Cave Creek Building Permit and Impact Fees for a New Home: How the Valuation Table Works

A new home in Cave Creek carries a building permit fee that is driven by one number: the construction valuation of your house. Cave Creek does not price the permit by square foot the way Scottsdale does. It runs the fee off a valuation table, the same approach most Arizona cities use. This page gives you the real fee basis from the Town's official schedule, so you can budget the building-permit line instead of guessing.

How Cave Creek calculates the permit fee

Cave Creek sets the permit fee from the value of the work, and the Town's schedule is explicit about where that value comes from:

All permit fees based on valuation shall be derived from Table 1-A, as published in Section 151.14 of the Cave Creek Town Code. Refer to the most recent publication of the ICC Building Valuation Table for all values not listed below.

So the Town first establishes your home's valuation, the estimated construction cost. For items it lists itself, it uses set per-square-foot figures: a residential garage is valued at $55.50 per square foot, a covered patio or carport at $21.60, an Arizona room at $100.00. For the house itself it points to the ICC Building Valuation Table, the national cost-per-square-foot figures the International Code Council updates. Once the valuation is set, the fee comes off the Town's tiered table. On that table, a $300,000 valuation lands a $2,984 permit fee, and a $500,000 valuation lands a $4,584 permit fee. Above $1,000,000 the fee is $8,003 for the first million plus $5.00 for each additional $1,000.

Plan review is separate and stacks on top. The Town states it plainly: plan review fees are a minimum of $50 or 65 percent of the permit fee, whichever is greater. For example, on a home that values out to $500,000, the $4,584 permit fee carries a plan review fee of about $2,980 (65 percent), for roughly $7,560 in building-department charges before trade permits. Electrical, plumbing, mechanical, pool, and wall permits are billed on their own lines.

Where impact and development fees fit

The fee above is the building-department charge. It is not the same as impact fees , which are charges a city collects on new construction to pay for the public infrastructure that growth uses. Arizona lets towns levy them under A.R.S. 9-463.05. Cave Creek's posted building schedule covers permit and plan review fees, not a separate municipal impact-fee menu. The biggest infrastructure cost most Cave Creek homes face is water. Many lots here connect to the Cave Creek Water Company. Others rely on a well and septic system instead of a city sewer. So your largest single number is often the water connection or meter charge, billed by the utility, not a line on the building permit. Confirm your water and wastewater path early, because it can dwarf the permit fee.

When these fees come into play

• Build-on-your-lot. You apply through Cave Creek Development Services, and the Town sets your valuation, then invoices the permit and the 65 percent plan review fee at application.
• Garages and covered patios. Because the Town values a garage at $55.50 per square foot and a covered patio at $21.60, a big garage or deep covered patio raises the valuation, and therefore the fee, on a real and predictable basis.
• Permits pulled after work starts. The Town doubles both the permit and plan review fees for work that began before a permit was obtained, so do not let a subcontractor jump the gun.

What this means for you

Budget the permit fee and the 65 percent plan review fee together, since the plan review tracks the permit. Get an honest valuation, because the Town can use the ICC table value rather than your contract if your number looks low, and the fee follows the valuation. Pin down your water and septic situation early, since that is usually the largest infrastructure cost on a Cave Creek lot. One caution on the numbers: the Town's posted valuation table carries an old effective date, and fees are reset by ordinance, so treat every dollar figure here as a planning estimate and confirm the current schedule with Cave Creek Development Services before you rely on it.

This entry sits in the Cave Creek building-codes module alongside Cave Creek Residential Building Permit Requirements , which covers what you submit, and Cave Creek Adopted Building Codes , which covers the standards your plans are checked against. For how these costs compare across the metro, see how much a building permit costs in Arizona .

Source

The valuation basis, the Town Code 151.14 reference, the ICC table reference, the tiered fee figures, and the 65 percent plan review rule are reproduced from the Town of Cave Creek's official permit fee schedule, a public record: Valuation Schedule and Permit Fees on cavecreekaz.gov . The governing ordinance is Cave Creek Town Code Chapter 151 .

These fees change by Town ordinance, and the posted table is dated. Confirm the current schedule and your water and septic costs with Cave Creek Development Services before you rely on any number here for a budget.