Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

A first reading was held for a change to the City of LaGrange’s Short-Term Rental Ordinance on Tuesday to allow staff to conduct fire safety inspections rather than the fire marshal.

In January, the city council discussed a recommendation from the planning commission to remove any reference to the fire marshal and International Fire Code.

Previously, the city required building officials to conduct an inspection and then the fire marshal to conduct an independent inspection. The change would allow staff to perform the inspection for short-term rentals without the need to have a second inspection by the fire marshal.

The change also eliminates references to International fire codes, which are not typically used for residences.

City Planner Mark Kostial said that building officials have a checklist that adequately addresses and inspects everything that is required under the building code and in the short-term rental ordinance.

The change would also eliminate some of the work on the fire marshal’s busy schedule, Mayor Jim Arrington said.

“The fire marshal has 39 inspections a week to do on businesses. He doesn’t have time to go and do short-term rentals, which is residential,” Arrington said.  “He’s really considered commercial.”

City Manager Patrick Bowie said the main impetus is removing some of the things that the fire marshal would have required.

“It’s really not the inspection themselves, but what was required. For example, he was treating them under the International Fire Code and the fact that residential would have to have a sprinkler system or lighted exit signs and things that we don’t typically see in an Airbnb and a residence,” Bowie said. “He was treating it more like a hotel.”

While short-term rentals are businesses, they are also residences that aren’t set up like hotels.

“[The fire marshal] couldn’t overlook it when he’s going in because that’s his job,” Arrington said.

“The specs are not changing. You still have to have a fire extinguisher, smoke detectors, carbon monoxide alarms and that sort of thing,” Bowie said, which were already required under the STR ordinance.

The change will eliminate the need for potentially excessive fire safety specifications that are meant more for hotels and apartment complexes, like sprinkler systems.

A public hearing was held for the potential change, but no vote was held. A vote is expected at the next council meeting on Feb. 25.