Building Permit (Site-Built Homes) in Unincorporated Greenlee County, Arizona

Unincorporated Greenlee County requires a building permit (site-built homes) for: Required for site-built homes (and, per the Planning and Zoning page, for building and use permits generally, both residential and commercial) in unincorporated Greenlee County; Obtain a Zoning Use Permit and a Floodplain Permit (where applicable) first — the Building Permit is issued at no cost once these are in hand; No building-code plan review, construction inspection, or Certificate of Occupancy is performed by the county under this permit, because Greenlee County has adopted no building code; Owners are advised by the county to voluntarily contract their own inspections and use a conservative building code standard, since no county-level construction-quality check exists; Manufactured/mobile homes are NOT covered by this permit — they are handled separately by the Greenlee County Health Department. If your project isn't listed, confirm with Greenlee County Planning and Zoning Department at 928-865-4762 before starting work.

The Building Permit itself is issued at no cost, once the Zoning Use Permit and Floodplain Permit (where applicable) have been issued. The only fee in the sequence is the $45 non-refundable Zoning Use Permit / Permit Application fee. Source: Greenlee County Engineering letter, October 19, 2012; Greenlee County Permit Application (PDF).

Unincorporated Greenlee County does not publish a plan-review timeline for this permit. Contact Greenlee County Planning and Zoning Department at 928-865-4762 for current turnaround.

You'll need: Greenlee County Permit Application (PDF). See the required-documents checklist on this page for details on each.

Apply through Greenlee County Planning and Zoning Department at 253 Fifth Street (2nd Floor Annex), P.O. Box 908, Clifton, Arizona 85533. Phone: 928-865-4762, email: planning@greenlee.az.gov. Office hours: Monday-Thursday, 7:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. (closed Friday-Sunday, per Greenlee County's 4-day workweek). Official information: https://greenlee.az.gov/ova_dep/planning-and-zoning/.

Unincorporated Greenlee County, Arizona has adopted: Greenlee County has adopted NO building codes for unincorporated areas of the county. This is confirmed directly and unambiguously by a signed letter from the County Engineer (Philip Ronnerud) on Greenlee County Engineering letterhead, dated October 19, 2012, published on the county's own website as 'Building Codes and Loading Standards': 'Currently, Greenlee County has adopted no building codes. Because we have no codes, Greenlee County has not determined and does not recommend building loads, does not review plans, does not inspect construction, or issue a Certificate of Occupancy. I suggest that owners contract for inspections and use a conservative Building Code.' No subsequent ordinance or later-dated county communication was found superseding this policy. Source: Greenlee County Engineering letter, 'Building Codes and Loading Standards' (PDF), published at https://greenlee.az.gov/ova_doc/building-codes-and-loading-standards/, October 19, 2012, signed by Philip Ronnerud, Engineer.; Because no code has been adopted, the county's building permit is a zoning/floodplain clearance mechanism, not a construction-code plan-review permit. Per the same October 2012 Engineering letter: 'With some exceptions, Arizona Law requires the County to issue a building permit. We issue a building permit at no cost when a Zoning Use Permit and Floodplain Permit are issued. We have a fee for the Zoning Use Permit. An address is provided with the Zoning Use Permit.' The Planning and Zoning Department's own page confirms the same three-permit structure: 'The Planning Office issues Zoning Use Permits, Building Permits for site built homes, and Floodplain Permits ... Some permits can be issued via the telephone.' Source: Greenlee County Planning and Zoning page (https://greenlee.az.gov/ova_dep/planning-and-zoning/); October 2012 Engineering letter.; The Zoning Division (housed within the Planning and Zoning Department) 'is responsible for the issuance of building and use permits (both residential and commercial), the enforcement of the Zoning Regulations; including violations and the abatement of hazards.' The Planning Division separately handles special use requests, rezoning, home occupations, accessory living quarters applications, lot modifications, variances to the Zoning Regulations, and subdivisions. Source: Greenlee County Planning and Zoning page.; Manufactured/mobile home permits and septic (on-site wastewater) system permits are NOT handled by Planning and Zoning — they are issued by the Greenlee County Health Department instead. Source: Greenlee County Planning and Zoning page: 'Manufactured Home permits and septic system permits are issued by the Health Department.'; The county publishes no county-wide loading/design-criteria table of its own (unlike, e.g., Yavapai County's published Climatic and Geographic Design Criteria table). Instead, the same October 2012 Engineering letter provides only illustrative historical context: a November 1967 snowstorm produced approximately 34 inches of snowfall in Stargo (elevation 5,400 ft, immediately north of Morenci) and approximately 24 inches in Clifton (elevation 3,400 ft), causing several roof collapses; county elevations range from 3,200 to 8,000 feet with greatly varying conditions. The letter cites recorded snow-load design figures used on specific PUBLIC buildings from plans in the county's files (not a universal private-construction standard): LDS Stake Center, Duncan — 40 psf; Morenci High School — 30 psf (non-reducible); Morenci Swimming Pool — 30 psf (non-reducible); County Annex, Clifton (1970) — 20 psf live load, no snow load noted. For PUBLIC buildings specifically, the letter notes that under A.R.S. § 34-461, a county must use the building code of the largest municipality in the county (which, per the same letter's own citation of a 2006 Trueline Engineering report, is the Town of Duncan's adopted 1997 Uniform Building Code: minimum basic wind speed 70 mph per Figure 16-1; ground snow load Pg established by the building official, use 10 psf, per Figure A-16-1). None of this constitutes an adopted code or standard for PRIVATE construction in unincorporated Greenlee County — the letter's own recommendation for private owners is only to 'contract for inspections and use a conservative Building Code' voluntarily. Source: October 2012 Engineering letter; A.R.S. § 34-461.; Morenci is an unincorporated community within unincorporated Greenlee County, historically built and still substantially maintained as a company town by Freeport-McMoRan (successor to Phelps Dodge) in connection with the adjacent Morenci open-pit copper mine. Freeport-McMoRan's own 'Townsite Maintenance' department 'oversees maintenance and construction of all townsite facilities, including all residences, commercial buildings, streets, parks and grounds' for the approximately 1,600 homes comprising the Morenci townsite, and a separate Freeport-McMoRan-Morenci Housing Office (899 Reservation Rd, Morenci, AZ 85540) administers employee housing assignments (including a $750/month housing allowance option for employees required to work on-site). This is real, sourced, and confirms the task's hypothesis of an unusual private/company arrangement for day-to-day townsite construction and maintenance — BUT Morenci has no separate incorporated government and no distinct public building-permit authority of its own; it is NOT a chartered town or city and does not appear in the Census Bureau's Arizona place FIPS file. Any construction in Morenci that is not purely internal company townsite maintenance (e.g., work by outside parties, or any activity triggering the state-law building-permit requirement) falls under Greenlee County's Planning and Zoning permitting jurisdiction described above, on the same basis as the rest of unincorporated Greenlee County. Source: Morenci Town / Freeport-McMoRan community pages (https://www.morencitown.com/, https://www.morencitown.com/residents/, https://www.morencitown.com/index.php/about_us); Freeport-McMoRan-Morenci Housing Office listing (899 Reservation Rd, Morenci, AZ 85540).. Local amendments apply — see the Unincorporated Greenlee County overview page for the full list.

No. Per the county's own October 19, 2012 Engineering letter: 'Because we have no codes, Greenlee County has not determined and does not recommend building loads, does not review plans, does not inspect construction, or issue a Certificate of Occupancy.' The county recommends owners voluntarily arrange their own inspections using a conservative building code. Source: https://greenlee.az.gov/ova_doc/building-codes-and-loading-standards/