How long does Scottsdale take to review a tenant improvement with plumbing?

The city's table, "Plan Review Time Frames in Business Days," gives tenant improvements 7 days of administrative review and 10 days of substantive review. The row reads "Tenant Improvements | 7 days | 10 days." For comparison on the same table:

• XLT projects (commercial, multi-family, 50,000 square feet and up, 4 stories): 7 and 20 days.
• All other plan types: 7 and 15 days.
• Walls and signs: 5 and 5 days.

The page lays out five steps:

1. 1Preliminary plan review meeting. For commercial projects, "a preliminary plan review meeting is advised."
2. 2Submittal. Permit application options appear in Scottsdale SPUR after the Planning phase, "once entitlement or administrative approval is granted." The construction documents must show the work conforms to the adopted codes, "including International Green Construction Code IgCC."
3. 3Administrative review. An address check and a check that the documents are complete and correctly formatted.
4. 4Substantive review. Scottsdale reviews five disciplines: "Planning, Building, Engineering, Stormwater and Fire." If changes are required, the plans go back for corrections, and you "submit the amended plans and restart the process."
5. 5Approval. Permit Services calculates fees and issues the permit after payment.

Fees are "paid at the time of application for plan review," and "Applications will not be processed until payment is received."

• Tenant improvement (TI). Interior build-out or remodel of a commercial space for a tenant. Plumbing is often the largest trade on a restaurant or medical TI.
• Administrative review. A completeness and format check, not a code review.
• Substantive review. The code review itself, by discipline. The page does not list plumbing as its own discipline; plumbing sheets are part of the construction documents reviewed for code compliance. That is a reading of the page, not a city statement.
• Business days. Weekdays the city is open. The table's numbers are the city's posted time frames.
• Abandoned. An application with no good-faith progress 180 days after the last completed review.

Anyone filing commercial tenant improvement plans in Scottsdale: tenants, landlords, architects, engineers and contractors. Projects started before January 6, 2026 in the legacy eServices portal stay in that system until completed.

This does not apply to single-family remodels, which go through residential plan review, or to single-trade home work that only needs a Minimum Permit with no plan review.

A coffee shop in a strip center. The architect holds a preliminary meeting, submits a full set with fixture schedules and the RP assembly shown on the domestic service, and pays the review fee in SPUR the same day. It clears in one round, inside the posted 7 and 10 days.

A dental office. The first submittal omits the backflow assembly detail. Sec. 49-68(a) says all backflow assemblies "shall be shown and specified on all required building and engineering plans." The set comes back, the designer adds it, and the review restarts.

The edge case. A restaurant tenant gets plans approved, then the lease stalls. Approval does not hold forever: "Failure to obtain a permit within 180 days of plan approval will require plans and payment of the appropriate plan review fees to be resubmitted," unless the building official grants a written extension first.

1. 1Book a commercial preliminary plan review meeting if the space has a kitchen, medical gas or a new restroom group.
2. 2Put every backflow assembly on the plumbing sheets with its specification (Sec. 49-68(a)).
3. 3For food service, assemble the grease interceptor submittal items before you file.
4. 4Start the permit application in Scottsdale SPUR after the Planning phase approval and pay the plan review fee at submittal.
5. 5Answer corrections in one complete resubmittal, since each one restarts the process.
6. 6For administrative questions, call the One Stop Shop at 480-312-7725. The counter is at 7447 E. Indian School Road.

• Myth: 17 business days is a promise. It is the posted time frame per round. Corrections send the plans back and restart the process.
• Myth: you can pay after review. Fees are due at application, and the page says applications will not be processed until payment is received.
• Myth: approved plans stay approved. The permit must be obtained within 180 days of plan approval, or plans and plan review fees are resubmitted.
• Myth: backflow can be added in the field. City approval of the intended installation is required before the building permit issues.

An application with no progress becomes "abandoned" 180 days after the last completed review, unless pursued in good faith or a permit has been issued. Building and backflow permits wait on approved plans, and Scottsdale requires the backflow test before a temporary certificate of occupancy.