What is the Tucson Unified Development Code?

The UDC is Tucson's consolidated zoning and subdivision code, combining what used to be separate zoning and land-division ordinances into one document administered by Planning & Development Services. It sets base zoning districts like R-1 through R-3 and C-1 through C-3, plus procedures for rezonings and Planned Area Developments.

How do I find the zoning for an address in Tucson?

Tucson Planning & Development Services maintains a zoning lookup tool and GIS map showing the base zone and any overlay for a parcel; a formal zoning verification letter can also be requested from the department for transactional purposes.

Does Tucson have a middle-housing or ADU mandate?

Tucson exceeds the 75,000-population threshold under Arizona's 2024 HB 2720, so the UDC has been amended to allow accessory dwelling units by right on residential lots previously zoned exclusively single-family; check with Planning & Development Services for the current status of any further middle-housing provisions.

Tucson, Arizona · city zoning districts · 10 districts

Tucson, AZ zoning map & districts

Tucson consolidated its zoning and subdivision regulations into a single Unified Development Code (UDC), administered by Planning & Development Services, with rezonings going through the Mayor and Council after Planning Commission review. The UDC preserves a largely Euclidean structure of residential, commercial, and industrial base zones while layering in Planned Area Development (PAD) rezonings for large master-planned sites, which are common across the metro area.

The code Tucson Unified Development Code

Tucson zoning map

The interactive map needs JavaScript. See the official MapTucson (City of Tucson interactive GIS viewer) instead.

Special purpose 55
Residential 25
Commercial 15
Mixed-use 7
Industrial 3

Source: MapTucson (City of Tucson interactive GIS viewer), retrieved 2026-08-30. Basemap: © OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Find a district by address

District lookup only. No bulk standards and no ordinance citations are held for this city yet. Not a zoning verification.

Source: the official MapTucson (City of Tucson interactive GIS viewer) , retrieved 2026-08-30 — the authoritative source for current boundaries.

Tucson Planning & Development Services administers the Unified Development Code and maintains the city's zoning map and code text; parcel zoning is confirmed through PDSD's zoning lookup or a formal zoning verification request.

A published summary is never the authority. The adopted ordinance and the city's official zoning map govern, and both change — verify the district and every standard on your parcel before you rely on it.

How zoning works in Tucson

As Arizona's second-largest city, Tucson is directly subject to the state's 2024 ADU mandate (HB 2720), and the UDC has been amended to implement by-right ADUs on residential lots that previously allowed only single-family homes, alongside separate 2024 state legislation affecting residential lot-size standards in large cities. Historic preservation overlay zones also apply across several of Tucson's older neighborhoods and add design-review requirements on top of the base zoning.

Tucson zoning districts by family

The 10 district codes below are the ones that decide most projects in Tucson, grouped by what they are for rather than by the order the ordinance prints them.

Key districts in the Tucson Unified Development Code — a curated reference, not the exhaustive list. Confirm against the current adopted code.
Code	District	What it is for
Residential 4 districts
R-1	Residence Zone	Base single-family residential zone.
R-2	Residence Zone	Single-family and limited two-family residential.
R-3	Residence Zone	Multifamily residential zone.
MH-1	Mobile Home Residence Zone	Manufactured/mobile home residential use.
Commercial 3 districts
C-1	Local Business Zone	Small-scale, neighborhood-serving commercial uses.
C-2	Commercial Zone	General commercial corridor zoning.
C-3	General Commercial Zone	Broader commercial and auto-oriented uses.
Industrial 2 districts
I-1	Light Industrial Zone	Warehousing and light manufacturing.
I-2	Heavy Industrial Zone	UDC 4.7.30: "Heavy Industrial Zone (I-2)" (Tucson UDC Article 4 TOC, Wayback snapshot of codelibrary.amlegal.com, direct fetch 403). Prior curated name "General Industrial Zone" was wrong; family industrial confirmed correct. Audit: docs/specs/progress/45-curated-guide-audit-2026-09-04.md.
Special purpose 1 district
PAD	PAD — Planned Area Development (mapped only as PAD-1 to PAD-51, plus HL-PAD-19/31/37)	UDC "Planned Area Development (PAD)"; live ZONE_COT values are PAD-1...PAD-51 and HL-PAD-nn (no bare "PAD"; confirmed via DB distinct zone_class for jurisdiction_id=tucson-az). Kept as a prefix-family entry, retitled; zone-cat-overrides.json's arizona/tucson block already carries PAD-1..PAD-51 and HL-PAD-19/31/37 individually resolving to "special" -- confirmed, not duplicated.

Tucson zoning — common questions

What is the Tucson Unified Development Code?: The UDC is Tucson's consolidated zoning and subdivision code, combining what used to be separate zoning and land-division ordinances into one document administered by Planning & Development Services. It sets base zoning districts like R-1 through R-3 and C-1 through C-3, plus procedures for rezonings and Planned Area Developments.
How do I find the zoning for an address in Tucson?: Tucson Planning & Development Services maintains a zoning lookup tool and GIS map showing the base zone and any overlay for a parcel; a formal zoning verification letter can also be requested from the department for transactional purposes.
Does Tucson have a middle-housing or ADU mandate?: Tucson exceeds the 75,000-population threshold under Arizona's 2024 HB 2720, so the UDC has been amended to allow accessory dwelling units by right on residential lots previously zoned exclusively single-family; check with Planning & Development Services for the current status of any further middle-housing provisions.

Working in Arizona? Get on the list.

The parcel layer lands in the order demand does. Illinois went first because that's where the deals were; the next state is decided by who tells us what they're trying to underwrite. Tell us where you're building and what you wanted to run — you'll hear from us when Arizona opens, and sooner if we need a test parcel.

Keep reading

← Arizona zoning — who holds the zoning power in Arizona, under which enabling statute, and the reforms that override local rules.

Other Arizona cities

The zoning reference → — every state, plus city-level district guides like this one.

Tucson zoning summaries on this page are provided for information, not legal advice. Confirm every project against the current adopted code for the jurisdiction.