The ‘one-staircase’ report fails to convince California regulators

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Two months after the statutory deadline, California’s top fire safety regulator released a report Monday on whether and how the state should legalize mid-rise residential buildings with a single escape staircase.

If that doesn’t sound like compelling news, you may have missed the battle brewing between activists housing and fire professionals on “one-staircase reform” and whether America’s fire-safe building standards are hindering more affordable, higher-quality urban living.

he report published by the Office of the State Fire Marshal, takes a rather negative view of the “single ladder” but offers some policy recommendations to state legislators if they do pursue the idea.

At least one Democratic lawmaker seems determined to do just that with legislation aimed at rewriting the state’s building code.

In California, as in much of North America, three-story apartment buildings must have at least two staircases. This standard seeks to provide occupants with multiple exits in the event of a fire. However, the Yes in My Backyard coalition of activists, architects and urban planners argues that in much of the world single-stair apartment blocks are enough and that restrictive state regulations on stairs make it difficult and expensive to build modest-sized apartments on small urban lots.

Although modern safety measures such as automatic sprinkler systems, smoke detectors and self-closing doors reduce the risks associated with smoke and flames, they “do not fully replace the redundancy of two independent staircases”, which “is important to maintain safety in the event of unforeseen failures”, the report said.

If state lawmakers do decide to change the law, the report recommends that apartment buildings with one staircase be a maximum of four stories, instead of three, and be subject to additional safety standards. The state should not consider expanding construction to six stories — the current norm in New York, Seattle, Honolulu and Culver City – without a second investigation of the fire chief, the report concluded.

In its section on the financial implications, the report also assessed three mid-rise apartment projects and found that the second staircase accounted for between 7.5% and 12% of the total estimated construction costs.

Although the results reflect the content in a previous draft from the report obtained by CalMatters in February were disappointing to some advocates of more flexible ladder requirements.

“It was to be expected of this group,” Bubba Fish, a Culver City councilman who pushed for the one-stairway ordinance last year, said in a text message. He called the four-story ceiling “ridiculous,” noting that even with this slightly looser requirement, California’s building code would still run afoul of much of the world.

The report arrives more than two months late, missing the Jan. 1 deadline set by a 2023 bill authored by Milpitas Democratic Assemblyman Alex Lee.

Lee said his office was still reviewing the report’s findings Monday afternoon. In a written statement, however, he expressed enthusiasm for future changes to the building code.

“Stairway requirements can have a profound impact on what gets built and what doesn’t in our neighborhoods,” Lee said. “With the development of modern fire mitigation measures, it is critical that we reassess our building codes and unlock previously unbuildable properties to build more homes.”

Last month, Lee introduced account with the express intention of allowing “dwelling buildings of 4 or more storeys to have one entrance and exit via stairs”, but which so far does not include any further details.