Utility Easements: What You Can Build, Fence or Plant, by City

Phoenix Water Services puts it in one line: "The City of Phoenix requires a civil permit to excavate within a PUE." Its flyer lists three steps: get permission to enter the property where the utility is located, get the civil permit from the Planning and Development civil permits counter, and call Arizona 811 before digging, which is free.

The other cities write the same idea into code, with more detail on what may be built:

• Fence yes, wall maybe: Chandler and Glendale plats allow "wood, wire or removable section type fencing" and nothing permanent without utility sign-off.
• No sheds or accessory buildings: Surprise bars residential accessory structures in any easement.
• Written consent for the big stuff: pools in Avondale and ADUs in Glendale. Review the actual easement and current zoning rule for other structures.
• Permit to dig: Phoenix, Mesa, Gilbert, Paradise Valley and Cave Creek require one for work in an easement.

• Public utility easement (PUE). A recorded right for utilities to place and reach their lines on private land, usually along a rear or side lot line. Your plat or title report shows it.
• Water or sewer easement. Same idea, dedicated to the city for a specific main. Scottsdale won't serve a parcel from public lines that aren't in a dedicated easement or right-of-way.
• Encroachment. Anything of yours inside the easement: a wall, slab, pool, tree or ADU corner.
• Encroachment permit. Written permission from the easement holder to put something there. Paradise Valley and the Fountain Hills Sanitary District issue them by that name.
• Easement holder. Every utility with rights in the strip, which can mean the city, SRP or APS, Southwest Gas and cable companies at once.

Homeowners adding a pool, casita, wall or trees near a back lot line, and the contractors building them. It covers commercial owners and developers too: a building projection, dumpster enclosure or private sewer line routed through an easement hits the same rules. And it covers any plumber digging to a sewer or water main that runs through a neighbor's or your own easement.

A backyard casita in Glendale. The plans put one corner three feet into the rear PUE. Glendale's rule says the unit "shall not encroach upon an existing or planned public utility easement" unless the owner has written consent from each easement holder and each affected utility. Getting those letters takes time, so moving the unit is often faster.

A Surprise fence taken down for a sewer repair. The city's contractor removes a section of fence and shrubs in the sewer easement to reach the main. Under LDO 107-2.2, plants and fences destroyed by utility work in an easement "shall be replaced in accordance with the approved landscape plan by the property owner."

A Scottsdale strip center rerouting its sewer. The owner wants the new private line to follow the rear easement to a better connection point. Scottsdale 49-127 says building sewers and laterals "shall not be installed in a public utility easement or Right-of-Way except to directly connect to a public sewer," so the line has to stay on the property until it turns in to connect.

A Mesa owner with a block wall over a gas line. Mesa 5-14-4(F) lets the city remove or modify any wall, fence or fill that interferes with its gas system and charge the customer.

1. 1Pull your plat or title report and find every easement and its width. The plat notes say what is allowed.
2. 2Call Arizona 811 before any digging, even a fence post hole.
3. 3List the easement holders and ask each one for written consent if you plan anything permanent.
4. 4Confirm and obtain the permits required for the proposed work. Public or utility easement excavation can require a civil permit in Phoenix, a Right-of-Way Permit in Mesa, a town permit in Gilbert, or an encroachment permit in Paradise Valley. Apply each local rule to the actual easement and work; a private easement does not by itself establish a city permit requirement.
5. 5Record the approval where the code asks, as Avondale does for pools.
6. 6Keep the easement reachable. Scottsdale bars anything that blocks "free access to or flow of" a sewer line.

• "It's my land, so I can build on it." You own it, but the easement holders' rights come first, and several codes let the city remove what's in the way at your cost.
• "The city will put my fence back." In Surprise the owner replaces plants and fences after utility work.
• "Only structures count." Fences and landscaping can affect utility access; check the recorded easement and the utility's requirements before installing them.
• "A building permit clears the easement." Consent from the easement holders is a separate step.

When your sewer or water line runs through an easement, HQ can inspect and repair water and sewer lines. Confirm easement access, city permits and the authorized scope before work begins.