Hot Springs to set up fire district

HOT SPRINGS - The Hot Springs Board of Directors has decided to establish a new Thermal Basin Fire District.

Hot Springs Fire Chief Ed Davis told city directors at a meeting Dec. 17 that 24 of the multistory buildings in the fire district have been declared unsafe and would fall under the district’s Existing Building Code.

If someone chose to change the buildings’ occupancy or modify the buildings, the Existing Building Code would apply instead of the state code, Davis said.

He said the Existing Building Code is much less stringent than the new state fire codes approved by the Legislature, which take effect Jan. 1.

He said Hot Springs is the first city in Arkansas in which the state fire marshal is allowing an Existing Building Code to be implemented.

Davis has previously said the new fire district is a code enforcement area tailored to the needs of the community’s “legacy structures” - a collection of architectural treasures that has survived previous fires that have swept through downtown Hot Springs.

He said the Fire Department proposal is for an Existing Building Code, which is more lenient and would foster the rehabilitation of the affected buildings in the most economically feasible manner possible.

The Existing Building Code has worked in other cities across the country and allows a “multitude of architectural and life safety issues to be covered by the addition of a fire sprinkler system, and the addition of proper means of egress within the building,” Davis said.

“The Thermal Basin Fire District, from our standpoint, is the best solution to the unsafe buildings in downtown Hot Springs,” he said.

Jim Fram, president of The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, said one component of the chamber’s plans for economic development includes downtown.

“One part of our plan is to hire an intern who will go through the district that Mr. Davis has shown, to interview and survey property owners to find out specifics about the buildings and property and their interest in development. We hope to have a database of information about the buildings and property owners for potential developers,” he said.

Fram said the chamber is also exploring best practices by other communities in putting together a consortium of local financial institutions to provide low- or no-interest financing for some of the needed improvements to the downtown buildings.

Don Schnipper, a local attorney, read the board a letter from Ken Wheatley, whose family owns numerous properties downtown. Wheatley said in the letter that he was first told of the proposal for the fire district a few months ago and was asked whether he would fight it.

“I asked if I would have to sprinkle the vacant upper floors of buildings that had great roofs and were clean and secure. I was told ‘Absolutely not,’” Wheatley said in the letter.

“We’ve been told that the major motivation for the district was that the city will have to tear down the Majestic Hotel at a cost of $2 million because the owner let it go. There was no sprinkler at the Majestic, the roof has been compromised, but the city did nothing. So why is it being used as a scare tactic and a reason to force people to sprinkle?” he asked.

Wheatley said he was told two times that safe, clean buildings would be exempt from the sprinkler requirement, but was then told that “powerful forces want the downtown developed and they are trying to use the board to try and force it.”

“This legislation has been done quietly, with no public hearing, and is one of the most arbitrary proposals I’ve ever seen.

“I’ve heard from virtually every building owner who would be affected, and they feel their buildings are safe and the burden on them would bankrupt many of them. The economy is such that there is no pot of gold to draw from, and trying to gain control of property through legislation is wrong,” he said.

Wheatley said in the letter that the downtown buildings are “safe, but they are not developed the way a few people would like, and it’s wrong to allow them to force their will on others for their personal gain.”

Anthony Taylor, who owns a building that houses his architectural offices and another establishment, said he recently installed a fire sprinkler system, “and the resulting business for the establishment that occupies the building more than covers the note” to pay the loan he secured to install the system.

Taylor pointed out that the buildings downtown that would be affected by the new code would also be required by the new state fire codes to have sprinkler systems installed if they are developed.

He said the current vacant structure code was established to allow the owner of one multiple-story building to board the property up and only use the ground floor, and “that has held development back 25 years. Nothing is going to happen downtown unless and until some development happens with these buildings.”