The Norwood Building Code Board of Appeal issued a decisive ruling on the evening of July 10, 1975, unanimously rejecting a formal request by George Whitten to waive a mandatory firewall requirement at his commercial warehouse on Oceana Drive.
The sprawling building represents one of two major warehouse facilities owned by Whitten within the industrial University Avenue development zone. At the time of the hearing, the facility housed two distinct commercial tenants: United Liquors and the Olympic Adhesives Company.
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Under the provisions of the town’s zoning parameters, the adhesives corporation is explicitly categorized as a manufacturing facility, whereas the liquor distribution company leases its designated sector purely for storage operations. Because the structure housed a “mixed occupancy,” Town Building Inspector John E. Grover ruled that the adjacent quarters of the two businesses must be physically separated by a formal three-hour rated firewall. A basic corrugated metal partition was the only structure dividing the two commercial spaces at the time. Whitten and his project engineer, William Merry, challenged Grover’s interpretation of the state building rules, asserting that neither firm would require a three-hour firewall if they operated as the sole occupant of the property, and therefore the requirement should not apply to the shared layout. They also presented data showing that Olympic Adhesives utilized water-based glues that were officially categorized as a low-hazard risk by their corporate insurance provider.
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However, both Inspector Grover and the building board counter-argued that under current state structural laws, any active manufacturing enterprise is strictly required to feature a three-hour rated firewall boundary, regardless of whether its product output is technically classified as a low, moderate, or high hazard. Grover further revealed that although Olympic Adhesives had successfully secured a specialized manufacturing permit for a limited industrial zone from the zoning board, the firm had been blocked from receiving a final occupancy permit due to the unresolved firewall dispute. Board members John Reardon, Ernest Higgins, and Larry Harrold voted unanimously to deny the waiver. Because the state building code had recently been updated to legally supersede all municipal regulations, the board’s local decision was formatted to be sent directly to the state Building Code Commission for final administrative approval.
Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger
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