Residential Services
Major renovations, room and second-story additions, reconfigured plans, garage conversions and casitas. E-Project starts with what the existing house and the zoning will actually allow, then designs to that — so the drawings survive plan review instead of being corrected in it.
Before you decide what to build, three things need checking: how much lot coverage and setback envelope you have left, whether the existing structure can carry the change, and which review path your city will put the project on. Those three answers usually reshape the project — and they cost far less to get at the start than after a set of drawings exists.
Scope We Handle
Whole-house reworks: opening up a compartmented plan, relocating kitchens and primary suites, replacing envelope and glazing, and modernizing an older house without erasing what worked.
New bedrooms, primary suites, offices and great rooms — including vertical additions where the existing foundation, shear walls and zoning height limit permit it.
Detached or attached accessory living space. Rules vary sharply by city; Tempe, for example, now follows Arizona's 2024 ADU statute with specific size and setback standards.
Converting or extending garage space, including the parking, setback and egress questions that make or break the permit.
Covered patios, ramadas and shade structures — designed as part of the house rather than bolted onto it, and drawn to the accessory-structure rules of the jurisdiction.
Many older Valley homes have no usable drawings. We document what is there first, because a remodel drawn on an assumption is a change order waiting to happen.
Before You Draw Anything
Front, rear, side and street-side setbacks vary by zoning district in every Valley city. In Phoenix R1-6, the standard option sets front 20 feet, rear 25 feet, street side 10 feet and interior sides 10 and 3 feet. Scottsdale R1-7 sets front 20 feet, side 5 to 14 feet and rear 25 feet, or 22 feet with an alley. Your district is what governs — the first job is confirming which one you are in.
Phoenix R1-6 allows 50% lot coverage, with an additional 10% available for an accessory dwelling unit and attached shade structures. Tempe's single-family districts run to 45% of net site area. Paradise Valley regulates intensity through a 25% floor area ratio instead. Coverage, not desire, is usually the number that caps an addition.
Phoenix R1-6 permits two stories and 30 feet. Scottsdale R1-7 and R1-35 both cap at 30 feet — but under the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Overlay, single-family height drops to 24 feet measured from natural grade. In Paradise Valley the limit is 24, 26 or 30 feet depending on lot size, and an Open Space Criteria "imaginary tent" plane applies on top of it.
This is the schedule. Scottsdale runs residential remodels and additions under 500 square feet through a 5-business-day Small Scope Review, and has a minor single-family submittal path for work under 1,000 square feet with no second floor and no basement. Cross either line and you are on the standard path. See Residential Permitting for the full comparison.
Zoning figures above are cited from each city's published standards and are given to show the kind of constraint that governs — they are not a substitute for confirming the standards that apply to your specific parcel and zoning district. E-Project verifies these at feasibility for every project.
Proof
| Project | Type | Size | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zuch Residence | Remodel | 6,800 SF | 2023 |
| Kaminitz Residence | Remodel | — | — |
| Carpenter Residence Addition | Addition | — | — |
For anything structural, anything that changes the roof, and anything that adds a second story, you want drawings before you want a contractor. Building departments across the Valley review additions against setbacks, lot coverage, height and disturbance limits that most homeowners have never read. Scottsdale, for example, routes remodels and additions under 500 square feet through an expedited Small Scope Review, but treats additions with second-floor work or basements as a full submittal. Having the constraints checked before you hire labor is what prevents a redesign.
It depends almost entirely on whether the existing house has good bones and whether your lot will legally accept what you want to add. A feasibility review answers both in a couple of hours: zoning district, remaining lot coverage, setback envelope, height limit, structural capacity of what is there, and whether the mechanical and electrical systems can carry the new load. E-Project offers this as an Architect on Call session precisely because it is the question homeowners ask most and the one that is cheapest to answer early.
Sometimes. The three gates are zoning height limit, structural capacity of the existing foundation and walls, and the review path. In Phoenix's R1-6 district, for instance, the standard height limit is two stories and 30 feet, so a second story is not automatically ruled out — but the existing footings and shear walls usually decide it. Scottsdale's minor single-family remodel and addition submittal path explicitly excludes second-floor additions, meaning a full review applies. Hillside parcels in Paradise Valley are governed by a height plane measured from natural grade rather than a simple story count.
Published targets vary by city and are worth checking at submittal. Phoenix publishes a 30-calendar-day goal for major remodels and additions and 20 days for minor ones, and its own monthly turnaround report has been running above those goals. Scottsdale publishes 5 business days of substantive review for residential remodels and additions under 500 square feet, and 15 business days for other plan types. Paradise Valley states that initial review and each subsequent review may take up to 15 business days, plus 3 to 5 business days to process the permit. Add resubmittal cycles to any of these.
Yes. E-Project's stated position is that no project is too small or too big — the firm works on garage additions and casitas as readily as on 7,500-square-foot custom homes. If the question is small enough, an Architect on Call session may be all you need.
That is a two-hour question, not a two-month one. Bring your address and a rough idea — we will tell you what is possible.
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Or call 480-626-8648 · info@e-projectinternational.com