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Committee hears testimony to expand high-rise sprinkler grant, lower height and income thresholds
Summary
The House committee heard testimony on House File 1334 to expand a high-rise sprinkler retrofit grant program, adjust the 75-foot height cutoff and raise the income eligibility to 60% AMI; sponsors requested another $10 million and said the change would help several public housing buildings that narrowly missed current eligibility.
The House Committee on Housing Finance and Policy on March 6 heard testimony on House File 1334, carried by Rep. Mohammed Noor, a bill that would add $10 million to the state's high-rise sprinkler retrofit grant program and change eligibility by lowering the effective height threshold and raising income eligibility from 50% to 60% of area median income (AMI).
The measure is intended to help retrofit more affordable residential high-rises with automatic sprinklers after a 2019 fire in Minneapolis that killed five people. Rep. Mohammed Noor, author of the bill, told the committee the state fire marshal's report concluded that sprinklers would have saved lives in that incident. "From that time on, we took the initiative to address life saving effort by requiring high rise buildings to be retrofitted with sprinklers," Noor said.
Supporters told lawmakers the changes would make several…
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