For years, Tempe has offered residents a rebate to save money on building permits required to renovate their homes.
The Residential Building Fee Rebate program came to an abrupt halt earlier this year when staff discovered the portion of city code that enacts the program had been deleted.
Tempe Community Development Director Chad Weaver said when the city updated its building code in 2015, the language enacting the Residential Building Fee Rebate Program, was left out.
“This was but a small piece of that former code so it basically just got missed,” Weaver said.
Staff continued issuing rebates until February of this year when the error was discovered.
As of April 11, 37 rebate applications have been on hold.
Weaver says the City Council will consider re-enacting and expanding the program in May or June.
“The council never wanted to make this program go away, I don’t think that anyone would have,” Weaver said. “So we’re just doing what we can to get it back in place.”
The proposed expansion would also include rebates for single-family residential engineering permits, which normally cost around $475.
“I think it’s a good tool that the city of Tempe has used to try and help its residents maintain its neighborhoods, improve properties and so forth,” Weaver said.
Last year, 214 Tempe residents got help from the city on their home projects in the form of a rebate for building permit application fees. Savings ranged from about $50 up to several thousand dollars.
