Commercial Building Permit in Unincorporated Greenlee County, Arizona

Unincorporated Greenlee County requires a commercial building permit for: County side — identical to all other construction in unincorporated Greenlee County: file the Greenlee County Permit Application (owner/applicant/contractor information, project description, site address, parcel number, estimated cost) with a scaled site drawing and the $45 non-refundable application fee; a notarized Special Power of Attorney is required if the applicant is not the property owner of record; the no-cost Building Permit issues once the Zoning Use Permit and Floodplain Permit (where applicable) are in hand; The county performs NO plan review, NO construction inspection, and issues NO Certificate of Occupancy for commercial construction — Greenlee County has adopted no building code (October 2012 County Engineer letter, still the county's current published policy); State side — MANDATORY for commercial: because unincorporated Greenlee County has no locally adopted fire code, construction of all occupancy types except residential dwellings of fewer than 5 units must be submitted to the Arizona Office of the State Fire Marshal for plan review against the State Fire Code (2018 IFC and supporting NFPA standards); OSFM review scope includes: construction of new buildings or structures; additions to existing structures; modifications or alterations impacting any egress component; addition of security measures; installation/modification of security gates; building change of use; and occupancy classification change — meaning most tenant-improvement work in commercial space routes through OSFM even though the county has no TI permit; OSFM-reviewed projects must meet State Fire Code specifications for fire flow, fire department access, occupant egress, emergency lighting, and fire protection systems; OSFM also conducts fire inspections for its permits (its submittal-guideline list includes 'Inspection Requirements for a General Construction Final'); All OSFM plan applications, permits, and payments are processed through OSFM's online Permit and Plan portal — paper applications are no longer accepted; Projects meeting A.R.S. § 34-461(D) and § 34-462 criteria (state, county, and public/charter/private school buildings) must also be submitted to OSFM for review; Coordinate with Arizona 811/Blue Stake (800-782-5348) before work; Greenlee County Public Works (928-687-2001) for new/modified county-road access; ADOT (928-432-4916) for new/modified access to US 191, US 70, SR 75, or SR 78 (standard county application-form directions). If your project isn't listed, confirm with Greenlee County Planning and Zoning Department at 928-865-4762 before starting work.

No. The county's Zoning Division issues 'building and use permits (both residential and commercial)' through one process: the $45 non-refundable Permit Application / Zoning Use Permit, a Floodplain Permit where applicable, and a no-cost Building Permit issued without county plan review, inspection, or Certificate of Occupancy — Greenlee County has adopted no building code. No commercial fee tier or valuation-based fee table is published. Source: https://greenlee.az.gov/ova_dep/planning-and-zoning/ (re-confirmed 2026-08-01); October 2012 County Engineer letter.

The county publishes no review timeline for any permit type (a confirmed gap — and the county performs no plan review, so some permits reportedly issue by telephone). The binding clock is OSFM's: DFFM's live Plan Review page reports average plan review of approximately 45 days (as of 2026-08-01), and A.R.S. § 37-1383 requires a final permit determination within 60 days of a valid application (or a 30-day initial determination in two-phase review).

You'll need: Greenlee County Permit Application (PDF); Scaled site drawing; OSFM plan submittal (online portal). Depending on your project, Unincorporated Greenlee County may also ask for: Special Power of Attorney authorization (notarized). 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.

The Arizona Office of the State Fire Marshal. Because Greenlee County has no locally adopted fire code, DFFM's published policy requires State Fire Code (2018 IFC) plan review by OSFM for construction of all occupancy types except residential dwellings of fewer than 5 units. The county itself reviews nothing. Source: DFFM Plan Review — Permitting and Inspection page; A.R.S. § 37-1383.

Not at the county level — no TI permit, form, or fee exists; TI work falls under the same generic $45 application sequence. However, OSFM's mandatory review scope explicitly includes modifications or alterations impacting any egress component, building change of use, and occupancy classification change, so most commercial TI work must still be submitted to the State Fire Marshal for fire-code plan review. Source: Greenlee County Planning and Zoning page; DFFM Plan Review page.