What the county actually requires, who to call, and where people get caught out.
Standard rules with an easy small-structure path but a paperwork catch: detached one-story non-habitable accessory structures up to 200 sq ft (no electric/plumbing/mechanical) are exempt from the building permit, yet the county still requires a $25 site-plan review for exempt structures and zoning/floodplain rules still apply; larger accessory structures and cargo containers explicitly need permits, and the Globe/Payson building-safety offices run a full plan-review-and-inspection program.
Call the office above and describe your actual build. Two things catch dome builders out in every Arizona county, whatever the permit light says: septic is regulated by the state regardless of what the county does about buildings, and no permit means no certificate of occupancy — which usually means no conventional mortgage and no standard homeowner's insurance, and a cash-buyers-only sale later.
Snow load is the other one. At elevation in Arizona it is a real engineering number, not a formality — the calculator works it out for your site.
Work out your dome's struts, hubs and cost →
This is a plain-English summary of published county rules, gathered for Tom & Courtney's Desert Domes — it is not legal advice, and codes change. The county office above is the authority; confirm with them before you buy materials.