Maricopa, AZ Landscaping Rules: Water Restrictions (2026)

The City of Maricopa is not a water utility, so day-to-day water-use rules come from the private provider and from Arizona water law rather than a city ordinance. Most of the City of Maricopa is served by Global Water's Santa Cruz Water Company, a regulated utility that draws from local groundwater wells and serves the Maricopa area in Pinal County. Because the city lies within the Pinal Active Management Area (AMA), groundwater pumping and conservation are governed by the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) under the state's Groundwater Management Act. ADWR's AMA management plans impose mandatory conservation programs on large municipal providers, including public-education requirements and best-management-practice obligations; conservation requirements adopted in the Fifth Management Plans take effect in the mid-2020s. There is no city-imposed lawn-watering day or time-of-day restriction published by the City of Maricopa itself. Instead, the city's landscaping code (Ch. 18.90) advances conservation indirectly by encouraging drought-tolerant and native plant materials and desert landscaping. During drought, watering restrictions for Maricopa residents would come from the water provider's drought/curtailment plan or ADWR, not from a municipal ordinance, so residents should check Global Water's current conservation messaging for any active restrictions.