Important Update for Kansas Group Homes Regarding Sprinklers

The following blog is for Residential Board and Care (RBC) homes in the state of Kansas, and applies to Adult Group Homes, Childrens Group Homes, Home Plus homes, and any other home with unrelated adults needing some sort of care or guardianship.

As you may be aware, the Office of the State Fire Marshal (OSFM) uses a particular code book to review all buildings within their jurisdiction, this is the NFPA 101 Life Safety Code (LSC). In the past, for almost everywhere in the state, when you were going to make changes to or open a new group home, you sent a code plan to OSFM and they would review the plan under this code, do the inspections, and then approve the home. Recently, OSFM has signed some Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) with various cities and counties around the state for those jurisdictions (Authorities Having Jurisdiction – AHJ) to review the plans for them. Now, when you submit a code plan, if the home happens to be in one of those areas, OSFM sends your plan to the local AHJ for them to review and inspect the home. When the local AHJ reviews these plans, they rarely if ever use the LSC code, they use their locally adopted codes, which almost always is the International Building Code (IBC) and or the International Fire Code (IFC).

The state's LSC code and the local IBC and IFC codes are very similar, but there is one huge difference between these two codes when it comes to group homes. The state’s LSC says that homes for 5 or less residents are not required to be sprinkled, and that for homes with 6-8 residents, if they can exit the home on their own in 3 minutes or less, then the sprinkler is also not required. All homes for 9 or more residents must be sprinkled. And any home of 6 or more where some residents may be immobile are also required to be sprinkled. The IBC and IFC codes do not have this provision, in fact, the IBC and IFC codes both say that all homes of any number of residents must be sprinkled. Since signing the MOU with the local jurisdictions, these local fire departments have all required us to sprinkle homes that previously we weren’t.

This now means that for a variety of cities or counties around Kansas, there might be different rules applied to group homes that you weren’t used to before, or that others operating in those area’s may not be adhering to. But it does mean that any new home, or changes to an existing home, would be required to meet these rules.

• Sedgwick County (except in Wichita City Limits) must sprinkle home for 1+ residents. A home in Wichita city limits is still reviewed by the state.

• Leawood – 1+ residents must sprinkle.

• Lenexa – 1-5 residents don’t have to sprinkle if mobile, 6-12 residents must sprinkle.

• Olathe – 1-8 residents don’t have to sprinkle if mobile, 9-12 residents must sprinkle.

• Overland Park – 1-5 residents don’t have to sprinkle if mobile, 6-12 residents must sprinkle.

• Shawnee – 1+ residents must sprinkle.

  Additionally, we’ve learned that some AHJ’s might have their own local rules about garage requirements for homes. In most cities, a house is not required to have an enclosed garage (roof and walls), but some cities do require that a home have a one or two-car garage. This means that if you want to convert the garage of a group home to have some more bedrooms, you may not be allowed to do so.

Here is a list of some cities that have special garage amendments. I have only contacted a few, so this list is not complete.

• Leawood – 2 car garage required

• Lenexa – 1 car garage or carport required

• Olathe – no garage required

• Overland park – 1 car garage required

• Shawnee – no garage required

• Wichita – no garage required

As you can see, I have only contacted Wichita and some cities in the KC Metro area to discuss their local requirements. However I did get this list of AHJ’s that OSFM has a 2023 MOU with for group homes (note, there is a different list for adult daycare or training facilities, as well as children's daycares). Note that these MOU’s are up for renewal every year, so it can change yearly. The following list of AHJ’s do reviews instead of the state and may require you to follow their rules:

• Andover

• El Dorado

• Concordia

• Winfield

• Clay Center

• Dodge City

• Ottawa

• Junction City

• Coffeyville

• Manhattan

• Sedgwick County fire District #1 (andale, Bentley, derby, garden plain, goddard, maize, park city, kechi, bel aire, Haysville, viola)

• Topeka

• Edwardsville

I am sure by now you can see there is a patchwork of rules from county to county and city to city. If you are planning to do work on a home you already own, or plan to open a new one, it is best if you call me before you buy, rent, or whatever, and let me do a check to see what the requirements will be for that jurisdiction because you do not want to purchase or lease a home for use, then find out you will be forced to spend $25,000 - $35,000 more than you planned on for a sprinkler system that might have not be required the next town over. Sprinkling a building is not a bad thing, it provides the safest and best environment for your residents, however I realize that for some business' this cost is not an option, and for others who may be leasing a home, the landlord may not allow you to retrofit a home with a sprinkler.