Paradise Valley Building Permit and Impact Fees for a New Home: Valuation Plus a 65 Percent Review

A new home in Paradise Valley carries a building permit fee built on the construction valuation of your house, plus a separate plan review fee charged as a percentage of that permit fee. Paradise Valley is an estate town with no municipal water or sewer impact-fee stack, so the permit and its review are the main Town charges, and your well and septic are the big separate costs. This page gives you the real fee basis from the Town's own schedule, with honest flags on where the live dollar figure has to come from the Town.

How Paradise Valley sets the permit fee

Paradise Valley prices a new-home permit from valuation, the estimated construction cost, and the Town's schedule is clear about where that value comes from:

The most current building valuation data as stated in the Town of Paradise Valley Master Fee Schedule shall be used for purposes of determining valuations. The Town reserves the right to verify construction valuation.

So the Town sets your home's valuation from the building valuation data published in its Master Fee Schedule, then runs the permit fee off that figure. Two things follow. First, a larger or higher-value home pays a larger permit fee, because the fee tracks the valuation. Second, the Town can verify and adjust your valuation, so a low self-reported number does not lower the fee if it falls below the Town's data. Paradise Valley builds large custom estates, so valuations here run high, and the permit fee runs high with them.

The 65 percent in-house plan review fee

On top of the permit fee, Paradise Valley charges an in-house plan review fee, and the Town states the rate plainly:

The in-house review fee is 65% of the building permit fee. The review fee covers up to two plan reviews. Additional reviews will be charged at a rate of $145.00 per hour.

So plan review is 65 percent of the permit fee, not a flat charge. If your permit fee works out to $4,000, the in-house review adds about $2,600, for roughly $6,600 in Town building charges before any trade permits. That review covers your first two plan submittals. If your set comes back twice and needs a third review, each added hour is billed at $145. On a complex hillside estate that bounces through review more than twice, those hourly charges add up, which is a real reason to submit a clean, code-correct set the first time.

The exact permit-fee dollars come from the building valuation data in the Master Fee Schedule, which the Town updates and which is not reliably machine-readable from the Town site. So treat the structure here (valuation-based permit fee, plus 65 percent review, plus $145 per hour past two reviews) as the verified part, and pull the live permit figure for your valuation from the Paradise Valley Building Department at 480-948-7411.

Why there is no municipal impact fee

Impact fees are charges a city collects on new construction to pay for the public infrastructure that growth uses, authorized in Arizona under A.R.S. 9-463.05. Many Valley cities charge them for water, sewer, parks, and fire. Paradise Valley runs no town water or town sewer utility and does not levy that municipal stack. Water service comes from private providers, and a lot without sewer uses an on-site septic system.

That shifts the budget. Inside a fee-charging city, impact fees can be the largest line on a new home. In Paradise Valley, your large separate costs are the septic system (permitted through Maricopa County and the state) and your water connection through the serving utility, not a town impact fee. So the building permit, the 65 percent review, and your septic and water are the real numbers to plan around.

When these fees come into play

• At permit application. The Town sets your valuation, invoices the permit fee, and adds the 65 percent in-house review. The review covers your first two submittals.
• Re-reviews cost money. A third or later plan review is billed at $145 per hour, so corrections are not free. A clean first submittal saves real dollars.
• Septic and water are separate. Because there is no town impact fee, budget the septic permit and install and the water connection on their own, through the county, state, and your water provider.

What this means for you

Plan the Paradise Valley permit as a valuation-based fee plus a 65 percent in-house review, the same two-part structure the Town publishes. Expect the Town to verify your valuation, so build an honest cost number, since estate-scale valuations drive a high permit fee here. Keep your plan set clean to stay inside the two included reviews and avoid the $145-per-hour re-review charge. Then budget your septic and water connection separately, because Paradise Valley has no municipal impact fee to fold in. The dollar figures behind the valuation data change when the Town updates its schedule, so confirm the current permit fee for your valuation with the Paradise Valley Building Department before you rely on a number here.

This entry sits in the Paradise Valley building-codes module alongside Paradise Valley Residential Building Permit Requirements , which covers what you submit, and Paradise Valley Adopted Building Codes , which covers the standards your plans are checked against. For how the permit basis differs across the metro, see valuation versus per-square-foot permit pricing in Arizona and how much a building permit costs in Arizona .

Source

The valuation basis, the 65 percent in-house review rate, the two included reviews, and the $145-per-hour re-review charge are published in the Town of Paradise Valley's Master Fee Schedule and building-permit materials, a public record: Master Fee Schedule on paradisevalleyaz.gov . The permit process and forms are on the Town Building Department and Permits and Handouts pages. The statute behind impact fees is A.R.S. 9-463.05 .

These fees change when the Town updates its schedule, and the live per-valuation figures are not easily pulled from the Town site. Confirm the current permit fee, the review fee, and your septic and water costs with the Paradise Valley Building Department before you rely on any number here for a budget.