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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 02281989 - IO.3 I. 0. 3 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Contra INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE -L: FROM: I -z Costa n. '$ x, February13 1989 �'�� '_ DATE: County corrq co'uK� cP~� SUBJECT: Ordinance Requiring Sprinklers in New Construction SPECIFIC REQUEST(S)OR RECOMMENDATIONS)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1 . Direct County Counsel to prepare an ordinance amendment which accomplishes the following: A. Requires sprinklers in all new construction of 10, 000 square feet or more with the following exceptions: ( 1) Where the processes being undertaken in the building are incompatible with the use of water as a means to extinguish a fire (sulphur or phosphorus, as examples) the ordinance should I cross reference the applicability of the existing Uniform Fire Code. (See also U.B.C. Section 3802(a) and U.B.C. Section 3804) . ( 2 ) Where the total square footage of the building does not exceed 20 ,000 square feet and where the building is divided by means of one or more area separation walls with no openings and where the area separation walls are placed in such a way that no single area exceeds 10, 000 square feet. B. Exempts from the requirement for sprinklers all additions to an existing building and all remodeling of existing buildings. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COU AD INISTRATOR X RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE SIGNATURES: Tom Powers Sunne Wright McPeak ACTION OF BOA D ON February 28, 1989 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED XX OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THIS IS A TRUE X UNANIMOUS(ABSENT I I I ) AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN AYES: NOES: AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD ABSENT: ABSTAIN: OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE SHOWN. County Administrator CC: County Counsel ATTESTED 19.F9 Director, Building Inspection PHIL BATCHELOR, IRK OF THE BOARD OF Chiefs: Consolidated, Riverview, West County FPD SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR Building Industry Association Associated General Contractors BY DEPUTY M382 (10/88) Page 2 C. Requires sprinklers in a building which exceeds 10,000 square feet where the building is essentially. a total replacement . of a preexisting building (as, for instance., a building which replaces one severely damaged by fire or earthquake) . 2 . Request County Counsel to circulate the proposed ordinance to the Chiefs of the Consolidated, Riverview, and West County Fire Districts, the Director of Building Inspection, the Building Industry Association, the Association of General Contractors, and any other party who has asked to be allowed to review the ordinance with the request that any comments on the ordinance be forwarded to the County Administrator .by March 8, 1989 . 3 . Request the County Administrator and County Counsel to forward all comments received to our Committee in time for our meeting on March 13 , 1989 . 4 . Request the Director of Building Inspection to meet with the fire districts, contractors, builders, architects and other parties who need to know what the County' s building codes are in an effort to determine a cost-effective means of notifying all such parties of changes in or modifications to the Uniform Building Code and similar documents which such parties need to be aware of in advance of deciding to undertake construction of a building in the County and report his findings and recommendations back to the Board of Supervisors. 5 . Leave this item on referral to our Committee until we have reviewed the final ordinance language on March 13 , 1989 , at which time we , will report this matter back to the Board for final action. BACKGROUND: On January 17, 1989, the Board of Supervisors granted two appeals from the requirement that additions to existing buildings must have sprinklers if the addition makes the full building more than 10, 000 square feet, and referred the issue to our Committee to clarify the language in Ordinance 87-100 . County Counsel' s staff met with representatives from the fire districts and Building Inspection. The conclusion of that meeting was that the fire districts agreed to exempt all additions to existing buildings and all remodeling from the sprinkler requirement on the basis that installing sprinklers in only part of a building can be more dangerous than not having sprinklers in the building at all. This leaves the ordinance clearly applying only to new construction, with two exceptions as noted in our recommendations. Our ' Committee met with representatives from several of the fire districts, the Building Inspection Department, the Building Industry Association, and County Counsel on February 13 , 1989 and reviewed the attached report. We believe that applying the sprinkler requirements only to new construction is reasonable, as are the exceptions we have outlined. We have also asked the Director of Building Inspection to meet with various parties who need to be aware of the County' s building code requirements and try to agree on a cost-effective way of insuring that all such parties are notified of changes to the building code as they affect construction in the County. Page 3 i j We believe that the provisions for requiring sprinklers will now be reasonable and understandable. We will return the final ordinance language to the Board after we have reviewed it on March 13 , 1989 .