Residential Sprinklers, Commerce City`s Lessons Learned (Learn Live)

The South Adams County Fire Department on behalf of the City of Commerce City in Adams County Colorado adopted the requirement for residential sprinklers in November 2023. The adoption did not go smoothly and much of the preparation required for this adoption was not done ahead of time. As the months progressed, the City and Fire District struggled to keep the ordinance afloat and build the process as they went. Commerce City and SACFD learned the hard way and almost lost the ordinance more than once, threats of lawsuits, moratoriums, and exceptions were rampant throughout the nearly year-long process. This presentation will explore how the ordinance went into effect, the challenges, and ultimately how the ordinance survived. Commerce City is now becoming a sprinklered community without exceptions, and the lessons learned between the City and Fire District. The intent of this course is to review how the residential fire sprinkler ordinance came to be in Commerce City on behalf of the South Adams County Fire Department. The ordinance ran into every potential problem and pitfall and overall tested the capability of the Fire Department, the City, and the Water District. Construction effectively stopped for over four months while the logistics between all parties were tediously assessed, programs built and intergovernmental agreements built. The intent of this presentation is in fact lessons learned to hopefully lead other fire professionals towards success, by demonstrating all of the facets of this adoption and what happened, what went right, and what went wrong. This presentation is inclusive of the timeline, political climate of the adoption, and how it all came to be. The presentation addresses local and state ordinances, staffing, and interoperability of all components of the adoption.