Lake Bluff panel grants sprinkler exemption for two multifamily buildings, requires monitored alarm system

Members of the Lake Bluff review body voted to grant an exemption from the village's sprinkler requirement for two adjacent multifamily buildings but added conditions that the owner install a wireless, centrally monitored alarm system and allow staff to inspect and verify required smoke and carbon-monoxide detectors.

The decision follows a consultant's presentation showing the properties are two buildings of three units each (six units total), that retrofitting a full residential sprinkler system would require new water service and a riser room and would force temporary relocation of occupants, and that contractors had proposed a monitored wireless alarm approach as a lower-impact alternative.

Consultant Seth Sommer summarized the technical tradeoffs for the panel. "The code itself would require sprinkler systems if these units were built today," Sommer said, adding that retrofitting would likely require a new water service, a riser room and…