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Grayson County commissioners approve variance to allow taller doors for RISE Aviation hangar
Summary
At a county workshop, commissioners approved a variance allowing RISE Aviation to use 30-foot hangar doors and to apply the 2022 NFPA 409 hangar classification—avoiding a mandatory foam-suppression requirement—after hearings on industry data, code options and project timing.
Grayson County commissioners voted at a workshop to grant a variance that allows RISE Aviation to use a 30-foot hangar door and apply the 2022 NFPA 409 standard for hangar classification, a move the company says avoids a foam-based fire-suppression requirement that would otherwise apply.
Mike Lindsey, representing RISE Aviation, told the commissioners the proposed facility is a 63,100-square-foot storage hangar made up of two 28,800-square-foot bays separated by a UL-listed two-hour firewall and about 5,500 square feet of office space. Lindsey said the facility is intended mainly for turbine-powered business aircraft and would base roughly 20–24 aircraft there.
"So that's what we're asking for is to see whether or not the county can use the 2026 NFPA 409 and classify as a class 2 hangar," Lindsey said while outlining that under older rules door height would trigger a Class 1 designation and a foam requirement. He cited industry data indicating no reportable hangar fuel-spill fires in 2019 and said accidental foam discharges have occurred but are rare; "The approximate cost of that is about $1,000,000 each," he said when describing cleanup and damage costs associated with inadvertent foam releases.
A county fire official advised the board the county currently enforces the 2021 International Fire Code (which references the 2016 NFPA 409). He recommended a variance tied to the 2022 NFPA 409 as a practical legal route because the project's two-building firewall arrangement would allow the hangar to be treated as Group 2 under the 2022 guidance, which does not automatically require foam for non-maintenance storage hangars. "Y'all are the building appeals board for the fire code," the official said, describing the board's authority to grant variances.
Commissioners discussed alternatives, including adopting the newer NFPA 409 edition countywide or moving the county fire code forward; staff said adopting a later fire-code edition (for example via the 2027 adoption cycle) would be a longer public process and could impose broader requirements across the county. The applicants said they preferred a variance to avoid delaying the project: permits must be filed now and, per the presentation, groundbreaking was planned for the coming Thursday with vertical construction expected later in the spring.
Commissioner Arthur moved for a variance to allow use of the 2022 NFPA 409 and to permit a 30-foot door height in place of the 28-foot limit referenced under the county's current code; Commissioner Wright seconded. The chair called for the vote, commissioners voiced "Aye," and the chair declared the motion carried. The workshop adjourned at 11:27 a.m.
The variance and the board's direction let the RISE Aviation project proceed without the foam-suppression specification tied to a Class 1 hangar under older code references; county staff noted that a separate countywide code-adoption process would be required to change the fire code for all properties.
