Pasco seeks ways to ease sprinkler and occupancy rules for downtown events while stressing safety

Pasco officials and a building-code consultant on June 9 discussed options to allow more events and activity downtown while meeting state building and fire-safety requirements that, in many older buildings, force costly sprinkler retrofits.

The session followed complaints from local property and business owners that code-triggered sprinkler requirements and occupancy thresholds prevent reuse of basements and other underutilized spaces. The city retained Willie Hill, a certified building official working with BHC Consultants, to review rules and suggest options to help business owners open legally while preserving safety.

Hill told the council that two national code changes after the 2003 Station nightclub fire in Rhode Island lowered sprinkler trigger thresholds for assembly uses: the occupant-load trigger changed…