ROCKLAND – When it comes to stair measurements taken in rental accommodations, Rockland fire and code enforcers will soon follow the city’s building codes and use of educated judgment prior to seeking the federally-endorsed Life Safety standards.

In a four to one vote, City Council members passed the ordinance Monday, Nov. 13, effectively telling agents of the city to keep the measuring tape at bay.

“This is an attempt to try and keep to the Life Safety Code, with sort of a look the other way if it’s close,” Council member Valli Geiger said. “It is about giving the code enforcement officer the ability to weigh in on the safety and effectiveness of a Maine staircase in a historic structure and whether we can allow that to stay.”

Geiger said: “We have many people in the city who are in pain at the thought of ripping out a historic mahogany staircase because it’s one inch off.”

Councilor Ed Glaser, who also voted for the measure, reminded council that codes are amended often, and this one can be amended as well if it doesn’t work. He said that even the Life Safety standards, which he stated to be based on the best, most up-to-date sciences, aren’t immune to change.

Yet Geiger went a step further, weighing the Safety Code versus the needs of Rockland, which, Geiger said, includes 250 people currently on a waiting list for housing.

“Is it better to be homeless,” she said, “then in a structure that is, in fact, like most structures in the city of Rockland? Because most people who own an existing home in Rockland do not have stairways that meet the code. And, I really struggle with their affordability with the changes that come every year with a code.”

Councilor Adam Ackor voted against the measure despite initially being in favor of the idea.

Ackor said he was one of the people who helped to push the ordinance along, having seen instances of existing staircases that came very close to failing Life Safety measurements. Those stairwells, he said, would have been very cost-prohibited to rebuild. However, he’d taken to heart some of the arguments made by Berry Manor Inn owner Cheryl Michaelsen in terms of a lack in fairness between assessments of rentals and private dwellings.

“I do think she has a valid point in terms of fairness,” he said.

Private home owners, according to Michaelsen, also own old, historic structures with steep staircases.

“If the council decides to vote to allow an apartment building owner to not have to meet the more stringent Life Safety Codes for egress stairs,” she said. “.....then Council should make it that all property owners get the same financial relief, the same subjective thresholds of reasonableness, and the same lack of inspection and measurement of egress stairs.”

The ordinance goes into effect in 30 days.

See our previous article:

Rockland takes closer look at steep-stair laws as homeowners carve apartments in old homes

Reach Sarah Thompson at news@penbaypilot.com