Tempe, AZ Special Events & Permits: Commercial Filming on Public Right-of-Way (2026)

City Code Section 16A-181, Article IX, sets the general rule that filming for a commercial purpose on City-owned buildings, parks, streets, roads, alleys or rights-of-way needs a film permit from the Community Services Film Office. Subsection (b)(3) carves out an exception: no separate film permit is required if the applicant's activity also requires a special event permit under Section 5-2 of the City Code, or a facility reservation. In practice this means a commercial shoot built around a staged happening, such as a promotional event, festival tie-in, or reserved-facility production, is regulated through the special events or facility reservation process instead of running both permit tracks in parallel.

The two exceptions immediately preceding it in Section 16A-181(b), news gathering and hand-held/tripod filming without exclusive property use, work the same way: each removes the film-permit requirement for a defined category of activity while leaving whatever other City permit applies (special event, right-of-way, facility use) fully in force. A production that mistakenly assumes the special-events exemption covers it, but that does not actually hold a Section 5-2 permit or facility reservation, is not exempt and must obtain the Article IX film permit and its fees before shooting.