Encinitas revising its fire sprinkler ordinance

By: ADAM KAYE - Staff Writer
Workshop set for Monday at City Hall | Friday, January 4, 2008 10:58 PM PST ∞

ENCINITAS -- The Encinitas Fire Department is preparing to update its ordinance for fire sprinklers and wants the community to weigh in.

That's why fire Marshal Robert Scott is encouraging residents -- and architects and developers who work in the city -- to attend a workshop from 6 to 7:30 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 505 S. Vulcan Ave.

"The ordinance in place was adopted in 1997," Scott said. "We're just trying to provide some consistency with other jurisdictions and improve fire and life safety."

Scott, Fire Department Chief Mark Muir and a Planning Department representative will participate in the meeting.

Scott said he would consider comments from them and the public as he prepares a revised sprinkler ordinance for the City Council's review later this month.

He said a similar meeting in November drew only five guests and that he hoped many more would attend Monday's session.

The city's existing fire sprinkler ordinance applies to residential and commercial buildings.

Fire sprinklers are required in all homes outside of a the Fire Department's 3 1/2-minute response time area, as identified by response maps. Homes of more than 4,000 square feet must be equipped with fire sprinklers, and so must homes greater than 30 feet above grade or more than three stories in height. Homes adjoining wildland areas must also have fire sprinklers.

Existing sprinkler requirements apply to commercial buildings of 30 feet or three stories or more in height and to those that exceed 5,000 square feet of floor area. Commercial buildings that hold more than 50 people above the first floor must have fire sprinklers and so must any restaurant or bar that exceeds 4,000 square feet.

Parking garages exceeding 5,000 square feet must have fire sprinklers.

Fire sprinklers can add to the cost of construction but some of that investment can be recovered over time through reduced insurance premiums, Scott said.

While a revised ordinance could make fire sprinklers mandatory for nearly all new homes and commercial buildings, the existing one has required 83 percent of new homes built over the last five years to install the systems, Scott said.

Modern sprinkler systems, he said, are designed to go off only where a fire is burning, meaning that a fire can be extinguished with only a few heads being activated. Fire sprinklers have a success rate of more than 90 percent, he said.

Typically, fire sprinkler systems add $1.50 to $3.50 per square foot to the cost of building a home, Scott said.

He said the 1997 sprinkler ordinance was met with opposition and that a tougher ordinance, while possibly unpopular, would keep the community safer.

"We don't want to change it just to change it," Scott said.

Contact staff writer Adam Kaye at (760) 901-4074 or akaye@nctimes.com.

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