Church Group Says Fire Code Is Unsettling

Members of a Santa Paula Baptist church say a quirk in the local fire code has forced them to meet in private homes rather than a new building and to cancel a popular children’s Bible study group.

“We have no permanent address,” said Robin Slay, pastor of Rejoice Fellowship. He said the longer the group goes without a church, the more difficult it is to attract new worshipers.

“Some people still identify church with a building and they want some place to worship,” said Slay, who wants to move into an office complex in the city’s industrial section.

Under the city’s fire code, facilities that accommodate more than 100 people or are more than 5,000 square feet are required to have fire sprinklers. The church is only 1,642 square feet, but the office building is more than 5,000 square feet and it can accommodate more than 100 people, city Building and Safety Director Stephen Stuart said.

The group can avoid installing the sprinklers if it doubles the width of its fire walls--measuring 68 feet long by 25 feet high--and compartmentalizes the space of the church, Stuart said.

But Slay said the city has no right to enforce its ordinance because it failed to notify the state of a December amendment that requires certain businesses to install much thicker fire walls than before.

Last December, city officials began requiring that hazardous businesses install four-hour fire walls--designed to delay the spread of a fire by four hours--made of steel and concrete after they realized that tenants were placing windows in two-hour fire walls, which negated their usefulness, City Atty. Phillip Romney said.

“They have an illegal ordinance,” said Slay, who said his 90-member congregation has been trying unsuccessfully since January to move into the office building at 15500 Telegraph Road.

City officials, however, said the ordinance is valid because the city is not required to notify the state of local amendments until July 1, when the state’s Uniform Fire Code is updated.

Manny Muniz, a regulation coordinator in the state fire marshal’s office, said Friday afternoon that he could not say whether the Santa Paula ordinance was illegal, but did say that when a city amends its fire code regarding a hotel, motel or apartment building, it must notify the state to ensure that the ordinance is as effective as state regulations.

The church matter is scheduled to appear Monday before the Fire Appeals Board, a five-member panel chosen by the City Council to interpret the fire code.

Romney said the term “hazardous” is difficult to define. “There’s some room for interpretation” in the city law, he said.

For example, the group could double the size of the two-hour fire walls in the office complex to satisfy the ordinance, city officials said.