A small provision in routine updates to the city's building codes worries an area developer as the Jefferson City Council prepares to review the new building codes.
Over the past 18 months, the Steering Committee for Building Code Review held dozens of meetings to seek public input as the city crafted the new building codes. Most of the minor tweaks to the codes blew through with little public interest, but a provision that would force developers to install fire sprinklers in apartments with more than three units became a sticking point between developers and the city.
A developer said the change could make new apartment complexes too expensive to build, but fire officials said the change will save lives and property.
When city leaders last changed the city's building codes in 2011, they changed the city code to mandate fire sprinklers in all new apartment buildings with 10 or more units. Building code writing organizations like the International Residential Code and International Code Council began mandating fire sprinklers in multi-family residences in the 1980s.
In 2009, Jefferson City Fire Department officials wanted all multi-family homes with more than two units to be required to have fire sprinklers but compromised by allowing for new or drastically modified apartments with 10 or fewer units to be built without sprinklers.
Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce President Randy Allen served as the vice chairman of the steering committee. He said implementing the sprinkler requirements makes the city up-to-date with most other current building codes and makes the city seem progressive in future building design.
Allen also pointed out existing apartment complexes will not need to be retrofitted with sprinkler systems under the new building codes, and it will not affect single-family homes and duplexes.
"No one really argued," Allen said. "This is a step toward a better future in regard to building."
The steering committee and its volunteers proceeded at a slow but deliberate pace. Its subcommittees held 83 meetings while the steering committee held an additional 15 meetings since February 2016. Members of the public can also read the proposed new codes anytime in the Jefferson City clerk's office.
"It's been pretty well vetted," Larry Burkhardt, Jefferson City building official, said at a June 1 meeting. "Everything seemed to be pretty rational."
Action Realty owner Ken Thoenen worries though, the new provisions and the extra costs that come with adding sprinklers will make it harder for developers to build mid-sized apartment complexes. The firm helps home buyers looking for houses in Jefferson City and offers consulting services for people looking to build or remodel homes.
Action Realty also owns several mid-sized apartment complexes with four to six apartments, and the company leases duplexes and rental home complexes in Jefferson City.
Thoenen wants to build a 10-unit apartment complex just southwest of Jefferson City. The Great Recession slowed down plans to build the development, he said, and low rental rates in Jefferson City make it impossible to build the project. New costs associated with the sprinkler provision could make it even tougher.
From 2011-15, Jefferson City had a median rent of $583 per month, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Nearby Columbia had a median rent of $799 per month, according to the bureau.
"Rents here are like 60 cents per square foot. You go up to Columbia, they're like 90 cents to $1.20 per square foot," Thoenen said. "But my building cost is not that much different between here and there.
"If I add more cost with a sprinkler system, it just puts it more at risk."
Thoenen estimates the cost of a new sprinkler system would add $20 per month to rent. He also pointed out the only multi-family apartment complex permitted was the 52-unit Capital City Apartment complex on East Elm Street. About half of those units qualify for government-assisted, low-income housing assistance.
"The only thing that's being built now is the subsidized," Thoenen said.
Burkhardt estimated previously only four apartments with four units and one complex with three units were built during his two and a half years in his current role with the city.
Jim Crabtree, who chaired the fire and property maintenance subcommittee, said at a June 1 meeting fire sprinklers typically cost about $3 per square foot. When amortized over the 25-year life of a building, that adds just $4 per month to the rent, he said. Apartments with sprinklers typically see their insurance rates reduced, though.
"We really didn't see the economics driving this decision," Crabtree said at the meeting.
A 2009 change to the International Code Council's Residential Fire Sprinklers provisions mandated sprinklers in all new one- and two-family town homes. Crabtree said adding those provisions to the city's new codes was unnecessary.
Other developers though told the News Tribune the new provision would not prevent them from looking to build apartments in Jefferson City.
Earlier this year, the Vecino Group, a Springfield-based developer, proposed building 75 apartments in the old International Shoe Building on East Capitol Avenue. Because the proposal is for more than 10 units, city codes mandate the apartments have sprinkler systems.
Vecino Group co-founder Stacy Jurado-Miller said the new codes wouldn't stop the company from looking at building other apartment complexes in Jefferson City.
"It's part of all of our plans," Jurado-Miller said, "to comply with codes and provide for the safety of our residents."
Beyond economics
Last year, 67 Missourians died in residential fires according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This year, 30 Missourians already have died in fires.
Zero Jefferson City residents died last year in residential fires. Jason Turner, Jefferson City Fire Department division chief, also can't recall any recent deaths in Jefferson City. He said the fire fatality rate over the past 20 years "is a very low number," but, Turner added, "we want to keep it that way."
Still, there have been close calls. Turner specifically recalled a February 2016 fire in the 300 block of Elm Street at 2:30 a.m. Firefighters rescued two people at the scene, but several others hung out of the building as it burned, he said.
Tragedies at apartments also hit close to the region. On Aug. 4, 2015, children ranging in age from 1-5 at a Lake of the Ozarks apartment building died when a fire swept through the apartment at 11:20 p.m.
Last September, two Columbia residents died in an upstairs apartment fire started by a candle in a downstairs apartment. Four apartments suffered severe damage in that blaze, while two others had water damage.
Turner thinks about this every day.
"We go to bed every night worried about it," Turner said.
Apartment fires happen all the time, and he said an event with many injuries could happen any day.
"It's not a matter of if; it's a matter of when," Turner said. "Every time we open the door to go on a call, that's the last thing we want to see. If we can help reduce that risk in a multi-family setting, we feel good about that."
This change is designed to save lives and property, Turner said. Most of the apartment fires JCFD responds to don't have sprinkler systems, but Turner hopes that will change and displace fewer people in non-injury fires.
David Griffith, executive director of the Central & Northern Missouri chapter of the American Red Cross, told the council July 3 that the sprinkler amendment to the fire codes is a vital component of a plan the Red Cross and JCFD have to protect the lives of Jefferson City residents for the next several decades. Griffith told the News Tribune he thinks the developers that oppose the sprinkler provision need to consider the value of their tenants' lives.
"For me, it's a no-brainer," Griffith said. "If we're protecting lives and they have a way of protecting their property as well, it's a win-win for everybody."