A Senate committee voted unanimously to advance House Bill 175, housing construction amendments, to the Senate floor.

Representative Ward told the committee the bill would allow certain two-level quadplexes to be treated as residential buildings under the residential building code rather than as commercial structures subject to the commercial building code. "In the residential code, this is frequently designated by a sheetrock firewall of a certain, size or strength. And the commercial code... typically designated by putting in a sprinkler system," Ward said, adding that sprinklers are "significantly more expensive than the sheetrock" and that requiring sprinklers currently adds about $4,000 to the cost of each unit in this building type. Ward said he had worked with building officials and fire chiefs, and to his knowledge the change is not opposed by those officials.

Ross Ford of the Utah Home Builders Association testified in support, saying the measure "reduces the cost a little bit" and that the association believes it is safe based on prior construction practice. Committee members asked about safety and regulatory trade-offs; Senator Johnson said he planned to vote for the bill after noting no fire marshal opposition appeared during the hearing. The committee passed the bill with a favorable recommendation, and later voted to place it on the consent calendar.