La Madera: permit history and electrical signals

La Madera by the numbers

Among the 12 neighborhoods in this hub, La Madera ranks 1st for permit activity per home since 2022, 2nd for panel and service upgrades per home (3 per 100 homes with a build year), and 6th for the share of pre-1974 housing.

Counts are City of Tucson GIS permit layers 85 (residential), 81 (commercial) and 102 (code enforcement) inside the neighborhood boundary, issued or opened on or after 1 January 2022 — the window those layers cover. Older permits exist in the City’s Property Research Online file and show up in the per-address report. Build years are the assessor’s published values, which stop at 2009. “Per 100 homes” divides by homes with a published build year; the comparison figure uses the same measure summed over the City’s 140 registered neighborhoods, not every parcel in the city.

When La Madera was built

• Before 195034%
• 1950–196439%
• 1965–197313%
• 1974–198912%
• 1990–19950%
• 1996–20071%
• 2008 or later0%

Highlighted bands are the eras that carry a known wiring or panel issue in Tucson housing.

Knob-and-tube and ungrounded circuits

About 34% of the homes with a published build year here predate 1950. In original, un-remodeled areas that can still mean knob-and-tube wiring — no ground, not rated for modern loads, and not safe in contact with blown-in insulation. It is also why so many houses in this part of town still have two-prong outlets, or three-prong outlets with nothing behind the ground pin. Both are fixable, and neither is an emergency on its own. That is the 6th-largest share of the 12 neighborhoods in this hub.

Post-war services and ungrounded circuits

About 39% went up between 1950 and 1964 — Tucson's post-war boom. Services from those years were 60 to 100 amps, often a fuse panel since swapped for breakers without the service itself ever being enlarged. Grounded branch circuits did not become the norm until the early 1960s, and the cloth jacket on that era's cable embrittles in a Tucson attic. That is the 6th-largest share of the 12 neighborhoods in this hub.

Aluminum branch-circuit wiring

Roughly 13% went up between 1965 and 1973 — the window when solid aluminum was used for 15 and 20 amp branch circuits. The wire itself is not the problem; the terminations are, and the accepted repairs are COPALUM crimps or AlumiConn connectors. A wire nut is not a repair. That is the 3rd-largest share of the 12 neighborhoods in this hub.

Federal Pacific and Zinsco panels

About 12% of the stock dates to 1974–1989, when Federal Pacific Stab-Lok and Zinsco/Sylvania panels were still being installed. Both have documented failure-to-trip histories in the breaker-to-bus connection itself, so a new breaker does not resolve it — the panel is what gets replaced once you need to add a circuit. That is the 4th-largest share of the 12 neighborhoods in this hub.

Permit activity by year

Recent permits worth noticing in La Madera

• remodel2026-05-07 · TC-RES-0226-00933 — additional square footage to primary residence, extend carport, new porch
• remodel2026-03-27 · TC-COM-0126-00088 — (CIP-1224-00037) This is a prop 407 project to construct a new splash pad and walking path around park. This project al
• remodel2025-10-28 · TC-RES-0724-04420 — Bedroom and Family Room Addition to Existing Dwelling - Convert Detached Garage into Casita (ADU) on separate permit
• hvac2025-06-18 · TC-RES-0625-03085 — REPAIR RISER AND 200AMP ELECTRICAL SERVICE PANEL - this property had an accident a tree branch pull the service wire
• remodel2025-05-12 · TC-RES-0525-02341 — Add 125 Amp subpanel for future ADU Add 220/20-amp circuit for cowboy pool heater/chiller Add 20-amp circuit for cowboy
• remodel2025-02-21 · TC-RES-0524-02777 — ADU
• remodel2024-07-02 · TC-RES-0524-02780 — Remodel SFR Electrical
• panel2024-06-24 · TC-RES-0624-03552 — 200amp service panel upgrade from 100amp overhead

Permit number, date, type and the City’s own description — nothing else. Each links to the official record.

Example property reports in La Madera

Real parcels in the neighborhood with a permit history deep enough to read. Each opens the full report.

• 3015 E La Madera Dr — built 1948, 24 permits on record
• 2517 E Glenn St — built 1948, 7 permits on record
• 2909 N Forgeus Av — built 1952, 5 permits on record
• 2821 E Blacklidge Dr — built 1955, 7 permits on record

Look up an address in La Madera

Any address in Pima County works. You get the parcel, the year built, the full permit history (City file back to about 2006), the code cases, and what each system’s record implies — plus an AI read of the whole record and of the plan sheets behind a City permit.