St. Charles puts sprinkler law on hold until 2008

A controversial law requiring sprinkler systems in new homes will remain in limbo for another three months in the St. Charles Countryside Fire Protection District.

The district's board of trustees voted 5-0 Monday to uphold a moratorium on the ordinance until Jan. 1.

Board attorney Ken Shepro said trustees want the law rewritten to include a square-footage threshold that would require only larger houses -- the size has not been determined -- to have sprinklers.

The board first enacted the moratorium in April amid concerns that the cost of installing sprinklers would lead homebuilders to do business elsewhere, and that enforcement wasn't practical. There also are questions over whether the ordinance is fair to homeowners and builders.

"There's definitely a feeling that there is kind of an intrusive issue," Shepro said.

The law was first approved in 2005 as a "life-safety" effort to protect residents, firefighters and homes in the rural district, which includes the village of Wayne and parts of Campton and St. Charles townships. But residents and homebuilders, including one company that filed a lawsuit against the district last year, criticized it as over-the-top and unconstitutional.

Shepro said the board intends to decide the law's fate in coming months. He is scheduled to present a draft version of how a new ordinance might look at the board's December meeting.

"Everybody agreed they were sick and tired of this and needed to make a decision one way or another," he said.