Important - San Francisco Fire Code Changes Could Impact Commercial Property Owners

BOMA San Francisco's Codes and Regulations Committee recently discovered a code change from San Francisco Fire Department (SFFD) Fire Marshal, Dan DeCossio. The update was passed unanimously at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and it will change the way the SFFD will conduct inspections of all buildings - both residential and commercial:

• There will no longer be a Notice of Correction (NOC) given out for minor fire code violations. Instead, two levels of NOVs (Notice of Violations) will be handed out, Priority and Standard. Both NOVs could potentially hold up the issuance of other permits in buildings that receive them.
• It is unclear at this point how the Fire Department will be handling these infractions, and if there will be any type of differentiation taken between high rise buildings versus multi-tenant residential buildings; the latter was the focus of the legislation.
• The Fire Department acknowledges that mandating the issuance of unwarranted NOVs in fully-sprinkled high rise buildings would redirect their resources where they are less likely to achieve the goal of reducing residential building fires. 
• Supervisor Scott Wiener, the author of the legislation, also acknowledges that he didn’t identify the difference between types of buildings that were to be more stringently inspected by the Fire Department when he wrote his legislation.
• BOMA staff believes that Mr. Wiener may be willing to amend the original ordinance that could clarify the the intent of the measure: Better, more transparent, fire safety inspections of residential buildings . 

Stay tuned for additional updates in the near-term as our members intend to meet with Supervisor Wiener and his staff to discuss this issue further. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact kenc@boma.com and johnb@boma.com