Mayor says sprinkler rules a hindrance; Jahn says businesses have rejected city because ordinance is stricter than state's
By Matthew Call, Daily Register
A sprinkler ordinance is putting the city at a "disadvantage" in attracting and keeping businesses, Mayor Ken Jahn said Thursday.
Common Council members are set in two weeks to debate the ordinance, put into place about 10 years ago to supplement state and national fire codes.
Jahn said after a Council meeting Thursday that a real-estate official told him two companies passed over Portage when they learned it would mandate sprinklers at a lower square-footage than what state and national fire codes require.
"They looked at Portage and never got to City Hall," he said. "They looked at the Web site, saw our ordinance and never went any further."
Jahn identified the person only as a "real-estate developer" and would not release the person's name. He said he was not told the names of the businesses.
"I wish I could substantiate that," Jahn said, adding that the names would add to a more compelling case to change the sprinkler ordinance. "But they built elsewhere."
Jahn brought before the Council on Thursday the idea of altering the ordinance. The move is partly in response to the plight of QC Electronics in the Portage Industrial Park, a business that is planning a move out of the city because of the sprinkler ordinance.
Portage requires sprinklers in buildings larger than 7,000 square feet if they are made of wood and 10,000 square feet for non-wood buildings. Ken Klein, the co-founder and co-owner of QC, wants to expand the building from 8,500 square feet to 12,000 square feet to land a new contract.
That expansion would require sprinklers under Portage ordinances, but Klein said it doesn't reach the threshold for state fire code. He said the state codes wouldn't kick in for his type of use until 27,000 square feet.
Klein could move outside the city limits — he is eyeing a spot in the town of Oxford — to a place that follows state codes so he will not have to spend the extra money on sprinklers.
Council member Carol Heisz said there is an inequity in which Portage's sprinkler ordinance is stricter than that of the surrounding towns in which the city's fire department is called to cover.
"Are firefighters in any less danger because they're crossing the street?" she said.
Council members decided to bring the issue up again at its next meeting, scheduled for May 22, instead of letting a committee debate it.
"I personally would like to see us take a look at it," Jahn said. "If we're going to be serious about growing this community, I don't think we should be at a disadvantage."
Council member JoAnn Balk said the sprinkler ordinance makes sense for places in which lots of people gather — the rule requires a system in a building housing 100 or more people — but does not at a business with a handful of employees.
"We need to get people in here," Balk said.
The city's fire department is opposing any reduction in the sprinkler ordinance.
"Sprinklers save lives, that's the bottom line of it," Portage Fire Chief Clayton Simonson said, adding that sprinklers cut down on injuries to and deaths of firefighters battling flames. "You're putting them at more of a risk every time you allow someone to build without sprinklers."
Council President Daniel Brunt said fewer fires are reported at commercial properties than residential ones and that the state code is sufficient.
"I don't think the state would be doing this if there was a risk," Brunt said.
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