[HISTORY: Adopted by the Town Board of the
Town of Clifton Park 3-19-2007 by L.L. No. 2-2007. Amendments noted where applicable.]
This chapter shall be known as the "Emergency
Access Systems Local Law of the Town of Clifton Park."
The Town of Clifton Park has recognized the
importance of providing the Town's emergency services personnel rapid
entry into locked buildings in the case of an emergency. An emergency
access systems local law provides for the placement, in secured locked
containers, of keys to important areas within a structure and information
that may be vital and necessary to the health, safety, and welfare
of the occupants and responding emergency crews. The delay in gaining
entry can result in substantial property damage, delays in providing
lifesaving or other medical procedures, and increased danger for emergency
services personnel and the building occupants. To assist the emergency
service providers in gaining rapid entry, the Town of Clifton Park
adopts an emergency access systems local law.
As used in this chapter, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
A system or assembly of piping, valves, controls and sprinklers
which are designed and installed to comply with the National Fire
Protection Association (NFPA) standards, which utilize water, foam,
carbon dioxide or other gas to automatically react to and suppress
fire.
The Town of Clifton Park Bureau of Fire Prevention, 1 Town
Hall Plaza, Clifton Park, NY 12065.
Any device designed to alert police, fire or emergency medical
personnel to an emergency condition requiring attention and to which
police, fire or emergency medical service units are expected to respond.
This definition shall include alarms that terminate at an answering
service, as well as those that emit an audible or visible signal.
An alarm signal from an emergency alarm or notification by
an emergency alarm answering service which calls for an emergency
response from the Town of Clifton Park Building Department, Fire Services
or Emergency Medical Services where an emergency situation does not
in fact exist. The term "false alarm" shall not include an alarm signal
caused by testing or repairing of telephone or electrical lines or
equipment outside of the premises, providing the responding agencies
have been properly notified, an attempted illegal entry of which there
is visible evidence, violent conditions of nature or other extraordinary
circumstances not reasonably subject to control by the alarm user
or alarm supplier.
A high-security key vault of UL type approved by the Town
of Clifton Park Bureau of Fire Prevention, master keyed with a Medeco
Biaxial Level 7 or equivalent lock. Locks shall be keyed to the key
configuration provided by the Town of Clifton Park. Such vaults shall
have weatherproof gaskets, shall have a covered lock opening and shall
be highly resistant to drilling or vandalism.
A high-security steel plate vault, a minimum of 14 inches
high by 12 inches wide by two inches deep, constructed to the same
standards as the lock box, for the storage of documents.
The Supra Max lock box system is a high-security key vault
system, type approved by the Clifton Park Bureau of Fire Prevention
to provide secure access to residences within multiple-dwelling residential
structures. Lock box system can enable timely emergency access to
residential dwellings in cases where apartments, condominiums and
other multifamily residential units utilize securitized common access
areas.
[Added 2-13-2023 by L.L. No. 1-2023]
This chapter shall apply as follows:
A.
All buildings located within the Town of Clifton Park
having an automatic fire alarm system or a fire sprinkler system shall
be equipped with a key box or key box document vault.
B.
Any building having three or more false alarms within
a six-month period shall be equipped with a key box or key box document
vault.
One- and two-family dwellings and buildings
having a twenty-four hour, seven-day-per-week guard system shall be
specifically exempted from the requirements for a key box.
A.
The key box shall be installed on the front of the
building, near the main entry door approximately six feet above the
ground, unless approved for another location or at a higher or lower
level by the Bureau of Fire Prevention. That office must approve all
installations.
B.
Keys within the lock box shall be labeled for easy
identification either by the tenant name or indexed to a floor plan
of the building and shall be kept current.
C.
The key box shall contain the following:
(1)
Unless otherwise agreed upon with the local fire chief, key(s), fob(s) or magnetic cards for the exterior doors, the keys or magnetic cards for all the interior doors identified in Subsection C(2) to (5) below within the building, and a scaled floor plan of the building. Mixed occupancies and strip shopping center keys shall be provided only for occupancies where system control valves or fire alarm system panels exist.
(2)
Keys, fob(s) or magnet cards to locked mechanical
equipment and sprinkler control rooms.
(3)
Keys, fob(s) or magnet cards to locked electrical
rooms or panels or fire alarm control panels.
(4)
Keys, fob(s) or magnet cards to locked elevator rooms
or controls, and elevator keys, if required.
(5)
Keys, fob(s) or magnet cards to other areas as directed
by the Bureau of Fire Prevention.
(6)
Access codes to digital fire alarm keypads.
D.
The key box document vault shall contain those items
required to be stored in a key box and, unless the local fire chief
otherwise agrees, the following additional items:
(1)
A current list of facility personnel knowledgeable
about safety procedures of the materials on site, complete with the
telephone numbers for each person.
(2)
A current emergency and hazardous chemical inventory
form and binder containing the material safety data sheets (MSDS)
or, in the event that the volume of MSDS sheets is too great to keep
practically in the document vault, the location of on-site MSDS, and
those MSDS shall be readily available for use by emergency response
personnel.
(3)
A facility site plan showing the location of storage
and use of hazardous materials on site, and any other building floor
plan deemed necessary by the Bureau of Fire Prevention.
A.
All existing buildings covered by this chapter shall
comply within 18 months of the effective date of this chapter.
B.
All new construction covered by this chapter, including
buildings currently under construction as of the effective date, for
which no certificate of occupancy has been issued, shall comply immediately.
[Added 2-13-2023 by L.L. No. 1-2023]
Effective June 30, 2023, each multiple-dwelling residential
structure shall install a Supra Max lock box system, as approved by
the Bureau of Fire Prevention, to provide emergency medical services
with twenty-four-hour access to the common areas of each residential
structure to provide timely access to residential units within each
building, unless staffed on a twenty-four-hour, seven-day-per-week
basis for entry.
It shall be unlawful for any person to tamper,
meddle, deface, vandalize or interfere in any way with an emergency
access system.
A.
Any person who shall fail to comply with any of the
applicable provisions of this chapter, or any lawful order, notice,
directive, permit or certificate of the Bureau of Fire Prevention
or of the Town of Clifton Park Building Department made hereunder,
shall be punishable by a fine of up to $500. Each week that a violation
continues shall be deemed a separate offense.
B.
In lieu of said fine, any person charged with violating
the provisions of this chapter shall immediately install and maintain
a key box or key box document vault subject to approval of the Bureau
of Fire Prevention.
C.
Except as provided otherwise by law, such a violation
shall not be a crime, and the penalty or punishment imposed therefore
shall not be deemed for any purpose a penal or criminal penalty or
punishment.
D.
Any person found to have violated the tampering section
of this chapter, vandalized or disabled any key box, key box documents
or other equipment installed in compliance with this chapter shall
be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be
subject to a fine not to exceed $1,000 or a term of imprisonment not
to exceed 15 days, or both such fine and imprisonment.
The Bureau of Fire Prevention and the Town of
Clifton Park Building Department shall administer the provisions of
this chapter. The Bureau of Fire Prevention and the Town of Clifton
Park Building Department shall enforce the provisions.
