Arizona
Scottsdale charges a building permit fee from two areas rather than from a valuation:
a $237 base fee, then $0.94 per square foot of area with air conditioning and $0.54 per square foot of covered area without it. Plan review is added on top from a separate schedule at $0.54 and $0.34 per square foot — cheaper than the permit fee, and with no base fee at all — so the reviewed total is the base fee plus about one and a half times the two area charges. Remodels and tenant improvements keep the base fee and the covered-area rate but pay 30% of the area-with-A/C rate. All of it is Exhibit A of the City's fiscal year 2026/27 fee schedule, adopted by Resolution No. 13661 and effective 1 July 2026.
Each page shows the fee components, the formula the jurisdiction uses, and a worked example you can follow by hand.
Estimate your potential Scottsdale permit fee with our Building Permit Fee Calculator.
| Permit | Category | Last reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| Scottsdale building permit cost | structural | 2026-09-24 |
| Scottsdale electrical permit cost | electrical | 2026-09-24 |
| Scottsdale plumbing permit cost | plumbing | 2026-09-24 |
Local context
Three things make Scottsdale's fee different from most cities', and all three are visible on the first line of the schedule.
The first is that there is no valuation anywhere. Nobody estimates what the building is worth. The City measures it instead: the area with A/C at $0.94 a square foot and the covered area without it at $0.54. A building full of expensive finishes and a building full of cheap ones of the same size pay the same permit fee. That makes an estimate easy to check — you need two numbers off the plans, not a cost opinion — and it makes the fee insensitive to everything except size.
The second is that the covered area is a second area, not a second name for the total. A 2,500 square foot house that includes 400 square feet of roofed patio without air conditioning is charged 2,500 square feet at $0.94 and 400 square feet at $0.54. Reading the two rows as two rates on one total — which is what the column layout invites — overstates the fee by more than $1,600 on that house.
The third is that plan review is not a percentage of anything. In Phoenix it is 100% or 80% of the permit fee; in Houston it is a separate per-$1,000 rate on valuation. Scottsdale publishes a second schedule with its own two area rates, $0.54 and $0.34, and no base fee at all. So the review is roughly 57% of the permit fee's area component — and it never carries the $237. A project whose plans are reviewed pays the base fee once, not twice.
What the City does not publish is a rate for electrical, plumbing or mechanical work. All three are issued permits, and the Miscellaneous schedule says the least thing about them that any document in this project has said: a one-discipline permit has a $121 minimum and a permit covering all disciplines a $379 minimum. Beyond those two floors, the trades are paid for by the building permit's area rate — the same amount for one circuit as for forty. That is a real difference from Texas, where a Houston electrical permit is priced per outlet and a Dallas one by how many trades the job involves.
Valuation
There is no valuation. The schedule builds a permit fee from three figures: a base fee of $237, the area with air conditioning at $0.94 a square foot, and the covered area without air conditioning at $0.54 a square foot. The residential schedule calls those 'livable area with A/C' and 'covered area (non A/C)'; the commercial schedule uses 'area with A/C' and 'covered area (non A/C)'. Plan review repeats the structure from its own schedule at $0.54 and $0.34.
Because the fee is driven by area, the areas are the estimate. Measure the air-conditioned floor area of the building and, separately, the area that is roofed but not air-conditioned — a covered patio, a carport, an enclosed storage bay. If the second is zero, say so: it is a real input and leaving it out is not the same as entering zero only in the sense that neither is charged.
One consequence is worth stating plainly. The City's shell-only row prices work at $0.94 x 95% against a line the schedule itself labels 'Area with A/C', even though a shell building has no air conditioning by definition. The schedule's own wording is followed here rather than reinterpreted; no shell-only fee is calculated.
The office that issues the permit, with the details we have verified. Confirm current hours before travelling.
The list is not a disclaimer: on a new house the fees left out can outweigh the permit fee several times over. Every entry here is stated on the permit page as well.
Not included in our estimates
These figures are the City of Scottsdale's building permit fee and plan review fee as published in Exhibit A for fiscal year 2026/27 (Resolution No. 13661, effective 1 July 2026), computed by this site's engine. They are not a total project cost, and they do not include:
The documents these figures are transcribed from. Where a source contradicts itself we keep both readings and say so on the permit page.
Fees, City of Scottsdale Planning & Development Services
The department's fee landing page, read on 2026-09-24 and last updated by the City on 2 July 2026. It publishes the schedules under the heading 'FY 26/27 - Effective July 1, 2026', which is where the effective date is stated on the web as well as in the documents, and it lists the other charges that sit beside the fee schedules: application fees, right-of-way annual fees, the customized expedited plan review programme, in-lieu parking, records, and stormwater management. It also links a 'Permit Fee Calculator Quick Reference: Calculates Building Permits Fees Only' at eservices.scottsdaleaz.gov, which answered 403 to this environment and from which no figure was taken.
One Stop Shop, City of Scottsdale Planning & Development Services
Read 2026-09-24; the City last updated it 13 August 2026. The only source for the department's contact details on this site: address 7447 E. Indian School Road, Scottsdale, AZ 85251, phone 480-312-2500 and email OneStopShopStaff@ScottsdaleAZ.gov, with published hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, no transactions after 4 p.m. Every other department page repeats the address, which is also printed on the footer of each schedule page.
Permit Fee Schedule — Commercial (Exhibit A)
Two pages, pages 8 and 9 of Exhibit A, same resolution. Fetched 2026-09-24 (sha256 e6910aecc536134b6ec6d04266381bfbd5f328f35c297645d0a214b8ac4594e4, 110,675 bytes). It publishes the same $237 base, the same $0.94 and $0.54 area rates and the same 30% remodel percentage as the residential schedule, which is why the rules here carry no occupancy condition. Its own rows add commercial definitions: remodel (existing), T.I. (new) and multi-family build out, vanilla shell T.I., shell only at 95% of the area-with-A/C rate, and foundation only at 25%.
Permit Fee Schedule — Miscellaneous (Exhibit A)
Two pages, pages 12 and 13 of Exhibit A. Fetched 2026-09-24 (sha256 489d15a21aa3713a4aaca378c771db79398d51fa0d4c45fedef66b688c98da57, 126,332 bytes). Cited for the fees this site names and does not compute: certificate of occupancy $195, demolition $379 ($121 for a pool), water heaters $63, residential solar $168 and commercial solar $331, solar water heaters $90, temporary power pole $121, re-inspection $121, pools and attached spas $0.61 per sq ft plus the $237 base and a $195 planning inspection fee, stand-alone spas $142, signs from $26 to $363 per sign behind a $237 base charged once per application, and the two minimum permit fees. It also publishes the departmental-structure evidence for trade work: 'Minimum Permit (one discipline) $121' and 'Minimum Combination (all disciplines) $379'.
Permit Fee Schedule — Residential (Exhibit A)
Two pages, pages 10 and 11 of the City's 23-page Exhibit A, effective 1 July 2026 under Resolution No. 13661. Fetched from scottsdaleaz.gov on 2026-09-24 (sha256 6f43f6738e12f1258a92cf6c7bc82a4c7c9b27bed94bd612100d9072a8d9cb08, 123,060 bytes) and read locally with pdftotext -table, which is the mode that pairs each fee with its own row; -layout interleaves the label and amount columns on these pages and would misassign them. A later capture can be compared against that hash.
Plan Review Fee Schedule — Commercial (Exhibit A)
One page, page 4 of Exhibit A. Fetched 2026-09-24 (sha256 6ac4debe2a812e27004e1bee5672a1db8fc5083544ab098fdddb77e340a37918, 103,989 bytes). Commercial, commercial addition, apartments and condos all take the same $0.54 and $0.34 area rates as residential, which is the second reason the rules here need no occupancy condition. It also prices foundation only at 25% of the $0.54 rate plus $270, shell only at 95%, commercial remodel and tenant improvement at 30% on the area with A/C alone, and a green compliance review at $0.10 per sq ft capped at $600.
Plan Review Fee Schedule — Residential (Exhibit A)
One page, page 5 of Exhibit A. Fetched 2026-09-24 (sha256 b952eed35cff264a6a607b110a57b650c79cef9f6ebf13518ad320d4b5a4939d, 104,226 bytes). Single family custom homes and single family additions carry $0.54 per sq ft of livable area with A/C plus $0.34 per sq ft of covered area, with no base fee of any kind — plan review here is only the area rates. The same page prices fences and retaining walls at $0.18 per linear foot in plan review, additional elevations at $121 each, engineering review per sheet at $1,057 and $363, and every miscellaneous review at $121 an hour.