Huntley lifts fire sprinkler requirement

Despite strong opposition from the Huntley Fire Protection District, the Huntley village board voted Thursday to scrap a 2-year-old requirement mandating fire sprinklers in all new single-family homes.

Trustees who voted against the requirement said the village shouldn't force residents to bear the cost of installing the systems.

"These costs passed onto our buyers make Huntley less affordable than surrounding communities," Trustee Harry Leopold said. "We're allowing them to choose, rather than us choosing for them."

But firefighters called fire sprinklers "the most effective tool in reducing fire deaths."

"It will in fact lower the standard of life-safety in the community," Huntley Fire Chief Jim Saletta said of the change.

The issue was the most heated and controversial in recent memory in Huntley, with trustees, firefighters and homebuilders trading barbs over facts and motivations.

Saletta asked Trustee Niko Kanakaris, who has plans to build six single-family homes, to abstain from voting Thursday.

Kanakaris said he felt Saletta had attacked his character and recused himself from the vote.

"There's no conflict of interest for me," Kanakaris said. "I will spend the $60,000 to put the sprinklers in the six homes regardless of the decision tonight."

Even without Kanakaris' vote, the move to scrap the requirement passed, with Leopold, Jay Kadakia and Paul Mercer voting for it and Pam Fender and John Piwko opposing the change.

"If we remove this requirement, we will be taking a giant step backward and be placing all of our policemen and firefighters in danger," Fender said before the vote.

About 50 firefighters from the Huntley fire district and other local fire departments attended the meeting in support of the fire sprinkler ordinance.

"We're disappointed," Saletta said after the vote. "It got a little bit personal in there. That wasn't our intent. I don't think (the change is) in the public's best interest."

The change, which takes effect Oct. 1, does not affect townhouses, multifamily residences and commercial buildings, where fire sprinklers are still mandatory.

More than 1,300 homes in the fire district, most of them in Huntley, have fire sprinklers.