Sedona, AZ Building Safety: Anti-Mansionization (2026)

Section 5.7.F(2)a, Building Massing, sits inside the Land Development Code's building design standards for exactly the situation 'mansionization' describes: a house that grows so large it reads as one flat, oversized volume out of scale with the lot and its neighbors. For single-family residential buildings, the size thresholds are specific. A house over 1,000 square feet but under 2,000 square feet of gross floor area must be composed of at least two visual building masses of differing heights and at least two of differing planes. Once a house reaches 2,000 square feet or more of gross floor area, that requirement steps up to at least three masses of differing heights and three of differing planes.

The Code also defines what counts as a qualifying 'mass' so the requirement can't be satisfied with cosmetic tweaks. Each mass must vary in height vertically by at least two feet from the mass next to it, cover a minimum of 100 square feet, and measure at least six feet in both width and depth, with depth and width measured perpendicular to each other. An upper story recessed by at least six feet also counts as its own visual mass.

A similar masses-of-differing-heights-and-planes requirement, using a slightly larger minimum height variation between masses, also extends to multifamily buildings and to commercial and public buildings above a floor-area threshold, so larger projects don't escape the standard just by being bigger than a single-family home.

Compliance is confirmed through Sedona's design review process for projects covered by Section 5.7, which requires that review to happen at site plan review, or before a building permit is issued when site plan review isn't required.