Towns in Southern Maine mandating sprinkler systems for new homes
Despite a housing crisis across the state, some Maine towns are forcing new single-family home owners to install expensive sprinkler systems. From the Bangor Daily News:
David Patterson builds modular homes all over southern Maine. The only client he can remember wanting a sprinkler system was a firefighter.
Everyone else tries to opt out, but many cannot. While the statewide building code exempts new single-family homes from requiring sprinklers, roughly a dozen communities mostly concentrated in Cumberland and York counties go further to mandate them. The last one that Patterson installed added $16,000 to the cost of a $409,000 ranch in Hollis.
“Why is the town forcing me to spend $16,000?” Patterson, the owner of Canbury Homes in Sanford, said. “Why did I lose that choice?”