In the shadow of yet another fire season in Payson, developers are racing to win approval to build homes without fire-hardened materials and design.
Payson sits in the middle of the worldâs largest ponderosa pine forest, but the Payson council hasnât adopted the fire-adapted building code already in place in Prescott and Flagstaff. Those fire codes donât add to the cost of a house, but make it far more likely a community will survive the close approach of a wildfire.
Now, after years spent in a building slump â the pipeline for new home construction is filling up. Already, more than 400 homes are slated for construction in the town limits, with another 825 to be annexed into the town from the Doll Baby Ranch southwest of town. If built, those homes would increase the housing stock by about 5%.