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The City Council this week gave the Holmstad retirement complex permission to use non-fire-retardant materials in its planned 136,000-square-foot addition, on the condition sprinklers are installed and fire alarms upgraded.

Workers will use wood and drywall instead of masonry to build the proposed Town Center, which will include a dining room, cafe, two swimming pools, an underground parking garage and independent-living apartments.

Aldermen signed off Monday on zoning variances allowing the change at the recommendation of Building Department staff and the Plan Commission, said Ald. Dave Brown (7th).

Construction on the $33 million project is set to begin this fall and end in the spring of 2008.