Queen Creek, AZ Environmental Rules: Erosion Control (2026)

12, Site Stabilizations, requires an applicant to revegetate any land graded or disturbed by construction activity to control erosion, and lays out three compliance paths. First, the site must be revegetated with native species, desert trees, desert shrubs and grasses or large specimen cacti, or with a revegetation seed mix. Second, fast-spreading weedy species named in the ordinance, Russian Thistle, Telegraph Plant, Desert Broom, Pigweed and Burrow Bush, must be weeded to keep them from spreading onto neighboring properties. Third, any slope steeper than three-to-one, where plant material alone will not hold the soil, has to be held with retaining walls, riprap, groundcover, or a system of terraces or diversions engineered to control surface water runoff and speed vegetation establishment; the Town can approve any other adequate method.

13, layers on additional site requirements during grading: Town Engineer-approved dust palliative, watering during grading, decomposed granite or similar groundcover on non-slope areas, and an outright ban on using motor oil, oil treatment or sodium chloride as a dust suppressant because of the damage those chemicals cause to people, animals, plants and property. Both provisions are enforced through the grading permit process, so compliance methods must be spelled out before a grading permit is issued and are inspected by the Town before construction proceeds. The standards apply the same way on either side of the Maricopa County or Pinal County line, since the Zoning Ordinance runs townwide.