What the county actually requires, who to call, and where people get caught out.
Standard IRC path with no opt-out: sheds 200 sq ft or under are permit-free but must sit in the rear of the property, 5 ft from other structures, 10 ft from septic, inside setbacks; any utilities trigger a full permit, and the county will not permit an accessory structure on vacant land before a primary dwelling is underway — moderate, largely complaint-driven rural enforcement otherwise.
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.