively in manufactured home use (MCC 18.35.010). Intended for locations compatible with adjacent land uses, with design standards and necessary community services. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
NCCommercial
Neighborhood Commercial
District intended for locally oriented retail and service uses serving the surrounding residential trade area within one-half mile to one-mile radius (MCC 18.40.010). Typical uses include retail stores, small grocery and drug stores, specialty food sales, restaurants and cafes, and neighborhood-serving businesses. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
GCCommercial
General Commercial
General commercial district intended to meet local and regional retail demand, such as large-scale retail, office, civic and entertainment uses, shopping malls with large footprints, "big-box" retail use, and other uses not appropriate elsewhere due to higher vehicle traffic volumes and potential impacts on other uses; typical uses include grocery/anchor-tenant shopping centers, drug stores, fast food chains, hardware and building supply stores, gas stations with convenience stores, restaurants, cafes, and medical/professional offices (MCC 18.40.010, additional-purposes narrative, independently fetched and confirmed this session). Minimum lot area 10,000 square feet. Note the GIS zoning layer also returns a legacy abbreviation "GC" for General Rural Zone and Light Industry and Warehouse Zone parcels that predate the current code; do not assume every map "GC" parcel is this district without checking the paired full zoning name (independently re-confirmed this session via a live distinct-values query).
SCCommercial
Shopping Center
Shopping center commercial district (MCC 18.40). Minimum lot area 20,000 square feet, the largest minimum lot area of the commercial districts, consistent with a shopping-center-scale district. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
GOCommercial
General Office
General office district (MCC 18.40). Minimum lot area 10,000 square feet; no maximum-density figure applies (n/a in the dimensional table, unlike NC's 20 units/net acre cap). Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
MU-NMixed use
Neighborhood Mixed Use
District intended to facilitate transformation of sections of city roadways into vibrant, highly walkable areas with broad pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, trees, landscaping, and local-serving uses, with new buildings stepping down to the scale of adjacent low density neighborhoods (MCC 18.45.010). Ground-floor neighborhood-serving retail, services, and plazas expected, with upper-level housing or offices. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
MU-GMixed use
General Mixed Use
Mixed use district at higher intensity than MU-N (MCC 18.45). Maximum density 30 units/net acre, maximum floor area ratio 1.2, maximum building height 60 feet, versus MU-N's 16 units/net acre, 0.8 FAR, and 30 feet. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
LIIndustrial
Light Industrial
District intended to accommodate a diverse range of existing industrial uses providing a job base and affordable space for small-scale industrial and manufacturing businesses (MCC 18.50.010). Allows light industrial uses, general service, research and development, biotechnology, warehousing, service commercial, flex space, mini-storage, wholesale, and commercial recreation, plus small-scale retail and ancillary office. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
GIIndustrial
General Industrial
District intended to accommodate the broadest range of industrial uses (MCC 18.50.010), including uses with a greater potential for off-site impacts than LI. Minimum lot area 10,000 square feet, front setback 35 feet (largest of the three industrial districts). Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
IPIndustrial
Industrial Park
Campus-style industrial district (MCC 18.50). Minimum lot area 20,000 square feet, the largest minimum lot size among the industrial districts, consistent with a business-park setting. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
PRSpecial purpose
Parks and Recreation
District for developed and undeveloped park lands and permanent recreation open spaces, which may include trails and other low-impact public recreational uses implementing the city's parks, trails and open space master plan (MCC 18.55.010). Abbreviation independently confirmed directly against MCC 18.10.010 (Districts established), which lists the city's open space base districts verbatim as "PR Parks and Recreation; POS Privately Owned Open Space; C Conservation Open Space." This district was mislabeled "OS-P" in an earlier draft; PR is the code-confirmed abbreviation. Dimensional standards in Table 18.55.030 remain review-gated: that table is rendered as an image on the source page and could not be independently re-fetched this session (same Cloudflare/image-proxy wall documented for the industrial rear setback below); confirm directly with MCC 18.55.030 before relying on it.
POSSpecial purpose
Privately Owned Open Space
District for privately owned parkland and privately owned recreational open space; allowed uses include parks and recreational facilities, supporting commercial and entertainment facilities, and agricultural and other open space uses (MCC 18.55.010). This district was entirely missing from the original draft of this pack, which listed only two open-space districts; MCC 18.10.010 (Districts established) confirms three base open-space districts exist (PR, POS, C), not two. Added this session as a disclosed completeness fix. No dimensional standards captured yet; Table 18.55.030 is image-rendered and could not be independently fetched this session. Confirm directly with MCC 18.55.030 before relying on it.
CSpecial purpose
Conservation Open Space
District intended for permanent open spaces including environmentally sensitive lands, wildlife corridors, waterways, and deserts, limiting development where flood, erosion, or emergency-service risks make it infeasible (MCC 18.55.010). Abbreviation independently confirmed directly against MCC 18.10.010 (Districts established), which lists it verbatim as "C Conservation Open Space." This district was mislabeled "OS-C" in an earlier draft. Dimensional standards in Table 18.55.030 remain review-gated: that table is rendered as an image on the source page and could not be independently re-fetched this session; confirm directly with MCC 18.55.030 before relying on it. Caution: the bare single-letter code "C" is also used elsewhere in Title 18 as a use-table permit symbol (conditional use permit) and as shorthand for "Commercial" district group (MCC 18.10.010); do not confuse this district code with those unrelated uses of the same letter.
PISpecial purpose
Public-Institutional
District for public or quasi-public facilities, including city facilities, utilities, schools (including colleges and trade schools), health services, public works yards, utility stations, and telecommunications facilities; accessory retail and services such as food facilities and childcare are permitted (MCC 18.55.010). Confirmed abbreviation from the live GIS zoning layer distinct-values list (Zoning "Public-Institutional", Abbreviation "PI"), independently re-confirmed this session. Note MCC 18.10.010's own base-district list names only PR, POS, and C for open space/institutional districts and does not separately list "PI"; PI is confirmed only via the GIS layer's distinct-values list, not via the 18.10.010 code text itself. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited MCC 18.55 dimensional table before acting.
PADSpecial purpose
Planned Area Development
District providing opportunities for creative and flexible development approaches that accommodate developments involving a mixture of residential and/or nonresidential uses not prescribed in the standard zoning districts (MCC 18.60.010). Traditional dimensional and use standards are replaced by the standards and design in the adopted PAD ordinance for that specific property; each PAD is evaluated and reviewed individually. Numerous master-planned communities in Maricopa (Province, Rancho El Dorado, Glennwilde, Homestead, Tortosa, and others) are zoned PAD. Confirm the specific adopted PAD ordinance and design guidelines for the property before relying on any base-district rule.

Code	Name	Category	Summary
RA	Rural Agricultural	Residential	District intended to provide for agricultural areas within the city and to protect and conserve these areas within and adjacent to urban development (MCC 18.30.010). Main use is animal and food production, growing, processing, and selling. Incidental residential uses with septic systems may be allowed and are subject to Pinal County review and approval, an explicit county-city overlap on legacy rural/agricultural parcels. Minimum lot area 3 acres. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
GR	General Rural	Residential	District intended to prevent urban residential and related uses from developing near agricultural operations and to provide large-lot, low-density residential buffers adjacent to agricultural lands (MCC 18.30.010). Minimum lot area 54,450 square feet (approximately 1.25 acres). Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RS-1	Low Density Residential	Residential	Transitional district between rural zoning districts and medium density residential districts (MCC 18.35.010). Single-unit detached and attached housing on lots of at least 12,000 square feet. Also allows parks, group and residential care homes, family day care, park and recreation facilities, and educational facilities. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RS-3	Medium Density Residential	Residential	Medium density residential district (MCC 18.35.010). Single-unit detached and attached housing on lots of at least 9,000 square feet. Clustered development allowed to permit smaller lots if overall average gross density is maintained. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RS-4	Medium Density Residential	Residential	Medium density residential district (MCC 18.35.010). Single-unit detached and attached housing on lots of at least 7,000 square feet. Clustered development allowed to permit smaller lots if overall average gross density is maintained. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RS-5	Medium Density Residential	Residential	The most common standard single-family lot district (MCC 18.35.010). Single-unit detached and attached housing generally on lots of at least 5,000 square feet; up to 25 percent of lots in a subdivision may be smaller, but no lot may be under 4,500 square feet. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RM	Multiple Unit Residential	Residential	District for a variety of housing types subject to general plan density standards of six to 12 units per net acre (MCC 18.35.010). Appropriate types include small-lot single residences, townhouses, condominiums, cluster housing, and multiple residence housing; also allows assisted living, transitional supportive housing, day care, and community and religious facilities. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RH	High Density Residential	Residential	District for a variety of housing types subject to general plan density standards of 12 to 24 units per net acre (MCC 18.35.010). Accommodates attached single residences, townhomes, condominiums, garden apartments, and multi-unit buildings; allows a limited number of public/semi-public uses such as day care and assisted living. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
RMHP	Residential Manufactured Home Park	Residential	District for seasonal or permanent housing where residence is exclusively in manufactured home use (MCC 18.35.010). Intended for locations compatible with adjacent land uses, with design standards and necessary community services. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
NC	Neighborhood Commercial	Commercial	District intended for locally oriented retail and service uses serving the surrounding residential trade area within one-half mile to one-mile radius (MCC 18.40.010). Typical uses include retail stores, small grocery and drug stores, specialty food sales, restaurants and cafes, and neighborhood-serving businesses. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
GC	General Commercial	Commercial	General commercial district intended to meet local and regional retail demand, such as large-scale retail, office, civic and entertainment uses, shopping malls with large footprints, "big-box" retail use, and other uses not appropriate elsewhere due to higher vehicle traffic volumes and potential impacts on other uses; typical uses include grocery/anchor-tenant shopping centers, drug stores, fast food chains, hardware and building supply stores, gas stations with convenience stores, restaurants, cafes, and medical/professional offices (MCC 18.40.010, additional-purposes narrative, independently fetched and confirmed this session). Minimum lot area 10,000 square feet. Note the GIS zoning layer also returns a legacy abbreviation "GC" for General Rural Zone and Light Industry and Warehouse Zone parcels that predate the current code; do not assume every map "GC" parcel is this district without checking the paired full zoning name (independently re-confirmed this session via a live distinct-values query).
SC	Shopping Center	Commercial	Shopping center commercial district (MCC 18.40). Minimum lot area 20,000 square feet, the largest minimum lot area of the commercial districts, consistent with a shopping-center-scale district. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
GO	General Office	Commercial	General office district (MCC 18.40). Minimum lot area 10,000 square feet; no maximum-density figure applies (n/a in the dimensional table, unlike NC's 20 units/net acre cap). Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
MU-N	Neighborhood Mixed Use	Mixed use	District intended to facilitate transformation of sections of city roadways into vibrant, highly walkable areas with broad pedestrian-friendly sidewalks, trees, landscaping, and local-serving uses, with new buildings stepping down to the scale of adjacent low density neighborhoods (MCC 18.45.010). Ground-floor neighborhood-serving retail, services, and plazas expected, with upper-level housing or offices. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
MU-G	General Mixed Use	Mixed use	Mixed use district at higher intensity than MU-N (MCC 18.45). Maximum density 30 units/net acre, maximum floor area ratio 1.2, maximum building height 60 feet, versus MU-N's 16 units/net acre, 0.8 FAR, and 30 feet. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
LI	Light Industrial	Industrial	District intended to accommodate a diverse range of existing industrial uses providing a job base and affordable space for small-scale industrial and manufacturing businesses (MCC 18.50.010). Allows light industrial uses, general service, research and development, biotechnology, warehousing, service commercial, flex space, mini-storage, wholesale, and commercial recreation, plus small-scale retail and ancillary office. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
GI	General Industrial	Industrial	District intended to accommodate the broadest range of industrial uses (MCC 18.50.010), including uses with a greater potential for off-site impacts than LI. Minimum lot area 10,000 square feet, front setback 35 feet (largest of the three industrial districts). Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
IP	Industrial Park	Industrial	Campus-style industrial district (MCC 18.50). Minimum lot area 20,000 square feet, the largest minimum lot size among the industrial districts, consistent with a business-park setting. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited section text before acting.
PR	Parks and Recreation	Special purpose	District for developed and undeveloped park lands and permanent recreation open spaces, which may include trails and other low-impact public recreational uses implementing the city's parks, trails and open space master plan (MCC 18.55.010). Abbreviation independently confirmed directly against MCC 18.10.010 (Districts established), which lists the city's open space base districts verbatim as "PR Parks and Recreation; POS Privately Owned Open Space; C Conservation Open Space." This district was mislabeled "OS-P" in an earlier draft; PR is the code-confirmed abbreviation. Dimensional standards in Table 18.55.030 remain review-gated: that table is rendered as an image on the source page and could not be independently re-fetched this session (same Cloudflare/image-proxy wall documented for the industrial rear setback below); confirm directly with MCC 18.55.030 before relying on it.
POS	Privately Owned Open Space	Special purpose	District for privately owned parkland and privately owned recreational open space; allowed uses include parks and recreational facilities, supporting commercial and entertainment facilities, and agricultural and other open space uses (MCC 18.55.010). This district was entirely missing from the original draft of this pack, which listed only two open-space districts; MCC 18.10.010 (Districts established) confirms three base open-space districts exist (PR, POS, C), not two. Added this session as a disclosed completeness fix. No dimensional standards captured yet; Table 18.55.030 is image-rendered and could not be independently fetched this session. Confirm directly with MCC 18.55.030 before relying on it.
C	Conservation Open Space	Special purpose	District intended for permanent open spaces including environmentally sensitive lands, wildlife corridors, waterways, and deserts, limiting development where flood, erosion, or emergency-service risks make it infeasible (MCC 18.55.010). Abbreviation independently confirmed directly against MCC 18.10.010 (Districts established), which lists it verbatim as "C Conservation Open Space." This district was mislabeled "OS-C" in an earlier draft. Dimensional standards in Table 18.55.030 remain review-gated: that table is rendered as an image on the source page and could not be independently re-fetched this session; confirm directly with MCC 18.55.030 before relying on it. Caution: the bare single-letter code "C" is also used elsewhere in Title 18 as a use-table permit symbol (conditional use permit) and as shorthand for "Commercial" district group (MCC 18.10.010); do not confuse this district code with those unrelated uses of the same letter.
PI	Public-Institutional	Special purpose	District for public or quasi-public facilities, including city facilities, utilities, schools (including colleges and trade schools), health services, public works yards, utility stations, and telecommunications facilities; accessory retail and services such as food facilities and childcare are permitted (MCC 18.55.010). Confirmed abbreviation from the live GIS zoning layer distinct-values list (Zoning "Public-Institutional", Abbreviation "PI"), independently re-confirmed this session. Note MCC 18.10.010's own base-district list names only PR, POS, and C for open space/institutional districts and does not separately list "PI"; PI is confirmed only via the GIS layer's distinct-values list, not via the 18.10.010 code text itself. Confirm the current zoning map, any PAD overlay, and the cited MCC 18.55 dimensional table before acting.
PAD	Planned Area Development	Special purpose	District providing opportunities for creative and flexible development approaches that accommodate developments involving a mixture of residential and/or nonresidential uses not prescribed in the standard zoning districts (MCC 18.60.010). Traditional dimensional and use standards are replaced by the standards and design in the adopted PAD ordinance for that specific property; each PAD is evaluated and reviewed individually. Numerous master-planned communities in Maricopa (Province, Rancho El Dorado, Glennwilde, Homestead, Tortosa, and others) are zoned PAD. Confirm the specific adopted PAD ordinance and design guidelines for the property before relying on any base-district rule.

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