Sprinkler mandate

Valley home builders are struggling to survive. Even though labor and materials are cheaper because of free-falling demand, new-home communities can't compete with the rock-bottom prices of the resale market. In many neighborhoods, builders can barely recover their costs -- if, by some miracle, a buyer materializes. Then they have to hope an agreed-to sales price appraises at that amount.

If Southern Nevada's remaining active builders can't keep their costs down in this market, they're dead, plain and simple.

So what are Clark County officials thinking in proposing that fire sprinklers be mandated in all new homes in unincorporated Clark County, starting next summer?

Even the most conservative estimates put the cost of these systems at $1 to $1.60 per square foot, adding $2,000 to $3,200 to the price of a new 2,000-square-foot house. That's far more than any homeowner could recoup in discounted insurance premiums.

The code change, which will go before the regional planning board in two months for a recommendation to the County Commission, appears to be nothing more than an expansion of bureaucratic power that will do little to actually save lives.

Besides, don't Clark County taxpayers already foot the bill for the best-paid Fire Department in America? We're not laying off firefighters in droves and increasing response times. Entire neighborhoods are not burning to the ground. This is a solution in search of a problem.

If a sprinkler system is important to a homebuyer, he's free to install one himself. For the vast majority of homeowners, smoke alarms and adequate insurance coverage are enough protection against the chance of fire.

Home builders, like all businesses, need regulatory relief in this economy. The county's latest cost-imposing idea is all wet.