Council makes school storm-shelter requirement optional, approves middle-scale housing and fire-code changes

The Memphis City Council on Oct. 21 adopted three related ordinances to amend the 2021 Memphis and Shelby County building code, making the ICC 500 storm-shelter requirement optional for educational buildings and approving related changes to the existing building code and the fire code to ease costs for small multifamily projects.

Chief John Zena, chief of development and infrastructure, told the council the package responds to a moratorium the council put in place last year and to project delays driven by the storm-shelter requirement. He said the ICC 500 provision "was making it prohibitive for a lot of these school projects to even move forward." The administration and its code officials said the change is intended to reduce construction costs so school and small multifamily projects that have stalled can proceed.

The council considered three items on third and final reading: Ordinance 5955 would make the ICC 500 storm-shelter requirement optional for new educational buildings; Ordinance 5956 enacts parallel amendments for existing-building renovations; and Ordinance 5957 updates the fire code and related local amendments tied to the middle-scale housing provisions, including allowing NFPA 13D sprinkler systems for certain small multifamily projects.

Proponents and staff said the ICC 500 standard — which aims to harden a space to withstand very high wind speeds — adds substantial costs. The chief said local estimates placed the additional cost of complying with ICC 500 at roughly $500 per square foot in some projects, adding "somewhere in the range of $1.0, $2.0 million" to particular school projects. Supporters argued that making the standard optional will allow more school projects and small multifamily developments to move forward under the prevailing building code.

During public comment, Winnie Hardaway urged the council to reconsider, saying the change affects the safety of school buildings for future years and asking the council to "please reconsider your votes." Council members pressed staff with questions about the differences among the three ordinances and the downstream effects on other codes; Chief Zena and staff explained that the three items are a package to keep standards consistent across new construction, renovations, and the fire code.

Councilwoman White recused herself from items 25 (Ordinance 5955) and 26 (Ordinance 5956), citing her role as special counsel for the county commission; her recusal was noted on the record. The three ordinances passed on third and final reading with no recorded nays. The council record shows members who spoke in favor and the committee recommendations for approval prior to the votes.

The ordinances also include provisions the administration said were approved by the Tennessee State Fire Marshal and local code officials for the middle-scale housing changes. Among the fire-code changes, staff noted that allowing NFPA 13D sprinklers for up to eight units can reduce costs by tying the sprinkler system to domestic water rather than requiring a separate water line for the building's fire-suppression system.

Next steps: the amendments take effect according to the implementation dates set in each ordinance; staff said they had coordinated changes with the state fire marshal and local code officials to align downstream provisions. The council did not adopt additional conditions at the time of passage.