Scottsdale, AZ Landscaping Rules: Rainwater Harvesting (2026)

4 to require that any stormwater management system, including infiltration, evapotranspiration, and rainwater harvesting, collection and use, comply with Chapter 37, Stormwater and Floodplain Management. Chapter 37's baseline duty, Section 37-49, puts the cost of providing required stormwater storage and management facilities on the property owner for essentially all development, including residential land divisions, sized under Section 37-50 to hold runoff from a 100-year, 2-hour storm event. Section 37-56, Alternative stormwater management measures, lets the Floodplain Administrator approve rainwater harvesting, along with pervious pavement, vegetative roofs and other low-impact-development options, in place of some or all of that stormwater storage volume, so a property owner can substitute a harvesting system for a portion of an otherwise-required retention basin.

Where storage is fully or partially waived, Section 37-52 requires an in-lieu fee set on the city's fee schedule, paid when the building permit issues, though Section 37-51 lets the Floodplain Administrator reduce or waive it for smaller lots, hillside or upper desert landforms, or where engineering shows the site can convey the extra runoff. Watercourses and any resulting stormwater or harvesting facilities must then be maintained under Section 37-54 to keep water from standing more than 36 hours or turning foul, with annual inspection and post-storm debris removal required of the property owner.