Developers say a new code in Westbrook requiring sprinklers in all new homes will increase the cost of housing and hurt the local economy.

“People are counting every penny. The housing market is in the toilet right now. It’s just going to be more of a damper on development,” said Chris Wilson of Les Wilson and Sons.

Wilson is one of the local developers who have come forward to speak out against a new fire code that has made Westbrook among the strictest in the state when it comes to sprinkler systems, requiring one in every new, single-family home built in the city.

That’s a distinction that Westbrook’s fire inspector, Capt. Chuck Jarrett, doesn’t mind.

In the 10 years he’s served as fire inspector, Jarrett said, “Westbrook has been very proactive in fire prevention and life safety.”

Had they heard compelling arguments from developers when they passed the ordinance on May 4, said City Councilors Suzanne Joyce and Dotty Aube, they might have felt differently, but they said no one came forward at the time.

Wilson said a sprinkler system he recently installed in a commercial building cost him $8,000. According to Jarrett, for a single-family home on public water, installing a sprinkler system would cost about $4,000. Regardless, Wilson said, it’s money people don’t have right now.

“If we were in a peak economic time, it wouldn’t be so bad,” Wilson said. “I think this is the worst time to start something like that.”

Wilson isn’t the only local developer speaking out. Wilson and Anthony Latini, of the Latini Co., said the new regulation is making them think twice about if and when they will build in Westbrook – and that’s not only going to affect their own pockets.

“It’s a trickle-down effect,” Latini said, if he decides to delay his projects. “I don’t hire the surveyor who’s based in Westbrook. I don’t hire the excavator who’s based in Westbrook. It doesn’t just hurt me. It hurts the whole local economy.”

However, Latini and Wilson both see that stricter sprinkler requirements are the wave of the future, and aren’t opposed to seeing the requirement eventually come through. According to Rich McCarthy, a member of the state’s Technical Building Codes and Standards Board, which was recently formed to study and adopt the 2009 fire code statewide, the board will be grappling with sprinkler requirements in the not-so-distant future, and, because it’s a heated issue, will likely be looking to the public for input.

But Jarrett and City Administrator Jerre Bryant believe someone has to be out in front of the issue, and they’re glad the Westbrook City Council supported the change.

“This is the direction the country’s moving in. Whether it’s this year, next year or two years from now, this is going to be the requirement,” Bryant said, and as it becomes the norm, he believes the price of the sprinkler systems will drop.

In Gorham, Fire Chief Bob Lefebvre said an ordinance has been in place since 1987 requiring single-family homes in subdivisions in outlying areas of the town to be built with sprinkler systems. He said he’d like to see the requirement extended to all new homes, but hasn’t gotten support from the Town Council.

“I think it’s a smart move,” Lefebvre said about the change in Westbrook. “I congratulate them on their progressiveness.”

Scarborough Fire Chief Mike Thurlow said he, too, is supportive of the stricter requirement, but figures the state will implement it in its code soon enough and, for now, he’s willing to wait for that to happen.

“Eventually, it’s all going to shake out anyway,” Thurlow said. “We will be doing something if it doesn’t happen on its own.”

Joyce and Aube said, if they hear compelling arguments on the development side, they would be willing to take another look at the restriction.

“I definitely would have liked to have their input,” Joyce said.

The input they did get, however, was from Jarrett, who presented councilors with information on the short- and long-term benefits the requirement would have on both the fire department and the safety of Westbrook residents.

According to Jarrett, people who are in a house fire where there are working smoke detectors and sprinklers have an 84 percent better chance of survival than those in houses without them.

But those residents who will be safer will also be the ones carrying the cost of the city’s requirement. Peter Busque of Busque Construction in Windham said the requirement doesn’t make a difference to him and wouldn’t deter him from building in Westbrook.

“It’s just going to cost the homeowner more,” he said. “We just pass it on.”

Wilson feels, however, that many developers will be put off by the requirement – and homeowners will be less likely to buy houses because of it.

“It’s just another burden for people to carry right now,” he said. “I don’t think it’s going to draw people to Westbrook.”