The Facts

High rise residents are facing a looming 2027 deadline to perform costly sprinkler retrofits. After public outcry, Mayor Lurie and Supervisors Sauter and Sherrill sponsored legislation to delay the deadline by five years. It passed its first hurdle this week and is heading to the full board soon for a vote.

Cost estimates for the retrofit range from $60,000 to $300,000 per unit - or roughly $600 million to $3 billion citywide.

The delay would help about 9,800 homes in 126 older towers, according to JK Dineen at The Chronicle.

The Context

Sprinklers are obviously effective at suppressing fire, but many modern materials can provide similar life-safety benefits at a lower cost. The primary concern for a high rise on fire is that occupants have enough time to get out, which both sprinklers and modern materials can do. A NIST cost-benefit study suggests that sprinklers can be cost-effective in some settings.

San Francisco has required major fire-safety retrofits before, including a prior sprinkler program for high-rise commercial buildings and tourist hotels built before 1974.

The GrowSF Take

The role of safety regulations are not to eliminate risk, but to reduce it where the benefits outweigh the costs. In this situation, it's unclear if the cost/benefit ratio make sense.

SF should not impose a potentially multi-billion-dollar mandate without publishing a real cost/benefit analysis: expected risk reduction, expected fire losses avoided, and a workable permitting + financing plan.