Maricopa County Building Permit and Impact Fees for a New Home: The Valuation Table

Building a new home on unincorporated land in Maricopa County works differently from building inside a city. The county charges its building permit fee by construction valuation, the estimated dollar value of the work, run through a published table. There is no city-style stack of water, sewer, parks, and fire impact fees, because most county lots are served by private septic systems and wells, not municipal utilities. This page gives you the real Table 1-A numbers so you can budget the permit accurately.

How the valuation-based permit fee works

The county sets a single home's permit fee from Table 1-A in its Planning and Development fee schedule. You do not pick the valuation yourself out of thin air. The county determines it from the current Building Valuation Data published in "Building Standards," adjusted for Arizona. Here is the part of Table 1-A that covers a typical custom home:

$100,001 to $500,000: $993.75 for the first $100,000 plus $5.60 for each $1000, or fraction thereof, to and including $500,000. $500,001 to $1,000,000: $3,233.75 for the first $500,000 plus $4.75 for each additional $1000.

So the permit fee climbs in steps as the home's value rises. A home the county values at $500,000 lands at the top of the first bracket above, for a permit fee of $3,233.75. On top of that, the county adds a plan review fee equal to 65 percent of the calculated permit fee, which on that same home is about $2,102. Together the permit and plan review run roughly $5,336 for a $500,000 home, before drainage review, inspections, and addressing.

Those extras are real line items. Residential drainage review is a $60 admin fee plus a $300 engineered-review upcharge when required. Standard residential inspections run $150 each, and a failed inspection that has to be repeated is another $150. The schedule notes all fees may be rounded up to the next full dollar.

Why there are no city impact fees here

Arizona lets a city or county charge impact fees under A.R.S. 9-463.05 to pay for the public infrastructure new growth needs. Cities like Phoenix and Scottsdale use them for municipal water, sewer, parks, fire, and streets. Unincorporated Maricopa County generally does not, because a typical county home is not on city water or city sewer. It runs on a private well or a hauled-water arrangement and an on-site septic system, which you permit and pay for separately through the county environmental and the well or septic process.

That changes the budget math. Inside a city, impact fees can be the single largest fee on a new home. On a county lot, your big separate costs are the septic system permit and install and the well drilling, not a municipal impact fee. Confirm the current fee schedule with the county before you budget, since the Board of Supervisors updates these amounts and the valuation data changes.

When these fees come into play

• Build-on-your-lot in the county. A custom home in an unincorporated area near Rio Verde, Cave Creek, or the desert edge runs through Table 1-A on valuation. Your designer files through the county Permit Center.
• Septic and well. Because there is no city utility impact fee, plan and budget the septic permit and the well as their own costs. They often exceed what a small city permit would be.
• Drainage. Many county lots sit in or near washes, so the drainage review fee and a possible engineered-review upcharge apply more often than they would on a flat city lot.

What this means for you

Budget the permit from the valuation, not the square footage, because the county runs off Table 1-A. A rough rule: a half-million-dollar home is in the low thousands for the permit plus 65 percent plan review, then add drainage and inspections. Do not budget for city impact fees on a true unincorporated lot, but do budget for the septic and well, which carry their own county permits and real install costs. Use the county's online fee estimator to price your specific valuation before you file.

This entry sits in the building-codes module beside Maricopa County Residential Building Permit Requirements , which covers what you submit, and Maricopa County Adopted Building Codes , which covers the standards. For a metro-wide comparison of permit costs, see how much a building permit costs in Arizona .

Source

The valuation brackets and the 65 percent plan review rate above are reproduced from the Maricopa County Planning and Development Summary of the Fee Schedule, a public record: Summary of the Fee Schedule on maricopa.gov . For an interactive estimate of your project, use the county's Fee Schedule and Estimators page.

These fees are set by the Board of Supervisors and the valuation data updates over time. Confirm the current schedule with Maricopa County Planning and Development before you rely on any number here for a budget.