
DATE: Wednesday, September 10, 1997         TAG: 9709100526

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B5   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY BILL REED, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   65 lines

NO-SPRINKLER INNS BEING TARGETED FOR CLOSURE TODAYOFFICIALS ARE FILING A BILL OF COMPLAINT IN CIRCUIT COURT; A HEARING IS SLATED FRIDAY.

City inspectors cited six Oceanfront hotels Tuesday for failure to meet a state fire sprinkler requirement deadline, although all but one had secured permits necessary to complete installation.

That one, the Princess Anne Inn at 25th Street and Atlantic Avenue, is to be razed and replaced with a new inn sometime this fall or winter, according to owner Dawson Sterling.

The other five hotels could be shut down as early as Friday, depending on a judge's decision.

Assistant City Attorney Vanessa Valldejuli said a bill of complaint and a motion for a preliminary injunction to close down the offending hotels and motels will be filed today in Circuit Court.

``We're going to ask the court to shut down the hotels until they comply with the law,'' Valldejuli said. ``What happens then will be up to the Circuit Court judge.''

A court hearing is scheduled for Friday.

Even properties that need only to tap into the city's water supply to complete a working sprinkler system will face closure.

``They've had seven and a half years to comply,'' she said.

A city fire marshal made an initial inspection Sept. 2 and issued notices of violation to nearly a dozen resort hotels and motels without working fire sprinkler systems.

They were deemed to be in breach of a 1990 state law requiring the fire safety devices to be installed in hotels of more than three stories.

At the end of the working day Tuesday, only six remained in violation, said city Fire Marshal Melven R. Mathias.

Valldejuli and Mathias, acting in accordance with a state building code, said businesses cited last week were given an additional seven days to comply with the law. At the end of that time - Tuesday - they were to be reinspected. Hotel owners still not in compliance Tuesday were issued a second notice with the understanding that the city attorney's office would file for court action the next day.

Beginning in 1990, the state required sprinklers in hotels more than three stories high. Hotels owners were given until March 1, 1997, to comply.

In January, it became apparent that 33 Virginia Beach hotels still did not have the systems and could not meet the deadline and city innkeepers turned to local lawmakers for help. Legislation spearheaded by state Sen. Kenneth W. Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, and Del. Glenn R. Croshaw, D-Virginia Beach, made its way through the General Assembly in February and on to the desk of Gov. George F. Allen, who signed it.

In the last three years, Virginia Beach fire officials repeatedly warned city innkeepers of the approaching deadline. Despite an extension, many owners of hotels lacking sprinklers had difficulty this spring and summer finding someone to install them. Local contractors specializing in the work found they had more than they could do in the time allotted. ILLUSTRATION: HOTELS FACING COURT ACTION

This is a list of resort hotels cited Tuesday for violating the

state sprinkler installation deadline. They all face court action:

Cerca Del Mar, 410 21st St.

Tropicana Hotel, 1719 Atlantic Ave.

Princess Anne Inn, 2501 Atlantic Ave.

Quality Inn, 2209 Atlantic Ave.

La Playa, 3201 Atlantic Ave.

Murphy's Emerald Island Inn, 1005 Pacific Ave.