Will LA Rise to Single-Stair Challenge?

Los Angeles may soon lower the cost of building apartments by allowing just one single stairway.

Council member Nithya Raman filed a motion to scrub requirements for double stairwells and dual-loaded corridors as early 20th century planning relics that prevent larger, family-sized apartments with more natural ventilation and light, Urbanize Los Angeles reported.

Los Angeles, like many cities, requires buildings higher than three stories to have two stairwells that can be used as fire exits.

The code requirement forces architects to design buildings around a double-loaded corridor, or long central hallways with apartments on either side, similar to a hotel.

The requirement also requires a hallway connecting the stairwells, resulting in dual-loaded corridor buildings that limit the size of apartments and allow windows only one side, preventing natural sunlight and cross-ventilation.

Such corridor design is inefficient and costly, opponents say. They claim a fire exit on a centrally located stair, as practiced in Europe, is a far more manageable and “economically defensible” design.

While common practice in European cities, Seattle has led the charge on single-stair reform in the U.S. Decades ago, the city tweaked its building code to allow for single-stair buildings up to six stories.

While New York followed suit, Raman pointed out that San Francisco and San Diego are also exploring single-stair rules after the passage of Assembly Bill 835, which directs the state fire marshal to develop standards for single-stair buildings by 2028.

Raman’s motion seeks numerous reports on a single-stair regulation from the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety, Fire Department and the Planning Department, as well as the Livable Cities Initiatives and the American Institute of Architects.

Likewise, the motion asks the Planning Department to report back on existing regulations in cities where single-stair buildings are allowed.

“While the requirement for two stairwells was originally adopted for fire safety, developments over the past two to three decades have made such requirements obsolete,” explains a landing page on the California YIMBY website. “Modern buildings across the U.S. and Europe have fire safety ratings that greatly exceed buildings with two staircases — even though they only have one staircase.”

— Dana Bartholomew