Friends in several districts are raising awareness and asking for our help.
We citizens need to stick together against governement overreach - those of you who have been members for a while know that we all need to step up for each other. SF has recently mandated the retroactive installation of automatic fire sprinkler systems in buildings built before 1974.
The estimated cost to each apartment owner: $250,000, cost per building: $20 million and the total cost to affected buildings citywide: $2 billion. This is an outrageous requirement to just casually drop on citizens.
Request from our Neighbors: We need to scrap or at least a compromise for the subversive fire sprinkler installation mandate that gives homeowners time to adapt to major forced renovations.
Two ways to be heard:
1) There is a hearing at Land Use on Monday Feb. 9, 1:30pm.
2) Skip to the end to send a note to your supervisor.
Read On for More Detailed Information from our Neighbors:
Ten years ago, the Board of Supervisors tried to push standalone legislation to require retrofitting sprinklers in residential high-rises built before 1974. In a report to the Board in 2016, this legislation was deemed practically and economically infeasible by the board's budget legislative analyst.
The Board of Supervisors declined to advance this legislationback then, but the fire department decided to insert the mandatory sprinkler retrofit language into the 2022 revised fire code and, without notice to any of the 10,000+ affected homeowners or tenants, in December 2022 the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the new fire code, including the retrofit language.
**This mandate is not a requirement under either the National or California Fire Code and no other fire jurisdiction in the United States has an equivalent mandate. Even insurance companies are not pushing it due to the increased risk of water damage and mold.
The San Francisco fire code now requires homeowners and buildings to have fully installed automatic fire sprinklers in every room of every apartment in each of these 126 buildings no later than January 1, 2035, with interim deadlines for progress completion before that date.
This is an incredibly burdensome requirement for building owners and residents, as anyone living in one of these buildings would have to cover the $250,000 renovation cost for their apartment and relocate for the duration of the renovation, which could take up to six months. Many residents in these buildings are older and live on fixed incomes and cannot afford the cost which could double owners’ monthly costs for ten or more years and will certainly raise rents for tenants. All of the affected buildings are built with concrete and steel and all of them contain asbestos, which will have to be abated. And could pose health risks to the entire neighborhood.
After being contacted by representatives of a coalition of 29 of the affected buildings in mid-2025, Supervisors Sherrill and Sauter worked to reverse this mandate in the new fire code being considered for approval by the Board of Supervisors for the three-year period from 2026 to 2029, but were unable to do so.
We need to either eliminate this unecessary requirement altogether or reach a compromise that will allow for buildings to be able to defer the sprinkler installation until their buildings undergo major renovation, similar to New York City, and we also need common-sense alternatives to the mandatory retrofit of sprinklers to eliminate the huge financial burden on residents who will be forced out of their homes and possibly the City itself. This is not an affordable mandate. The City should be working to make it easier to live in San Francisco, not chasing its middle class residents out of town.
Please encourage your supervisors to support the changes to the new fire code that will extend the existing deadlines and create a working group to determine best practices for alternative fire safety systems.
Let’s keep San Franciscans in their homes!
(If you are curious, even more info can be found here: https://nosfsprinklermandate.com).
Send the email below to voice your support of a fire sprinkler compromise. It is important that Supervisors and Mayor understand that the entire city opposes this onerous burden cavalierly imposed on thousands of residents.