Legislature(2009 - 2010)BELTZ 105 (TSBldg)
03/02/2010 01:30 PM Senate LABOR & COMMERCE
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB117 | |
| SB279 | |
| SB258 | |
| SB129 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| += | SB 279 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | SB 258 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | SB 129 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| = | SB 117 | ||
SB 129-RESIDENTIAL SPRINKLER SYSTEMS
2:41:45 PM
CHAIR PASKVAN announced SB 129 to be up for consideration. He
said a lot of work was done on this bill in the past year. He
moved to bring CSSB 129(), version M, before the committee.
There were no objections and it was so ordered.
2:42:58 PM
SENATOR LINDA MENARD, sponsor of SB 129, said the committee
substitute (CS) was a result of listening to the pros and cons
of this issue while adhering to what she believed needs to
happen. She said the CS is a compromise. She said that she is
not opposed to sprinkler systems being required in homes, but
she does believe that requiring residents to install sprinkler
systems in the building code needs a more robust hearing.
SENATOR MENARD said the CS removes all references to the state,
state agencies, and state corporations, because Alaska has no
statewide building code. The CS retains local control while
setting in statute an elongated public process. Along with
preparing a cost benefit analysis, this bill calls for local
governments to post notice at least 30 days before their first
public hearing, schedule at least three public hearings on a
proposed ordinance or amendment to be held within a 60-day
period and not consider the proposed ordinance or amendment for
adoption sooner than 60 days after conclusion of the first
public meeting.
It is no surprise that the firefighters would be against this
bill. Respectfully, she said, it is their job to do all they can
to protect the life and property of Alaskans, but she argued
that the CS retains local control and gives local decision
makers the option of mandating sprinklers.
SENATOR MENARD argued that those opposed to the bill would say
this bill puts an unfunded mandate on cities and municipalities,
but the unfunded mandate is really being put on homeowners. Plus
a local government can choose to spend as little or as much as
it wants to on the required cost benefit analysis.
SENATOR MENARD said the cost benefit analysis language in this
bill is very broad simply requiring local governments to prepare
a cost benefit analysis as to how expensive or inexpensive a
proposal may be.
2:46:11 PM
She said the reason for the expanded public process is that
adopting a code requiring fire sprinkler systems for one to two
family dwellings is not a "run-of-the-mill" code item. It is an
expensive system that has proven impacts on the cost of a home.
It is especially costly for those on well systems, which almost
a third of Alaskans are on. Anchorage Mayor Sullivan said he
thinks the extra public process is appropriate for fire
sprinklers in one or two family dwellings because installing
them in Alaska's cold climate is complex.
SENATOR MENARD said she didn't dispute the potential life and
property savings quality of sprinkler system and realized there
are situations where mandating sprinklers in a new home would
seem to make sense, but her point with the CS was that the
public who will be the one to pay for the system will have ample
time for testimony, discussion and education if the issue
arises. She said SB 129 has a zero fiscal note.
2:49:04 PM
JEFF TUCKER, President, Alaska Fire Chiefs Association,
Fairbanks, said a public process is already in place that has
worked well for all public code procedures. There is no need for
a special process for just one issue.
2:51:18 PM
WALLY SMITH, President, Alaska State Homebuilders Association,
deferred his testimony to the Interior Alaska Building
Association.
2:52:00 PM
DAVE MILLER, President, Interior Alaska Homebuilders
Association, Fairbanks, said this bill is a reasonable and
intelligent compromise that provides time for local building
officials, legislators and voters to consider the consequences
of mandating sprinklers in single family homes in Alaska. He
encouraged the committee to pass SB 129.
SENATOR MEYER asked what it costs to install a sprinkler system
in an average size house.
MR. MILLER answered anywhere from $2-8 square foot.
SENATOR MEYER took the middle, $5, and said an average house is
1500-2000 square feet; so this would add substantial cost on to
a new home and the builder would just pass it on to the
consumer.
MR. MILLER responded that consumers right now are having a hard
time buying homes without having an additional $7500 added to
their cost. Appraisers aren't even "getting value" for that, so
consumers would have to pay for this cost out of pocket.
Also, he said, it's almost impossible to say how much a real
functioning system in homes with well systems would cost to
install. Their job as builders is to provide safe and affordable
housing for Alaskans and mandating sprinklers would put a large
number of people where they couldn't afford to build a home. The
Homebuilders encourage life safety things like smoke detectors
that are a better value for homebuyers.
SENATOR MEYER asked if sprinklers are susceptible to freezing up
in the winter.
MR. MILLER replied that it would depend on the type of system,
but water systems are susceptible to freezing in Alaska and
Minnesota. He had even read a report that said some insurance
companies were not providing a discount for having a sprinkler
system because of some water loss issues with systems going off.
Maintenance of these systems is another issue.
SENATOR MEYER asked how often sprinkler systems need to be
maintained.
MR. MILLER replied that most would recommend an annual
inspection.
2:59:43 PM
ERIC MOHRMANN, Fire Chief, Capital City Fire Rescue, Juneau,
said the City and Borough of Juneau (CBJ), like 17 other
jurisdictions across the state of Alaska, is a deferred
jurisdiction. This means that the State Fire Marshall's Office
has looked at their code adoption process and their capabilities
and has decided that they not only meet the minimum enforcement
requirements of the state fire and building codes, but that they
exceed them. He said the local jurisdictions had spent quite a
bit of money to provide citizens with good quality code plan
review, enforcement and adoption.
3:01:25 PM
He explained that the City and Borough of Juneau has a rigorous
process for adopting codes; the Assembly appoints a five-person
committee to review the codes in detail, line-by-line, over a
two-and-a-half year period. In Juneau's case, this committee
consists of an architect, an electrical engineer, a civil
engineer, a mechanical engineer and a contractor. They meet
regularly in public meetings which are publicized over a two-
and-a-half year period and look at the building, fire and
residential codes (the one in question here). They make
amendments and modifications to those codes to meet the local
jurisdictional needs. By law, they are not allowed to make a
code requirement or a code change that is less stringent than
the state's, but they are allowed to have ones that are more
stringent. After numerous public meetings, which are publicized
and open to the public, their recommendations are turned over to
the Assembly Public Works Committee. This committee reviews the
recommendations in detail in publicized open public meetings and
then forms a recommendation that is forwarded on to the full
Assembly. The full Assembly, in public open publicized meetings,
presents these recommendations through two public hearings which
span one month.
He said the state of Alaska does not enforce nor has it adopted
the 2009 International Residential Code, the code that has
specifications for residential sprinklers for one and two-family
dwellings. The state doesn't even address it. Only local
deferred jurisdictions and home rule communities can look at
this code and decide on their own whether they are going to
adopt the provisions or not. He said that the City and Borough
of Juneau had adopted the International Residential Code for
2003 and modified the 2006 version that requires sprinklers in
one and two-family dwellings, because that would not be
appropriate at this time.
MR. MOHRMANN explained that when the 2009 codes comes up for
review, the committee, the Assembly Committee, the Assembly, and
the public can all have their say and decide whether they want
that option or not.
3:04:28 PM
MR. MOHRMANN said this bill addresses one issue only -
residential sprinklers - and emphasized:
There is no more effective way to protect our citizens
from fire than one and two-family residential
sprinklers. Seventy-eight percent of fires occur in
one and two-family dwellings. Eighty percent of the
civilian fire deaths, 84 percent of the civilian fire
injuries occur in one and two-family dwellings. Where
should we be addressing our fire resources to solving
the problem? It seems to make sense to me.
But regardless of that, he said, the code review committees look
at a variety of things - how many toilets a building has to
have, how many egress windows, electrical ground fault
interrupter circuits, and smoke detectors - thousands of items.
They all have financial impacts, so why single out this one item
to go through a different process?
MR. MOHRMANN stated that right now a triplex or four-plex within
Juneau is required by the code to have a sprinkler system, but
the State of Alaska has not made that requirement until one has
more than 16 residential units.
MR. MOHRMANN said that it was mentioned that sprinklers will not
work off of a well, but he has installed three residential
sprinkler systems in his own homes, one by contractor and two by
himself. His cost was $1200-$1500 per system, and two of them
were off of wells and they do work. You need a water tank and an
electric pump. "It's not rocket science." They didn't freeze up
and these were all done in Fairbanks. These systems were given
breaks by insurance companies; he said state law says you get a
2 percent reduction in your local taxes if you have a
residential sprinkler system installed. It won't pay for the
whole thing, but it helps, and insurance companies recognize the
value. The history behind residential sprinkler systems is that
they have been phenomenally effective, he concluded, and they
cost about 3 percent of new construction using the excessive
estimate of $5 sq. ft. Bottom line, though, these systems are
very effective at saving lives
3:08:53 PM
SENATOR MEYER asked if the sprinkler heads are sensitive to kids
throwing balls, for instance.
CHIEF MOHRMANN replied that he had three kids in each one of his
houses with the same type of heads, but the ball never hit them.
Mechanically they are very reliable and don't have a record of
having many accidental activations from getting struck by
something. Statistics show that sprinkler head spontaneously
fail less than one in a million.
SENATOR MEYER asked what annual maintenance is required.
MR. MOHRMANN answered that an NFPA 13-R system, which is
designed for triplexes and larger and commercial applications,
requires an annual inspection in the form of a report that is
turned into the local fire department. The fire code does not
apply in the case of one and two-family dwellings, but the
International Residential Code does. He didn't believe it had a
requirement for annual inspections.
SENATOR MEYER remarked that he is not required to have his
furnace checked annually, but he wants to do it. He would
probably want to do that with a sprinkler system.
MR. MOHRMANN answered yes; most residential systems (wet
systems) are filled with water all the time. They are very
simple. It will come off the meter, have an indicating valve, a
little backflow preventer valve, and a pressure gauge. You check
to see if the valve is open and if it has pressure. That's about
it. The fire department is more than happy to answer questions
about them.
3:12:07 PM
SENATOR DAVIS asked if he was speaking to the CS or the original
bill.
MR. MOHRMANN responded that he was trying to demonstrate that
the established local process is already very vigorous and is
used for thousands and thousands of other items; injecting this
requirement for one and two-family dwellings is excessive and
not necessary. He opposed the CS for the same reason - because
what it requires is already being done.
SENATOR DAVIS asked why he opposed the bill since it didn't
mandate sprinkler systems.
MR. MOHRMANN answered that a triplex is regulated under the
International Building Code; a one and two-family dwelling is
regulated under the International Residential Code. Both of
those are scrutinized under the local code adoption process for
that deferred jurisdiction. It is already a very rigorous
process, and the reason for his opposition to the CS is that it
injects additional steps that are unnecessary.
SENATOR DAVIS asked if something could be changed in the bill
that would allow him to support it.
MR. MOHRMANN replied, "To be honest with you, at this point,
there is already under - I believe it's AS 29.25 - specific
directions in regards to how meetings are supposed to be
held...and code adoption falls within that." The local
jurisdictions have to follow those by law, so that makes the CS
superfluous. It's merely an effort to make adopting residential
sprinklers more onerous, he concluded.
CHAIR PASKVAN said he was particularly focused on whether the
percentage of structure fires and the percentage of civilian
fire deaths occurring in residential structures were in
triplexes or more as compared to duplexes or less.
MR. MOHRMANN responded that this information came directly from
the National Fire Protection Association and he would be happy
to provide copies of that document to the committee. It was in
reference to one and two-family dwellings.
3:16:56 PM
JAMES HILL, Fire Chief, Ketchikan, Alaska, said the Ketchikan
Fire Department and the City of Ketchikan both strongly opposed
SB 129 because everyone knows the benefits of having a
residential sprinkler system. He said back in the 60s and early
70s, 15,000 people a year were killed in fires; today it's less
than 4,000. The codes were changed because people died. The most
recently deferred jurisdictions in Alaska all have different
fire and building code issues to deal with. He asked that the
legislature leave fire and building code enforcement issues on a
local level and not have state mandates that impede their
ability to protect their communities.
MR. HILL said that Ketchikan already has the Ketchikan Municipal
Code that goes through the same process that Juneau does. Their
process provides them the ability to work with people on issues
that have been around since Ketchikan was formed. To take that
away to have some kind of leverage with contractors, homeowners
and professionals is wrong, he emphatically stated. For example,
a local single family dwelling in Ketchikan sits atop a 26-
percent grade that for all practical purposes he could not
protect - at least with a fire truck to the front door. He also
wasn't able to provide emergency medical services without having
to walk there. It's in a "dandy spot" with probably the best
view in town and was approved a couple of years ago. Now someone
wants to build a neighboring house in the same vicinity, and he
now has some leverage with those folks to have a standpipe put
in between the homes instead of requiring a sprinkler system to
go in the second house. It is a fixed fire system that would
allow him to provide effective fire protection for both of the
homes.
CHAIR PASKVAN said he believed the CS is a local option bill,
and he asked him what portion of the procedure is not
appropriate.
MR. HILL replied that he didn't believe it was inappropriate;
it's just already being done on a local level and communities
have different fire and building code issues to deal with.
3:21:46 PM
CHAIR PASKVAN asked him to provide the statistics from 1970 that
he referenced to the committee.
MR. HILL responded that wouldn't be a problem.
3:21:59 PM
DAVID SQUIRES, Fire Chief, Seward, Alaska, read a letter signed
by the city manager opposing SB 129. It said as written SB 129
would infringe upon their rights as a home rule city and would
limit the rights of their citizens to consider ways to reduce
the cost of government.
MR. SQUIRES said SB 129 would limit the ability of the
municipality to consider options when planning forest fire
protection. It also increases their administrative workload by
increasing the number of public hearings for ordinance adoption.
This bill does not consider what process each deferred
jurisdiction already has in place for adopting building, fire or
mechanical codes. This bill would severely impact the community
of Seward because of existing ordinances concerning improvements
for construction where they have used a sprinkler requirement as
a way to reduce costs to developers.
If this bill is passed, Mr. Squires said, it would drive up the
cost for fire protection in Seward because of the need to
require vehicles or a vehicle that would have the ability to
truck in water, supplies and the cost of a building to house
those vehicles.
MR. SQUIRES pointed out that the state fire marshal indicated
this bill would have no fiscal impact on the department, and
that is true because the State of Alaska does not regulate this
issue, but having certain items in place prior to adoption of an
ordinance on sprinklers for residential structures would put an
enormous financial impact on their community.
He thanked Senator Menard for allowing time for the public
process, but as a deferred jurisdiction that passes building,
fire, mechanical, electrical codes and more, he said Seward
already has that process in order and he had not received one
complaint from any of the contractors or residents that have
built houses within the City of Seward that their timelines for
adopting new codes or making additions to codes is too short. He
would like to hear if the proponents of this bill think they are
not getting a fair hearing at any of the deferred jurisdictions,
so they could fix those items.
MR. SQUIRES commented on Mayor Sullivan's letter where he said
this could be done on a case-by-case basis - this bill does not
allow case-by-case; it would be a blanket ordinance. It would
not be good for two houses that have different requirements 2000
feet apart; it could lead to a fairly large lawsuit.
3:26:44 PM
JEFF FEID, Loss Mitigation Administrator, State Farm Insurance,
opposed SB 129 as well as the CS. He said the total lives in
cost of residential fires is enormous, and on behalf of their
policy holders, State Farm must take all reasonable steps to
reduce the 3000 national yearly deaths caused by them. It's
beyond dispute that when properly installed, sprinklers save
lives, protect property, and reduce the risk to firefighters.
He said that State Farm provides premium discount for homes
protected with fire sprinkler systems meeting nationally
recognized standards. They have considered many studies that
show the benefits of having fire sprinklers. One example is in
Scottsdale, Arizona, that has had an ordinance for over 20
years. In the first 15 years the ordinance was in place, they
had 598 home fires. Of those fires, 49 were in single family
homes with sprinkler systems and no deaths occurred. In the
homes that had fires without sprinkler systems, 13 people
perished. Likewise, another 13 people who would have likely died
without sprinklers were saved.
The average fire loss for sprinklered incidents in Scottsdale is
$2,166 in property damage compared to $45,000 for unsprinklered
incidents. Significantly reduced water damage was also found
because fires were suppressed with 341 gallons of water per fire
in those homes with sprinkler systems versus the unsprinklered
homes that used almost 3,000 gallons per home.
MR. FEID related that the average cost to install a system in
Scottsdale was 80 cents sq. ft. and the National Fire Protection
Research Foundation has shown on a national average installation
cost of $1.61 sq. ft. He noted that part of the Foundation
project included participation from the National Association of
Homebuilders as well as State Farm.
CHAIR PASKVAN asked him to submit the data he relied upon.
SENATOR MENARD reiterated that she is not against sprinkler
systems, but she is for a more public process and opportunity.
MICHAEL REVITO, aide to Senator Menard, additionally commented
that a lot of speakers didn't address the actual CS which was
about having a more robust public process. Some of the folks who
spoke said a public process was already in place, and while that
is true, statute says that local governments are required to
notice only five days before public hearings begin. Since all
the previous speakers seemed to support involving the public as
much as possible, giving the public even more time to educate
themselves and come forth with their opinions seemed reasonable.
SB 129 was held in committee.
3:33:24 PM
CHAIR PASKVAN thanked everyone for their testimony and adjourned
the meeting at 3:33 p.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| CS SB 129 Bill Packet.pdf |
SL&C 3/2/2010 1:30:00 PM SL&C 3/9/2010 1:30:00 PM |
SB 129 |
| SB 279 Bill Packet.pdf |
SL&C 3/2/2010 1:30:00 PM |
SB 279 |
| SB 258 Bill Packet.pdf |
SL&C 3/2/2010 1:30:00 PM |
SB 258 |