Fort Collins, CO Building Safety: Door Locking Hardware (2026)

City Code Sec. 4, Touch-free toilet facilities, which applies to restrooms serving occupancies associated with food preparation or food service to the public, meaning restaurants, bars, and similar establishments in Fort Collins. The provision requires automatic touch-free water control valves on lavatories, automatic touch-free paper towel dispensers, and exit doors from the toilet facility that allow a person to leave without touching any door hardware by hand, specifically naming knobs, levers, sliding bolts, latches, and similar devices. The rule targets hands-free exiting for hygiene reasons in food-service restrooms, a public health measure layered onto the standard building code egress requirements.

The code carves out one exception: toilet facilities designed for single-occupant use may still be equipped with exit door locking hardware to afford privacy, and those doors may swing either inward or outward, unlike the touch-free rule that applies to multi-user facilities where locking hardware on the exit itself is prohibited. 4 within Chapter 29 Plumbing Systems of the amended IBC, it is checked alongside plumbing fixture counts and other restroom design elements during plan review, not as a separate program.