Langley City’s newest four-storey condominium project will have sprinklers on the top balconies, even though they still aren’t required by building code regulations.
The 98-unit condominium apartment development at 201 Street and Michaud Crescent is being built by Tannin Developments, a Langley-based company founded by CEO Dale Regehr.
The project just cleared a signifiant hurdle, getting third reading at Langley City Council following a public hearing on Monday (Mar. 6).
Regehr said he decided to install fire suppression sprinklers on the top balconies of his building following the “awful” Dec. 11 fire at the four-storey Paddington Station building on 201A Street near 56 Avenue in Langley City (a building he did not construct). The fire displaced more than 100 people.
Investigators determined the fire, which caused an estimated $14 million of damage, spread from a top floor balcony into the attic of the building.
Since then, the City has called for regulations that would require balcony sprinklers on four-storey buildings, and the provincial government has said new sprinkler rules are coming.
“There’s probably going to be some changes, so why not lead the pack?” Regehr said.
“It’s minor engineering costs.”
The building won’t need attic sprinklers, because with a flat roof design, it won’t have an attic.
Regehr told the Times he prefers flat roofs which cost more than peaked roofs with attics, but are less vulnerable to fire.
“It (a flat roof) doesn’t have the space or room foπr the fire to travel,” Regehr said.
His decision was welcomed by Langley City Council, which is lobbying for new rules to make balcony sprinklers mandatory in four-storey buildings.
“The city can only suggest right now,” mayor Ted Schaffer said.
“I am really pleased that Dale did this on his own accord. Hopefully, the province will get on board.”
City council has publicly urged Fort Langley-Aldergrove MLA Rich Coleman, the minister responsible for housing, to issue a ministerial order requiring sprinklers on the balconies of all new wood-frame four-storey multi-unit residential buildings, effective immediately.
While Coleman has said the provincial government plans to add a requirement for sprinklers on the balconies of four-storey wood-frame apartment buildings when the B.C. Building Code is next updated, it’s not clear when that might happen.
An email response to a Times query to Coleman’s office said the province was “taking steps to immediately adopt updated sprinkler standards from the 2015 National Building Codes, which require sprinklers on more balconies and attics in residential buildings of four stories and higher.”
However, the office was unable to say when the changes will take place.
