New Castle County Council adopts an updated international building code, minus a provision mandating sprinkler systems in new residential homes.
The ordinance to adopt the international building code sparked several hours of debate over a mandatory sprinkler requirement.
Council debated and heard public comment for several hours on the issue. An amendment from Councilman Bill Bell to exempt detached single-family homes from the requirement failed to pass, falling victim to an “all-or-nothing” mentality from some council members.
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Ultimately, Councilwoman Janet Kilpatrick’s amendment removing the mandate from the ordinance was successful, leaving sprinklers optional.
But Bell says he will continue to advocate for a mandate for all homes.
“We are going to continue to work with our land use department, there are some questions that haven’t been answered," Bell says. "But at the same time, there was no reason this evening that it couldn’t have been voted in the affirmative so that we could at least move forward and do the planning that is necessary. And even if you had to move the target date out you could have done that.”
Bell notes other municipalities like Newark and Lewes have adopted sprinkler system mandates.
Paul Eichler, Chairman of the Delaware Fire Sprinkler Coalition spoke in support of the mandate.
“Residential fire sprinklers save lives, save property, save water, save environmental impact,” he says.
But housing developers like President of the Builders and Remodelers Association of Delaware Mike Rieman say those systems can run an additional $8,00-$10,000 to install and only .17% of their consumers have opted to install them since 2017.
“Based on some national statistics, for every $1,000 that you increase the price of a home about 140,000 people nationally no longer qualify for a mortgage,” Rieman says.
Eichler says those estimated costs of sprinkler systems are, in reality, less than half.
