Housing advocates are still waiting for a state-commissioned report on the stairs

from Ben ChristopherCalMatters

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In the fall of 2023, the California Legislature tasked the state’s fire safety regulators with writing a report that some housing affordability advocates say could facilitate the construction of larger, airier and better-lit apartment buildings in California’s housing backlog.

The Office of the State Fire Marshal was given until January 1, 2026 to issue a report on single-stair apartment buildings, a type of mid-rise multifamily construction legal in much of the world but effectively banned in most of North America.

More than a month later, proponents of a staircase are still waiting for that report — although a draft obtained by CalMatters hints that the office may be considering a modest change to the state building code.

“They were given a deadline,” said Steven Smith, founder of the North American Construction Center, which advocates for cost-cutting changes to building regulations.

This safety code is intended to provide residents with multiple evacuation routes in the event of a fire. But it has also become a focal point of criticism among a growing number of housing advocates, architects and urban planners who say it raises the cost of multifamily construction, limits where apartments can be built, pushes developers toward darkened studios and away from family apartments and provides limited health and safety benefits.

“I know there was a real desire among politicians in California changing the image of the state as a slow-growing state, but in this case I don’t see it,” said Smith, who was also a member of the task force of fire service professionals, building code experts and housing advocates tasked with writing the first draft of the state fire marshal’s report. the last meeting of the group it was on the 4th of November.

“This report is still under review and we will publish it as soon as it is approved for publication,” Wes Maxey, CAL FIRE’s deputy legislative director, said in an email. He did not say when the report is expected to be released or what the holdup is about.

The state Legislature regularly commissions research reports of this kind to various corners of the state bureaucracy — and, as CalMatters previously reportedthe state bureaucracy regularly blows its deadlines.

But the single-staircase analysis has attracted significant interest outside of Sacramento.

California’s current rules (with the one, recent except for Culver City) require residential buildings taller than three stories to have at least two staircases connected by a corridor.

The Legislature was clearly interested in raising this height limit when it ordered the report in the first place.

“Many European countries allow buildings with single staircases and have better fire safety records than the United States,” said Assemblyman Alex Lee, D-Milpitas, urging a yes vote. his account in the summer of 2023. “I believe the fire marshal’s conduct of the study will start the conversation about using existing fire and emergency response technologies and strategies to maximize housing projects.”

Local firefighters, fire chiefs and fire unions have generally opposed easing building code stair requirements wherever they have been proposed.

The final report is likely to disappoint either those organized fire services, a politically influential constituency, or the “Yes in the Backyard” advocates who are find an ally in Gov. Gavin Newsom.

A draft of the report circulated to stakeholders in late October included a half-hearted endorsement of a change to the state building code. If the state fire marshal recommends a new policy, the bill states, the change should only be from a maximum of three stories to four. Any new four-story structures with a single staircase must also be limited in size and comply with a number of other added safety-oriented restrictions, the report added.

Culver City, west of downtown Los Angeles, adopted a one-stairway ordinance last year to eliminate the requirement for a second staircase in some residential buildings up to six stories. Six stories is also the limit in the four other jurisdictions that exceed three: New York, Seattle, Honolulu and Portland, Oregon.

The draft report, which is not final, also went out of its way to highlight the “nearly unanimous feedback from California fire departments that opposes allowing the construction of a single exit stairway … more than 3 stories.”

When finalized and published, the report will not have the force of law. But if state lawmakers choose to take up the issue in the future, his final recommendations will likely carry weight among undecided lawmakers.

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.