SUBJECT:
Title
Update to Building Code - Sprinkler Requirement for Residential
Body
DEPARTMENT: Planning & Development
Department
PRESENTER(S): Joel Champagne, Deputy Building Official
Morgan Cullen, HBA of Metro Denver
Doug Saba & Michelle Kelly, Mountain View Fire Protection District
First Name Last Name, Title
TIME ESTIMATE: 45 minutes
only required for non-consent items
POLICY ISSUES:
The policy under consideration is whether to retain the requirement for fire sprinklers for all residential units. Town Council will weigh the benefits and impacts of retaining this requirement within the context of housing costs, effectiveness, and safety.
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Staff requests Council direction.
End
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND OF SUBJECT MATTER:
The Town of Erie held a roundtable on Dec. 3, 2024 to discuss multiple development-related topics with the Home Builders Association (HBA) of Metro Denver, development community, and neighborhood HOAs. Additional details on the roundtable purpose and resulting action items are outlined on the Town's website: www.erieco.gov/2475/Fees-Rates-Roundtable.
One of the action items identified at the roundtable was a suggestion to remove the prescriptive residential automatic fire sprinkler system provision for single family detached and attached homes from the adopted 2021 International Residential Code (IRC). The prescriptive provision requiring an automatic fire sprinkler system within one and two-family dwellings and townhomes was introduced in the 2009 edition of the IRC after evaluation, deliberation, and consensus voting during a 3-year building code development process by the International Code Council (ICC), publishers of the IRC. The sprinkler provision remains in the IRC up to and including the 2024 edition.
The Town has both removed and included the provision with past building code updates. On Dec. 10, 2019, the Board of Trustees passed Ordinance No. 46-2019 adopting th...
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