(Michael Chamberlain/Nevada Business Coalition) – In response to concerns raised by the Nevada Business Coalition, the Nevada Restaurant Association and others, the Clark County Fire Department held a meeting with representatives of affected businesses to discuss the new, or newly-enforced, requirements for Places of Assembly permits. The meeting resulted in the CCFD considering a number of possible changes that could significantly reduce the cost of obtaining such permits, while still achieving the CCFD’s goals.
As the meeting commenced, Deputy Fire Chief Kelly Blackmon revealed the CCFD was not even aware that this was an issue until she read the article NBC published last week. She indicated that the CCFD did not intend to impose an undue burden on businesses. The department simply did not know the consequences associated with the requirements when they were released.
“We don’t want this to be cost-prohibitive for industry,” Blackmon said. She added, “That was never our intention, [for compliance] to cost a large amount of money.”
Participants at the meeting included the Nevada Business Coalition, which represents companies in a broad range of industries, NvRA President Katherine Jacobi, who first informed NBC of the new requirements and some of their consequences, along with representatives from the Tavern Owners Association, the Building Owners and Managers Association and individual businesses affected by the requirements. Ms. Blackmon appeared sympathetic to the concerns expressed and receptive to ideas for balancing the CCFD’s needs with the businesses’ worries about excessive costs.
She said that the plans would not be used by firefighters responding to emergency calls but rather merely to verify compliance with fire codes – for instance, to ensure aisles were sufficiently wide and there were enough clear exits to accommodate the flow of people out of the building in the case of a fire.
Several concerns were expressed by businesses and their representatives. These included the cost and level of detail of the submittals, the question of whether new submittals would be required each time the configuration within the establishment changed and the timeframe within which businesses would have to comply.
Blackmon indicated that, with this policy, the CCFD is “more interested in education than enforcement.” She stated they would be revisiting the requirements with an eye toward addressing the issues raised by the meeting participants while still satisfying the needs of the CCFD.
As a result it is likely that many businesses may be spared from the additional expense of obtaining new sets of professionally-drawn plans and only major renovations would trigger the need for revised drawings. This could save some businesses thousands of dollars.
She stated that the CCFD’s priority is obtaining compliance from larger establishments first. Those who have not yet received or have not submitted for Places of Assembly permits may be able to postpone doing so until the new requirements have been made public. In addition, any business that has submitted a Places of Assembly permit that has not yet been approved due to an issue with the original guidelines can contact the CCFD.
The original Places of Assembly permit requirements had the potential to impose enormous costs on businesses that can ill-afford them. But awareness and action on the part of NBC, NvRA and others was able to make an impact and possibly result in a significant reduction in the cost of compliance.
(Michael Chamberlain is Executive Director of Nevada Business Coalition.)