Can an HOA or a subdivision’s CC&Rs change the pool barrier requirement?
Verified against the primary source on .
An HOA can add to it. It cannot reduce it. A.R.S. 36-1681(D)(5) and (D)(6) carve out POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS, which means cities, towns and counties. A platted subdivision or a homeowners association is not a political subdivision, so it has no power to lower the barrier requirement below what the statute and the AHJ require.
This comes up two ways and the answer is different in each direction.
AN HOA CANNOT REDUCE THE REQUIREMENT. The exemptions in A.R.S. 36-1681(D)(5) and (D)(6) run to political subdivisions. In Arizona that means cities, towns and counties. It does not mean platted subdivisions, master-planned communities, or homeowners associations. A CC&R, a design guideline, or an architectural committee approval cannot authorize a barrier lower than the statute and the authority having jurisdiction require, and an approval letter from an architectural committee is not a permit and is not a defense at inspection.
AN HOA CAN ADD TO IT, AND OFTEN DOES. Private architectural standards routinely restrict fence material, color, height, sightlines and view-fence detailing in ways the code does not. Those restrictions are enforceable as contract, they bind the homeowner, and they can conflict with the code requirement in a way that has to be designed around rather than argued away. A community that forbids solid walls above a certain height and a jurisdiction that requires 60 inches of non-climbable barrier both have to be satisfied at once. That usually lands on a footing wall plus a view fence above it.
A SPECIFIC PLAN OR PAD IS DIFFERENT. A Specific Plan or Planned Area Development is adopted BY the municipality, so it carries the force of the zoning code and it can change setbacks and yards. That is not the same thing as a CC&R. Marana Town Code 17-4-15 and Oro Valley Zoning Code 24.4.C are the local examples. Where a PAD or SP speaks, it overrides the base district.
PRACTICAL ORDER OF OPERATIONS. Confirm the authority having jurisdiction first, because that sets the legal minimum. Then get the recorded CC&Rs and the architectural guidelines, because they set the private maximum. Then design to whichever is more restrictive on each element. Doing it in the other order produces a design the committee approves and the inspector fails.
A live example of why the HOA is not the authority. Eagle Crest Ranch, 966 homes inside the SaddleBrooke CDP, has an HOA whose own About page states the community is in Pima County. It is not. It is entirely in Pinal County, verified three ways in 2026, and pool permits for all 966 homes go to Pinal County Building Safety and design to 60 inches. An HOA’s own published statement about jurisdiction is not authority and in that case is simply wrong.
Correction. The belief that an architectural committee approval or a CC&R provision can authorize a barrier below the code requirement.
Authority: A.R.S. 36-1681(D)(5) and (D)(6); Marana Town Code 17-4-15; Oro Valley Zoning Code 24.4.C. Verified 2026-09-10. Primary source. Evidence grade: VERIFIED. Read from the adopting ordinance or the published code section.