Hallandale Beach

High Price of Safety

Condo dwellers feel the weight of costly regulations

By Claudia Boyd-Barrett

A complex collection of fire and hurricane safety regulations have some condo dwellers in Hallandale Beach working up a sweat.

Dozens of condo residents turned out for a special City Commission meeting on Tuesday to ask questions about the rules that many feel will burden them financially.

The discussion centered on a city ordinance and a state statute passed in 2006 after Hurricane Wilma left many South Floridians without power for days. Taken together, the regulations mean that all Hallandale Beach apartment and condominium buildings 75 feet high or taller must install generators, or sign a contract with a supplier to provide a generator, by Dec. 31. Multifamily buildings less than 75 feet with elevators must install a transfer switch to allow them to hook up generators by May 2010.

City officials described the rules as necessary to avoid a repeat of the Wilma disaster, when power outages that froze elevators trapped some sick and elderly residents inside their apartments, and sensitive medications such as insulin could not be kept cold.

“People forget just how bad it was,” City Manager Mike Good said. He said the city and emergency services received hundreds of calls after Wilma because of the power shortages. The ordinance “really came out of the needs that we saw,” he said.

But Csaba Kulin, who heads the Fairways North condominium association on Northeast 14th Avenue, told city officials that residents in his building complex didn’t want the extra expense the new rules implied. He said his association had looked into buying a generator and was quoted $60,000.

“This is an unfunded mandate on us,” he complained. “It's going to cost us about $1,000 per unit owner.”

Mayor Joy Cooper said the city was trying to ease the burden on condo owners, and the rules did not force anyone to buy a generator. Most buildings only need to install a transfer switch.

Altogether, 53 buildings in Hallandale will have to choose between buying a generator and signing up for a contract to receive one in an emergency, said fire Chief Daniel Sullivan. These contracts can run as high as $1,500 a month, he said. Another 131 buildings will need to install a transfer switch, which can run between $10,000 and $12,000. Even then, having the switches won’t guarantee that there will be enough generators to go around should another widespread power outage occur, he warned.

To ease the financial burden, Good said condo associations could apply to the city for a small-interest loan of up to $10,000 toward obtaining generators and transfer switches. He also pledged to post a list of contractors and generator suppliers on the city's Web site next week.

That wasn’t enough to appease John Patchen of Plaza Towers South. Like many other residents, his condominium is dealing with additional maintenance expenses and another set of state fire regulations that require the installation of costly alarm and sprinkler systems in certain buildings. Add the cost of buying a generator or obtaining a contract, and monthly maintenance bills become impossible for some residents to pay, he complained.

The engineer for the condo building, Robert Vernon, who accompanied Patchen to the meeting, said there had been at least seven foreclosures at Plaza Towers in the last year.

“People are going bankrupt,” he said. “It's alarming. People are walking away; they just cannot afford it.”

The city and state regulations also require condo buildings to have emergency operations plans. These were supposed to be completed by the beginning of January, but few condos have put plans together so far, the fire chief said. He noted that the plan should detail evacuation procedures, specify how the building would obtain power during an emergency and identify residents who might need special help in such situations. A copy of the plan must be handed in to the city's Fire Department.

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