Avondale, AZ Animal Ordinances: Beekeeping (2026)

The zoning ordinance's land use matrix lists Apiary as permitted with conditions only in the Agricultural (AG) and Rural Residential RR-43 districts, marked as not permitted in RR-18, R1-35, R1-15, R1-10, R1-8, R1-7, R1-6 and R1-5. Section 28-33(c) spells out the conditions behind that designation: apiary is allowed in certain residential zoning districts provided that in the AG District, hives shall have a minimum separation of two hundred feet from any adjacent residences, and in the RR-43 District, hives shall have a minimum separation of seventy-five feet from any adjacent residence.

In practice, that means a resident on an AG-zoned parcel needs enough space to keep every hive 200 feet from the nearest neighboring house, while an RR-43 resident on a smaller lot only has to clear 75 feet, reflecting the smaller minimum lot sizes in that district. Because the ordinance measures from the nearest adjacent residence rather than the property line, a beekeeper has to account for where a neighbor's house actually sits, not just the lot boundary, when siting hives. Any residential parcel zoned RR-18 or denser, including the common R1-6 and R1-5 single-family districts that make up most of Avondale's subdivisions, cannot host an apiary at all under the current land use matrix, regardless of setback.