About this data

Sources behind the Tucson property permit reports, how often they refresh, how parcels are matched to permits, and how to report a correction.

Where the data comes from

Every report is built from a saved copy of the public record we hold for that parcel, and carries the date its snapshot was taken, so a report does not send a request to a county system every time someone opens it; the lookup page also reads the City of Tucson’s current permit layers alongside the saved copy. Every fact on a report names its source. Nothing is typed in by us and nothing comes from listings.

  • Pima County parcel file (City of Tucson GIS, county-wide layer) — parcel number, site address, jurisdiction, zoning, assessor use class, acreage, parcel outline.
  • Pima County Assessor (the county’s published mass-appraisal file — our saved copy) — year built (the assessor’s effective construction year for houses), living or building area, cooling and heating type, roof, pool and garage. Owner names, mailing addresses and notes are never carried.
  • City of Tucson permit file — the City’s own permit record (the one Property Research Online fronts), saved from the City’s published permit layers and its migrated permit archive: back to about 2006, and into the 1990s on properties with that much history. Every permit links to its official file on PRO, where its inspections, contractor of record and plan documents are kept.
  • City of Tucson GIS permit and code-enforcement layers (2022 onward) — the typed permit feed and code cases; the commercial map’s “permits since 2022” counts come from here.
  • Not part of this record: permits issued by Pima County Development Services (unincorporated Pima County), Oro Valley, Marana, Sahuarita and South Tucson. A report for an address there names the office that holds its permits and links that office’s portal, with the parcel number, where there is one.
  • FEMA flood map — not read into the saved copy; every report links FEMA’s official flood map for its address and the local floodplain authority’s own map. Historic preservation (City of Tucson only) — read from the historic-zone prefix in the parcel’s own zoning code.
  • Google — satellite view, Street View and Google Earth, loaded from Google only when you ask for them on a report that shows them, never fetched or stored by us; OpenStreetMap — the base map on the commercial map.

How often it refreshes

The saved copy is refreshed from each source’s published data periodically, not continuously, and every report shows “Public records last checked” with the date of its own snapshot. The commercial map and directory read a parcel file published with this site; the directory’s permit counts carry their own date on the page.

How parcels are matched to permits

By the county parcel number first (the City keys its permits by APN). City GIS records that carry only an address are matched to the parcel the address geocodes to. A permit that cannot be tied to the parcel is not shown. Umbrella permits (a remodel or a solar job that includes panel work without naming it) are flagged so a blank line points at them instead of implying nothing happened.

What “permit activity” means

On the commercial map and directory, “N permits since 2022” counts City of Tucson commercial building permits on the parcel from the GIS feed (which begins in 2022), and “latest activity” is the issue month of the newest one. On a report, the permit history is the City of Tucson’s record for the parcel: our written read of what it shows, the counts it rests on, and a direct link to each permit on the City’s own file, where its description and official status are kept.

Which statuses count

Statuses are normalised into six classes: final (Final / Complete / C of O — city records show the permit was finalized), issued (permitted, completion not confirmed), review (applied / approved / fees paid — proposed, not completion), expired (expired without a confirmed final), void (void / withdrawn / canceled — not evidence the work exists) and unknown (shown raw). Cancelled, expired, withdrawn and void permits never drive a conclusion; only a finaled permit can make a system read as “current”.

Known limitations

  • A found permit is strong evidence; a missing one is weak evidence — plenty of work is never permitted, and the City’s records before about 2006 are microfiche that has not been fully digitized.
  • Year built is the Assessor’s effective construction year for houses, which can move after a major remodel; the era-based findings are possibilities from that year, not observations.
  • The Assessor’s cooling, heating and roof fields can lag permitted work.
  • Permits issued outside the City of Tucson — by Pima County Development Services, Oro Valley, Marana, Sahuarita or South Tucson — are not part of this record.
  • Satellite views and Street View are context, never evidence; the imagery date is Google’s.
  • Nothing here is an inspection, and nothing confirms what is installed at an address.

Report a correction

See an error in a public-record report — a permit on the wrong parcel, a status read wrong, an address that does not match? Tell us and we will check the source and fix the match. This form goes to us, not to any agency.

Written and maintained by Arizona Electrical Solutions, LLC, a licensed Tucson contractor (ROC 276948 CR-11 electrical, ROC 326401 CR-39 HVAC, ROC 329360 KB-1, ROC 312437 KA). The tools are free and public-record only; we never show ownership, people or listing status.