The building code rule that lets Seattle turn forgotten lots into housing

FastCompany: Fire officials and pro-density urbanists are often at loggerheads. This is especially evident in notoriously car-centric Los Angeles, where a firefighters’ union spent six figures opposing active mobility measures . The two camps can have different ideas of acceptable risks and priorities. But Matthew Flaherty, a firefighter who has lived in L.A. his whole life, bridges the two worlds. He’s an advocate for affordable, transit-friendly housing. His struggle to find an apartment in a walkable neighborhood led him to become a member of the Livable Communities Initiative, a nonprofit group advocating for more walkable neighborhoods in L.A.

“Cities shouldn’t be designed around the fire department,” Flaherty argues. “The fire department should be designed to deal with the infrastructure as it is. If you have a plumber design a house, the whole house is going to be a toilet.” One area of tension for fire safety advocates and density advocates is the requirement that most new apartment buildings have more than one stairway to facilitate resident evacuation and emergency responders’ access. In nearly all American cities, unlike in other parts of the world, developers are required to build double staircases into four- to six-story residential buildings.

(Though definitions vary, these are often considered mid-rise buildings.) This extra staircase takes up about 7% of floor space and drives up costs by 6% to 13%, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts . That extra cost could be enough to kill a project to build housing, says Stephen Smith, the executive director of the Center for Building in North America, a nonprofit organization focused on building code reform. Largely due to advocates like Smith and Flaherty, a movement is sweeping across North America, from Texas to Toronto, to relax restrictions on residential stairways. Over 30 locations have now considered such measures.

The possibility of relatively rapid changes to local building codes , outside the national three-year cycle, is raising urgent conversations about density and safety as cities grapple with housing shortages. Seattle’s influence Single-stair apartment buildings (sometimes called point access blocks) are sprinkled throughout Seattle. Rents can start at around $1,500/month for studio apartments in such buildings. Walking around these apartments is a good way to get a feel for Seattle’s distinct neighborhoods.

The unit styles vary as well, encompassing luxurious full-floor apartments, shareable student apartments, a striking cohousing complex, and nearly 30 apartments stacked next to another residential building. Some of these homes sit above ground-floor businesses. Seattle’s history with single stairways illustrates how attitudes toward housing have shifted over the decades. In the 1940s, amid suburbanization and rapid building, a multiple-stairway requirement was imposed on buildings of three stories and up.

In the 1970s, a housing crisis led Seattle to allow single stairways in apartment buildings, without a height limit, but with a floor limit of four units per floor. During a backlash to development in the 1980s, the city instituted a limit of six stories to such buildings. Further fire protection requirements followed. In the 2010s, momentum started to build outside of the few American cities, like Seattle, that allowed for single stairways. New York City’s single-stair permission is older: It was changed in 1938 in recognition of the need for more housing on small lots.

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The article discusses a significant policy change that could influence urban development strategies, making it highly relevant for brand strategy professionals focused on real estate and urban planning.