Scottsdale, AZ
Scottsdale building permit cost
Scottsdale does not price a building permit from a valuation.
It prices it from area. A permit costs $237, plus $0.94 for every square foot that is air-conditioned, plus $0.54 for every square foot that is roofed but is not. Plan review is added on top from a separate schedule at $0.54 and $0.34 a square foot, with no base fee of its own, so the reviewed total is the $237 plus roughly one and a half times the two area charges. Remodels and tenant improvements pay the same $237 and the same $0.54 covered-area rate, but 30% of the area-with-A/C rate — $0.282 a square foot.
How this fee is calculated
These are the components the schedule defines for this permit, as they applied on 2026-09-28. A component only applies to your project if its conditions match — read that column before assuming a figure. Want a figure for your own project? Estimate this fee with the permit fee calculator.
| Component | Formula | Applies when | Range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Building permit base feePermit fee | $237.00 flat fee | Work type is one of new construction, addition, remodel | — |
| Building permit — area with A/CPermit fee | $0.94 per sq ft | Work type is one of new construction, addition and Project area is provided | — |
| Building permit — area with A/C, remodel or tenant improvementPermit fee | $0.282 per sq ft | Work type is remodel and Project area is provided | — |
| Building permit — covered area without A/CPermit fee | $0.54 per sq ft | Work type is one of new construction, addition, remodel and covered square footage is provided | — |
| Plan review — area with A/CPlan review | $0.54 per sq ft | Work type is one of new construction, addition and Project area is provided | — |
| Plan review — area with A/C, remodel or tenant improvementPlan review | $0.162 per sq ft | Work type is remodel and Project area is provided | — |
| Plan review — covered area without A/CPlan review | $0.34 per sq ft | Work type is one of new construction, addition and covered square footage is provided | — |
A real permit fee is these components added together. The department’s final calculation is the one that applies — this is the schedule it will be based on.
A worked example
Follow the arithmetic by hand. Every line is produced by the engine from the rules above, so the total cannot drift away from the schedule behind it.
Worked example
A new single family custom home of 2,500 square feet with air conditioning, which also has 400 square feet of covered patio that is roofed but not air-conditioned. Both areas are entered, because the schedule charges them at different rates.
| Input | Value |
|---|---|
| Project area | 2,500 sq ft |
| Occupancy class | Residential |
| Type of work | New construction |
| Covered area | 400 sq ft |
Example total
$4,289.00
An estimate, not an official fee. It is calculated from the published fee schedule as it applied on 2026-09-28. The permit office’s own calculation is the one that applies, and your project may fall under rules this schedule does not describe.
Fee schedule as of 2026-09-28Rules applied 5Rules considered 7
| Component | How it is calculated | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Building permit base feePermit feePermit Fee Schedule, Exhibit A — "Base fee $237", charged once on the permit before either area rate. It is the same base under the remodel and tenant-improvement rows as under new construction.Show the working
| $237.00 flat fee | $237.00 |
Building permit — area with A/CPermit feePermit Fee Schedule — "$0.94 sq. ft." against the area with A/C, which the residential schedule calls "livable area with A/C" and the commercial one calls "area with A/C". The rate applies to the whole area, not to a band of it.Show the working
| $0.94 per sq ft | $2,350.00 |
Building permit — covered area without A/CPermit feePermit Fee Schedule — "$0.54 sq. ft." against the covered area that is not air-conditioned. It is a second area charged on its own, not a discount on the first. The remodel rows print this rate unscaled, which is why the rule applies to remodels too.Show the working
| $0.54 per sq ft | $216.00 |
Plan review — area with A/CPlan reviewPlan Review Fee Schedule — "$0.54 sq. ft." against the area with A/C, published identically for single family custom homes, single family additions, commercial, commercial additions and apartments/condos.Show the working
| $0.54 per sq ft | $1,350.00 |
Plan review — covered area without A/CPlan reviewPlan Review Fee Schedule — "$0.34 sq. ft." against the covered area that is not air-conditioned, below the $0.54 charged for the area with A/C.Show the working
| $0.34 per sq ft | $136.00 |
| Total | $4,289.00 |
Fees that do not apply here
Listed so you can see what was considered and left out, rather than wondering whether something is missing. A rule can also be left out because it is not published for this permit at all, and that is stated where it matters.
- Building permit — area with A/C, remodel or tenant improvement — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
- Plan review — area with A/C, remodel or tenant improvement — This fee does not apply to the inputs provided.
Assumptions
- Calculated from 5 fee rules in effect on 2026-09-28.
- Amounts are rounded to the nearest cent, once, at the end of each component.
The permit fee is the published $237 base, 2,500 square feet at $0.94 ($2,350) and 400 square feet at $0.54 ($216): $2,803. Plan review from the separate schedule is 2,500 square feet at $0.54 ($1,350) and 400 square feet at $0.34 ($136): $1,486, with no base fee in it, giving $4,289 in all.
Two things about this example are assumptions rather than City figures. It assumes a plan review is required, which the schedule prices but does not decide. And the areas are a plausible house, not a City example — Scottsdale publishes no worked example of its own, so nothing here is being reproduced from the City as it was for Phoenix. Change the two areas and the fee changes with them, linearly and to the cent.
Had this been a remodel rather than a new home, the same $237 base and the same $216 of covered-area permit fee would apply, but the area with A/C would be charged at $0.282 rather than $0.94 — $705 instead of $2,350 — and plan review would be charged on the conditioned area only, at $0.162 rather than $0.54, which is $405. The pattern is the same in each case: 30% of the area rate, and no covered-area line in the plan review.
What is different in Scottsdale
The 30% on remodels is the figure most people miss, and it is the City's, not a discount this site invented: it is printed as '$0.94 sq. ft. x 30%' beside every remodel and tenant-improvement row in both the residential and the commercial schedule. The base fee is not reduced with it, and the covered-area rate is not reduced either — a remodel pays the full $0.54 on any roofed, un-air-conditioned area.
Plan review is the other half of the shape, and it works in the opposite direction from Phoenix, where plan review is a percentage of the permit fee. Here it is a second pair of area rates that are cheaper than the first, and there is no base fee in it at all: $0.54 for the area with A/C and $0.34 for the covered area. On a straightforward house the review therefore comes to about 57% of the permit fee's area component, and reviewing the plans never costs another $237.
The two areas are the part worth being careful about. They are not the same area charged twice. The $0.94 rate is for the air-conditioned area and the $0.54 rate is for the roofed area that is not air-conditioned — a covered patio, a carport, an enclosed bay. Entering the full floor area against both rows is the one mistake this schedule invites, and it is expensive: on a 2,500 square foot house with 400 square feet of covered patio it adds $1,610 to the permit fee alone.
What the City does not publish is a fee for electrical, plumbing or mechanical work as such. There is no per-outlet, per-fixture or per-circuit rate anywhere in the schedule. Trade work is paid for through the building permit's area rate, and a permit taken out for a single trade on its own is subject to the $121 one-discipline minimum the Miscellaneous schedule publishes. A water heater is the one exception with a flat price of its own, $63.
What this figure does not include
Impact fees, utility connections and other departments’ permits are the usual omissions, and in some jurisdictions they are larger than the permit fee itself.
Not included in these figures
This estimate is the building permit fee plus the plan review fee published in the same Exhibit A for fiscal year 2026/27. It excludes:
- The 70% roof-modification remodel, the 95% shell-only row, the 25% foundation-only row and the addition under 500 square feet — each scales the same area rates by a percentage the City prints.
- The published minimum permit fees: $121 for one discipline, $379 for all disciplines, which the schedule does not say how to apply against the $237 base.
- Certificate of occupancy and certificate of shell $195, GIS fee $379, lowest floor certificate review $363.
- Pools and attached spas at $0.61 per square foot plus the $237 base and a $195 planning inspection fee, and stand-alone spas at $142.
- Fences and retaining walls at $0.27 and $2.49 per linear foot behind their own $237 base, with plan review at $0.18 per linear foot.
- Signs, from $26 to $363 per sign behind a $237 base charged once per application, and demolition at $379 ($121 for a pool).
- Trade work priced on its own: water heaters $63, residential solar $168, commercial solar $331, solar water heaters $90, temporary power pole $121.
- Hourly and event fees: every miscellaneous or revision review at $121 an hour, engineering review per sheet at $1,057 and $363, additional elevations at $121 each, re-inspection $121, off-hours inspections $379, permit and plan review extension requests $379 each, review after the third review at 50% of the original fee, and the 15% standard-plan administrative site review fee.
- The green compliance review at $0.10 per square foot capped at $600, and the $270 add factor on foundation-only plan review.
- Fees charged on the City's other schedules — application fees, right-of-way annual fees, expedited plan review, in-lieu parking, records and stormwater management — and anything for property outside the Scottsdale city limits.
What you need before applying
- Two different areas, and the City means bothRequired
The schedule charges for the area with A/C at $0.94 a square foot and for the covered area without A/C at $0.54 a square foot, and they are two separate areas rather than two names for the total. The residential schedule calls the first the 'livable area with A/C' and the second the 'covered area (non A/C)'; the commercial schedule calls them 'area with A/C' and 'covered area (non A/C)'. A 2,500 square foot house of which 400 square feet is a roofed patio with no air conditioning is charged 2,500 square feet at one rate and 400 square feet at the other, not 2,500 at both.
- Remodels and tenant improvements are charged 30% of the area rateRequired
A remodel keeps the full $237 base fee and the full $0.54 covered-area rate, but the area with A/C is charged at $0.94 x 30%, which is $0.282 a square foot. The same 30% appears beside every remodel and tenant-improvement row in both the residential and the commercial schedule, so one rule covers a single family remodel, a commercial remodel of an existing building, a new tenant improvement, a multi-family build out and a vanilla shell T.I. The City's shell-only row is a different figure, 95% of the area rate, and its foundation-only row is 25%.
- Whether a plan review is requiredRequired
The plan review schedule prices the review of a building; it does not decide whether one is required, and it publishes no case in which a review is waived. Whether your project is reviewed over the counter, at a review meeting or through the standard submittal is the department's call. The estimate on this site assumes a review, because the fee schedule publishes a plan review fee for the work it prices.
- Fees charged beside the permitMay be required
Exhibit A publishes a large number of fees that run alongside the permit fee rather than inside it: certificate of occupancy and certificate of shell $195, GIS fee $379, lowest floor certificate review $363, plan review extension request $379, re-inspection $121, off-hours inspections $379, building permit extension request $379, demolition $379, water heaters $63, residential solar $168 and commercial solar $331, temporary power pole $121, pools and attached spas $0.61 per square foot plus a $195 planning inspection fee and the $237 base, and every miscellaneous review or revision at $121 an hour. None of them is included in the figures on this site, and none is estimated.
- The two minimum permit feesMay be required
The Miscellaneous schedule publishes 'Minimum Permit (one discipline) $121' and 'Minimum Combination (all disciplines) $379'. They read as floors on a permit rather than additions to one, and the schedule does not say whether they floor the $237 base or replace it, so they are named on this site and left out of the arithmetic rather than guessed at.
- The schedules are one exhibit of a larger setMay be required
The permit and plan review schedules are pages of a single 23-page Exhibit A for fiscal year 2026/27, adopted by Resolution No. 13661 and effective 1 July 2026. The department publishes other charges separately from it — application fees, right-of-way annual fees, the customized expedited plan review programme, in-lieu parking, records and stormwater management — and those are not part of the figures here.
Common questions
How much is a building permit in Scottsdale?
It depends on area, not on construction cost. The permit fee is $237, plus $0.94 per square foot of air-conditioned area, plus $0.54 per square foot of covered area that is not air-conditioned. Add plan review from the City's separate schedule at $0.54 and $0.34 per square foot with no base fee. A 2,500 square foot new home with 400 square feet of covered patio comes to $4,289 including plan review.
Does Scottsdale charge permits on construction valuation?
No. There is no valuation anywhere in the permit or plan review schedule. The City measures the building instead — the area with A/C at $0.94 a square foot and the covered area without it at $0.54 — so two buildings of the same size pay the same permit fee whatever they cost to build.
What is the difference between 'area with A/C' and 'covered area'?
They are two different areas of the same building, charged at two different rates. The area with A/C is the air-conditioned floor area at $0.94 a square foot. The covered area is what is roofed but not air-conditioned — a covered patio, a carport, an enclosed bay — at $0.54. They are not the same measurement counted twice, and entering your full floor area against both rows overstates the fee.
How much does a remodel permit cost in Scottsdale?
A remodel keeps the full $237 base fee and pays the full $0.54 a square foot on any covered area without A/C, but the area with A/C is charged at 30% of the rate — $0.282 a square foot, which the schedule prints as '$0.94 sq. ft. x 30%'. Plan review is 30% of its rate too, $0.162 a square foot, and the remodel rows price the conditioned area only, with no covered-area line.
Does Scottsdale charge separately for electrical, plumbing or mechanical permits?
The City issues all three, and publishes no rate for any of them. There is no per-outlet, per-fixture, per-circuit or per-ton row in the fee schedule, so the trades are paid for through the building permit's area rate. The one figure the City does publish for trade work on its own is a minimum: $121 for a permit covering one discipline and $379 for one covering all disciplines. A water heater is priced flat at $63.
Is plan review included in the Scottsdale permit fee?
No, it is a separate schedule with its own rates: $0.54 per square foot of area with A/C and $0.34 per square foot of covered area, with no base fee. That makes it cheaper than the permit fee rather than a percentage of it, and it never adds a second $237.
Source and verification
The documents behind every figure on this page, with the dates that make them checkable.
- City websiteCityPrimary source
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.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
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%.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
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'.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
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.
- Fee schedule (PDF)CityPrimary source
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.
Verification
Last verified against the official source in Sep 2026.