Court Orders Arizona To Revert To Pre-Hobbs Water Rules For Housing Development

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October 22, 2026

By Staff Reporter |

The Maricopa County Superior Court ruled on Monday that the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) will face final judgment for violating the law to establish water supply rules.

The superior court ruled against ADWR back in April. The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona (HBACA), who sued ADWR, has requested the court invalidate and enjoin the challenged rules by ADWR and award any further relief the court determines to be just and equitable.

ADWR’s assured water supply rules caused a housing moratorium for developers, prompting HBACA to challenge its rulemaking authority in court.

Prior to the Hobbs administration, state law required developers to prove 100 years of assured water supply for their developments before beginning construction. ADWR, under the Hobbs administration, expanded that requirement to require developers to prove 100 years of assured water supply for the water management area surrounding their developments.

The Goldwater Institute represented HBACA in this case. The organization said at the start of the case early last year that the rules defied logic as well as the law, and exacerbated the state’s housing crisis.

“Arizona law is clear: major policies like the ‘unmet demand’ rule require formal rulemaking and legislative approval,” stated the Goldwater Institute. “Lawmaking is the job of elected representatives — not unelected bureaucrats.”

Judge Scott Blaney, the Maricopa County Superior Court judge in this case, ruled that ADWR had not only violated the law but effectively attempted to rewrite it to suit the Hobbs administration’s preferred water usage agenda.

“The Legislature created two paths to establish an assured water supply to develop a subdivision: obtain a certificate; or obtain a designation,” said Blaney. “Through the implementation of its moratorium and its nearly simultaneous promulgation of a rule that demands more water than the statute requires, ADWR has in effect attempted to rewrite the governing statute at the agency level.”

Despite losing in court, ADWR recently requested that its rules not be invalidated and enjoined.

Blaney stated in Monday’s ruling that ADWR has failed to establish good cause for withholding enforcement against them, and that to allow the water rules to continue to exist would be allowing ADWR to continue violating the law.

Blaney said the rules concerning assured water supply would return to what they were before the Hobbs administration.

“Defendant’s concerns are not consistent with the facts — the Court’s April 21, 2026 ruling on Plaintiff’s claims merely returns the parties to the status quo ante,” said Blaney.

AZ Free News reported earlier this month that the Hobbs administration awarded the outside counsel contract for this case to Coppersmith Brockelman PLC, a law firm with close ties to the governor, earlier this year. The contract listed an initial estimated cost of up to $600,000.

As reported, the administration justified competition in this contract as impracticable because ADWR’s in-house attorneys were reportedly busy with other litigation and Hobbs’ policy priorities.

The administration previously awarded the firm another outside counsel contract concerning groundwater rules and regulations. That contract quoted an estimated cost of $120,000 per year.