Glossary · Thresholds & Valuation
Parcel
In short
The unit the county assessor values, land and improvements together. The residential threshold is a percentage of the whole parcel, not of the house.
In full
The parcel is the unit Arizona property valuation operates on. The county assessor identifies real property parcel by parcel, determines a full cash value for each, and lists it on the tax roll.
The statute directs the residential alteration threshold to the most recent full cash value established under title 42, chapter 13, article 2 — the article governing property valuation by assessors. Under § 42-13051 the assessor identifies real property parcel by parcel and determines the full cash value of that property. The unit valued is the parcel, land and improvements together.
Which means the land is in the number. On a lot with meaningful land value the residential threshold is materially higher than the house alone would suggest, and a contractor who reasons from what the structure is worth will compute a threshold that is too low.
For limited property value the statute is explicit about it. A.R.S. § 42-13301(C) requires that figure to be shown on notices and tax rolls as one total for the property, and bars separate determinations for land and for the improvements on it. No equivalent sentence is written for full cash value; there, the parcel is the unit because the parcel is what the assessor values.
Neither A.R.S. § 42-5075 nor the property tax definitions at § 42-11001 define the term. It is the assessor's working unit, and it is how a value is looked up — by parcel, at the assessor for the county in which the property is located.
A.R.S. §§ 42-5075(S)(1)(a), 42-13051, 42-13301(C)