MORROW Morrow officials say they are considering a less-strict sprinkler system policy to encourage economic development in the area.

Council is expected to vote on this change at a called meeting Monday at 6 p.m. in city hall.

Our imperative directive is to try to take off some of the chains in terms of economic development if theyre not necessary, said Interim City Manager Sylvia Redic at the Jan. 27 council meeting where the issue was first discussed.

Mayor and council looked over the first official reading of the amendment Tuesday that should repeal extra fire code restrictions the city ordinances place on businesses. Instead, the city will follow the less-strict state fire safety codes.

Right now, Morrows codes require that buildings of any type construction or occupancy shall be protected throughout by an approved supervised sprinkler system. But fire Chief Mark Herendeen and fire Marshal Herb Jones said in at least two council meetings they felt the ordinance was overly cautious.

When you get into commercial buildings, a lot of them are Type I, Type II concrete block and steel and theres not that need for that level of fire protection, Herendeen said at the Jan. 27 meeting.

Herendeen and Mayor J.B. Burke implied at that meeting the change in codes could encourage smaller businesses to set up shop in Morrow since they wouldnt necessarily need to pay for the full cast-iron-pipe sprinkler system the city codes require for commercial buildings.

If the council members vote to change the ordinances, the fire department would need to examine each building and how it would be used and determine by state codes whether it would need a sprinkler system.

What we need to remember about the state fire code is its not a book its volumes of books, Redic said.

Sprinkler systems have been a haunting theme of the city since controversy surrounding Olde Towne Morrow, a botched development project the city closed in February 2011.

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Morrow considers following less-strict state standards for commercial sprinkler systems

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March 14, 2015 at 3:38 am by Mr HomeBuilder
Category: Sprinkler System