Coconino County, AZ Fire Regulations: Wildfire Zones (2026)

Coconino County defines the Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) as the area in and around a community where structures meet or intermingle with undeveloped land such that a wildfire's direct or secondary effects would threaten the community's environmental, social, or economic values. 1, any subdivision or development that requires a landscape plan and sits within the WUI must build defensible space into that plan, maintained at least once a year. The ordinance lays out three concentric zones. Zone 1, 0 to 10 feet from any building, structure, or deck, requires removing native brush from under trees, trimming canopies above the roofline with at least 10 feet between canopies, keeping shrubs pruned to 2 feet with 4 feet of clear space (or removed if they naturally grow taller), clearing dead material, and stripping combustible material and native brush from under decks and within 10 feet of structures.

Zone 2, 10 to 30 feet out, requires removing ladder fuels, limbing trees at least 6 feet up, keeping canopies 10 feet apart and 10 feet from structures, cutting grass to 4 inches, and extending treatment to 130 feet total on slopes over 20 percent. Zone 3 covers 30 to 150 feet on unsloped ground and requires clearing ladder fuels and dead material. 2 requires new developments to identify and remove noxious weeds before ground disturbance and to decontaminate heavy equipment before it works the site.