Unincorporated Apache County building permits

Tips & gotchas

• Every residence in unincorporated Apache County must be connected to a sanitary district OR have an approved on-site wastewater disposal system before a building permit will issue — get your Septic Construction Authorization from the Apache County Health Department (928-337-7607) early in the process.
• Mobile homes (pre-HUD-code) are prohibited in ALL zoning districts countywide; only manufactured homes 15 years old or newer, installed by an Arizona-licensed installer, are allowed. Factory-built homes are a separate permit category — call 928-337-7527 before assuming which category applies.
• Off-grid properties are NOT exempt from permitting: any living quarters, solar electric system, or outbuilding over 200 sq ft still requires a building permit even with no utility connection.
• The county's own published documents disagree on two specific figures: (1) inspection notice — one working day (Requirements for Building Permits sheet) vs. two working days under IBC §114 (Requirements for One-/Two-Family and Commercial/Multi-Family sheets); and (2) plan review turnaround — 15 business days maximum, usually under a week (Building Safety FAQ) vs. 'three (3) weeks or more' (July 2015 residential/commercial requirement sheets). Both sets of documents are live on the county website; call Building Safety (928-337-7527) to confirm current practice rather than relying on a single figure.
• The county's Building Safety Ordinances page lists '2014 International Electric Code' as adopted, but the county's own Building Safety FAQ (Q11) states the 2011 National Electrical Code applies to non-residential/general construction electrical work. This is a genuine discrepancy between two current county-published sources, not a typo we resolved by guessing — confirm the controlling NEC edition directly with Building Safety before design.
• The county's Building Safety Schedule of Fees and Valuations (Resolution 2019-1) appears to supersede the earlier Table No. 1-A per-valuation fee schedule (dated July 1, 2015), but both remain live PDFs on the county's document library; the 2019 resolution references the August 2016 ICC Building Valuation Data Table rather than reprinting a specific dollar-break table, so exact current fees should be confirmed directly with Building Safety (928-337-7527).
• If the property was acquired within 120 days prior to a building permit application (of any type), a copy of the recorded deed or sales transaction must be submitted with the application.
• A structure built and used for farming, dairying, agriculture, viticulture, horticulture, or stock/poultry raising can be built without a standard building permit under A.R.S. §11-865(1) by filing a notarized Affidavit of Agricultural Use ($50) with the County Recorder instead — but a later change of use requires retroactive permitting.
• Apache County's Directory of Documents (A.R.S. §11-1607 compliance page) does not list a separate A.R.S. §11-1604/§11-1605 licensing-timeframe determination for any building-safety permit type; the only such timeframe document found and confirmed live is for Onsite Wastewater licensing (filed under Public Health Services, not Building Safety).
• An RV may be lived in, and may be connected to electric utility service, only if an approved septic system is installed at the property.
• Permits become invalid if work isn't started within 180 days of issuance or is suspended/abandoned for 180 days; the county's FAQ separately states you must pass at least one inspection every 6 months to keep a permit open. The Building Official can grant written extensions of up to 180 days each for justifiable cause.
• Apache County's official website migrated from co.apache.az.us to apachecountyaz.gov; both domains resolve, with co.apache.az.us 301-redirecting to the new site, but PDF document links on the new site are hosted at a separate S3 bucket (ecs-cluster-bucket-wsos-prod-two.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com) rather than the county domain itself.