The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Commissioners consider resolution next week
By Alissa Johnson
A disagreement over fire protection measures in Riverland Industrial Park looks to be coming to a close. At its next regular meeting, the Board of County Commissioners will consider a resolution that would essentially allow the mixed-use area to be exempt from certain aspects of the International Fire Code (IFC). The decision comes after Riverland made upgrades to its infrastructure that improve overall fire protection.
The issue originally came to the county because Riverland property owners felt they could not meet the demands of the IFC due to infrastructure limitations and the Crested Butte Fire Protection District would not amend the code to allow existing fire protection measures. Last spring, county commissioners made it clear they wanted to withdraw the application of the IFC in Riverland, but only after fire protection measures had been improved.
At a December 8 work session, community development director Russ Forrest told the commissioners that upgrades had been made, including achieving a water flow of 500 gallons per minute in Riverland. He said those improvements were consistent with the recommendations in a county-commissioned report that identified fire protection measures that would be consistent with codes but recognize Riverland’s limited infrastructure.
After an inspection, Forrest said, “The conclusion was they more than meet the standards and in fact surpass those standards. Verbally the district said it looks good and it is certainly a safer situation than we had before.”
He later explained that the measures could, in fact, be in compliance with the IFC. “[Consultant Deborah Shaner] wanted us to reiterate she believes that what she designed [in the report] actually could comply with the International Fire Code,” Forrest said.
“Has anyone asked the fire protection district to check off and say yes?” commissioner Jonathan Houck wanted to know.
Forrest said he believed that might have been possible if Riverland had achieved a flow of 700 gallons per minute, but not at 500.
“After they had a chance to look at it, I asked, would you like to facilitate the approval of this? The lack of response I got and the follow-up call yesterday indicate the fire district is not up to taking any further action,” Forrest said.
He and county attorney David Baumgarten went on to say that left the county with two options: withdraw the application of the IFC altogether in Riverland, or withdraw the application of specific aspects of the code.
“That statute allows the fire protection district to apply the code if you authorize them to apply it on the ground. You have authorized them to adopt them,” Baumgarten said.
“So the suggestion to the board would be to withdraw the authority to adopt it but do it very surgically. Go through the document and the amendments and identify only those things germane to this fire code,” Baumgarten continued.
Forrest explained that under that scenario, the county could review water flows but the fire district would not; it would review other aspects of the code, such as turnarounds. Forrest did caution that one section of the fire code allows the fire chief to stop a project at his discretion, but Forrest had been given assurances that wouldn’t happen.
The commissioners were in favor of trying the “surgical” approach.
“I can be persuaded,” commissioner Phil Chamberland said.
“Either option maintains a high level of safety for folks and that’s important to me. The surgical approach keeps things relatively intact, and I think that’s a step in the right direction,” Houck said.
Commissioner Paula Swenson said, “Go with the surgical change but make sure they understand that if there’s any monkey business there will be another change coming.”
The resolution will be considered at the board’s next regular meeting on December 15.
