Oak Forest aldermen will be asked to vote later this year to vote on whether the city should loosen its requirements for fire sprinklers in new or remodeled homes and possibly businesses.
During a City Council committee meeting Tuesday night, aldermen appeared to support changes, believing that current regulations cause excessive expense for homeowners wishing to remodel their houses.
The end result, they say, is that people are leaving Oak Forest to move to nearby communities.
“Our town wants to encourage our residents to stay in Oak Forest,” Ald. Diane Wolf, 3rd Ward, said.
Ald. Richard Simon, 2nd Ward, who served as mayor pro tem in Mayor Henry Kuspa’s absence, said he knows of cases where residents dropped plans to build additions because meeting the sprinkler requirements was too costly.
“People see they can get a nicer home by moving to Orland Park or Tinley Park rather than have to comply with the expense of fixing up their homes here,” Simon said.
Aldermen have discussed the sprinkler regulations periodically in recent months, and Tuesday’s session, held prior to the actual City Council meeting, was meant to determine how many of the seven aldermen would support changes such as reducing the number of sprinklers required.
At least five aldermen said they’d be willing to support such a change but also indicated they wanted to know what the specifics would be before deciding how to vote. City Administrator Troy Ishler said he would begin drafting a revised ordinance for the council’s review.
A leader of the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board said lessening the sprinkler requirement in homes, would be a mistake. Executive Director Tom Lia, whose organization has been monitoring Oak Forest’s discussion of the issue, said such action would hurt the city.
“I think they don’t really understand the consequences,” he said.
Those include reclassifying Oak Forest’s fire insurance rating, which would raise fire insurance costs, and changes in flood plain assistance.
“Those homeowners who make claims will not receive the full claim amount that they would have received had the city kept the model code intact,” Lia told the City Council. “All residents in flood plains will be affected.”
After the meeting, Lia said he believes that former Mayor James Malecky, a homebuilder, is the motivation for the City Council to consider changing the sprinkler ordinance.
“He is the force behind this,” Lia said. “I don’t think they’d consider this if it weren’t for him.”
But Malecky, who was mayor from 1985-93 and owns Malecky Builders, denied any role in the discussions.
“I was mayor 22 years ago, I don’t know what influence they think I have,” he said. “I think that’s insulting to the current council.”
Malecky said the changes being considered are legitimate, but he would not benefit from them because his construction company is not as active as it once was.
“I’m 70 years old,” he said. “I haven’t built a home in Oak Forest in many years.”
