Plain City’s newest council members, Michael Terry, left and Lauren Giaimo took the Oath of Office during Monday’s village council meeting. The pair was in-person at the Village Municipal Building, along with Mayor Jody Carney, Village Administrator Nathan Cahall, Fiscal Officer Renee Sonnett and Solicitor Paul Lafayette, to be sworn into office. Other council members and residents could view the swearing in virtually on Zoom. The two seats became open after former Mayor Darrin Lane and Council member Darren Lee moved out of the village limits and resigned. (Photo submitted)
Business owners in Plain City’s Uptown District could see a new incentive to install fire safety systems in their buildings.
During Monday’s village council meeting, the board discussed the possibility of waiving water capacity charges for businesses in the historic district installing sprinkler systems.
Village Administrator Nathan Cahall said the initiative is a “policy judgment decision for council,” as it would not have a large financial impact on the village.
The existing infrastructure is already in place, Cahall noted, and the fire suppression systems are not likely to generate much water usage. For that reason, he said only the tap-in fees normally collected would be affected.
Under current ordinances, the fees for new water lines used only for fire suppression are reduced in half, Cahall explained.
He said the tap-in fee for a four-inch line is $74,000, so a fire line would be $37,000.
If council chose to waive capacity charges in the Uptown Historic District, business owners would not pay the $37,000 fee. They would pay for the installation and cost of the systems.
Cahall said waiving the fee would “assist with redevelopment and allow for more uses to be considered.”
Without the capacity charge for a sprinkler system, he said prospective and current owners may be more inclined to restore Uptown buildings.
Specifically, he said it would encourage use of the second stories for business purposes.
If the incentive creates more businesses, new Council member Michael Terry said it would likely draw more people to the area and boost the local economy, as well.
Along with potential economic benefits, Mayor Jody Carney said the incentive would help preserve the historic buildings.
“In thinking about Uptown historic preservation, if one building goes, they all could,” she said.
New council member Lauren Giaimo agreed.
She said she used to live in the Chillicothe area and recalled a catastrophic fire at a historic building that destroyed multiple nearby buildings. She said the damage has taken years to repair and does not want to risk a similar incident in Plain City.
Council member John Rucker echoed her sentiment, adding that the proximity of the buildings to one another makes them “tinder box-like.”
Since there are potential benefits of similar incentives, Cahall said, “It’s not unheard of for a municipality to have a waiver or reduction in these kinds of cases.”
He said some communities incorporate capacity charge waivers into economic development agreements.
From a legal perspective, Solicitor Paul Lafayette said council needs to be able to justify why the waiver applies to a specific area in the village.
Lafayette said older buildings have a higher risk of catastrophic fires, so there is a rational basis to waiving fees in the historic district.
“You can treat different areas differently as long as it’s rational,” he explained.
Council member Frank Reed, however, questioned whether the incentive would benefit the village or specific business owners.
Carney said the idea was brought to her by Tim Dawson, who owns The Grainery and other Uptown properties.
“It seems like, again, there’s one business that’s going to benefit from all of this,” Reed replied, adding that he felt it was unlikely the village would gain anything from waiving the fees.
Carney, though, said she doesn’t view the waiver as helping one building but preserving the village as a whole.
“I look at it as the future,” she said.
Rucker also pointed out the “long-term benefit” of encouraging building owners to install fire suppression systems.
He argued that potentially saving the buildings is “costing the village nothing, we’re just losing the opportunity cost of the tap (in) fee.”
Pleasant Valley Fire District Fire Marshal Bryan Adams said the fire department has talked about similar programs internally and is in favor of “anything we can do to incentivize” owners to install fire suppression systems.
Aside from preservation, he said there is a tangible economic benefit because 85% of businesses that experience a fire don’t reopen.
Still, Reed said he doesn’t believe the waiver program would benefit the historic district.
Regardless, every other council member told Carney they were in favor of the program.
Legislation to create the waiver program will be on upcoming council agendas.