Will County Moves to Repeal Obsolete 1972 Fire Hydrant Ordinance

Article Summary: An ordinance from 1972 regulating the placement and specifications of fire hydrants in Will County is set to be repealed after the Ad-Hoc Ordinance Review Committee approved its removal from the county code. County officials explained that the authority for such regulations now rests with local fire districts, making the decades-old county ordinance obsolete and unenforceable.

Will County Ordinance Review Key Points:

• The committee approved the full repeal of Chapter 52: Water Supply for Fire Equipment.

• Assistant State’s Attorney Philip Mock explained the county no longer has the statutory authority to regulate fire hydrants.

• The regulatory power for fire hydrants was transferred to local fire districts by state law changes.

JOLIET, IL – An obscure Will County ordinance regulating fire hydrants that has been on the books since 1972 will be repealed after the county’s Ad-Hoc Ordinance Review Committee voted to scrap it on Tuesday.

The ordinance, Chapter 52 of the county code, outlined minimum standards for water supply, water main sizes, and fire hydrant specifications. However, according to Assistant State’s Attorney Philip Mock, the county no longer has the legal authority to enforce it.

“We no longer even have a statutory authority to regulate this. It’s been given to a different unit of government,” Mock told the committee. He explained that after the ordinance was passed, state law changed to give local fire districts the sole power to approve and regulate fire hydrants in their jurisdictions.

Mock said that in preparing the ordinance for review, he discovered that no one in the county’s Land Use or Health Departments was aware of the ordinance’s existence. After contacting a local fire district, its officials confirmed that the state now tasks them with that responsibility.

“We never repealed it when the law changed,” Mock said.

The committee unanimously approved a resolution to repeal the chapter in its entirety, moving the measure forward to the Executive Committee for final consideration.