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El Paso County court moves to publish public hearing notice on unified fire code and outdoor business rules
Summary
After years of post-fire reviews and stakeholder outreach, commissioners voted to publish notice for a public hearing on an outdoor business order and signaled intent to consider adopting the International Fire Code 2021 for unincorporated county areas.
The El Paso County Commissioners Court voted Sept. 15 to publish public notice for an Oct. 20 public hearing on a proposed outdoor business order and to continue consideration of a countywide fire code to address repeated fires at outdoor businesses.
Commission staff and policy advisers presented a two-part approach developed after two years of research and community outreach: (1) adopt a unified county fire code (the countyis recommending the International Fire Code 2021 without amendments as a baseline) and (2) adopt an outdoor business order with licensing and operational standards for activities such as recycling centers, salvage yards and wrecking operations.
Why it matters: county speakers said the measures would create uniform standards across unincorporated areas, provide clear enforcement authority and generate civil penalties to fund enforcement. County staff told the court El Paso County is the largest of the top 14 Texas counties without a unified fire code.
Details and next steps: the outdoor business order would require licensing through Planning & Development, set stack separation and fencing requirements, and treat violations as misdemeanor offenses punishable by $100to $500 per day. The proposed county fire code would enable the county attorney to pursue monetary penalties under state law not to exceed $200 per day for ongoing code violations; collected fines would be dedicated to enforcement. The court directed staff to publish the statutorily required notice for the outdoor business order public hearing (Texas code section 396.043 was cited) and to return with a formal adoption item on Oct. 20.
Local emergency-services chiefs and ESD representatives participated in discussion, stressing pragmatic implementation issues such as water/hydrant availability in outlying communities, administrative models for a county fire marshal and interlocal agreements to preserve ESD roles. Chief Esparza of ESD 2 flagged hydrant and water-pressure deficiencies as a central operational problem for firefighting in many unincorporated areas.
The motion to publish the outdoor business order notice passed (mover: County Attorney; motion presented by staff; seconder: Commissioner Coronado). Court members discussed phased implementation and potential interlocal MOUs with Emergency Services Districts to preserve local fire marshal roles while providing countywide standards.
