Some states and cities revisiting single stair rule in order to build apartments on small lots

If you’ve ever wondered why neighborhoods in Phoenix don’t look like New York City or somewhere in Europe, with brownstones lining the streets or smallish apartment buildings built close together, some advocates point to a simple building code change that is at the root. It’s called single stair reform.

Nicole Rodriguez is executive director of the nonprofit Valley Urban Action Alliance and president of the Urban Phoenix Project. She says there’s an outdated requirement that apartment buildings of a certain size have two staircases for fire evacuations.

Now, more cities and states are getting rid of that requirement and are advancing single stair reform. They say it’s an important step in improving housing supply and affordability — and it’s actually safer.

The Show spoke with Rodriguez more about it.

Full conversation

NICOLE RODRIGUEZ: Almost everywhere in the U.S. you are required to do dual stairs, two stairs for buildings over three stories.

LAUREN GILGER: Yeah.

NICOLE RODRIGUEZ: Which makes it really challenging to build apartments on small lots. And often times that leaves us with either single-family homes only in urban areas or even the big mega-blocks. And these laws were written way before, you know, fire sprinklers or modern fire safety measures and materials. So it’s outdated, and other states and cities are revisiting it now.

LAUREN GILGER: Right. It seems to be picking up steam in other places. Austin, you know, Nashville, Dallas, all cities that have kind of put in reforms like this in recent years. And then you’ve got obviously like big cities like New York and Chicago where there are a lot of buildings like this.

NICOLE RODRIGUEZ: Seattle and New York City have been doing the single-stair buildings for a number of years, and it’s conceivable to do it up to like six stories in the U.S. It’s it’s very practical to do that. Some cities have that recently passed laws have just gone up to like five stories.

But I mean, try to like visualize what a single-stair apartment building could look like, and we’re talking about small. A lot of people think of, you know, the Netherlands, when they think of those tall skinny quaint-looking buildings with a beautiful different colors that makes it easier to build on infill lots, which we have a lot of vacant lots here in Phoenix.

LAUREN GILGER: Right. Right. So that would be the idea, to allow developers, builders, smaller ones often, to build these smaller buildings and fill in some of these lots that are empty in the center of the city where people want to be, and it would be cheaper. Is that the idea?

NICOLE RODRIGUEZ: Yes. So a big component of this is it’s it’s cheaper to build. To build two stairs, you need a lot more land. But fire escape staircases are extremely expensive to build, right? Um, but what’s kind of interesting too about all this is that single stairs are comparably more safe. With the the mega-block uh apartments that have the dual stairs, you have people that are very far from this fire exits.

And with the the single-stair, you’re more or less 20 feet, your front door’s more or less a max of 20 feet from that stairwell to exit. Um, in another aspect too is actually apartments are safer than single-family homes. Apartments have to have sprinklers and they have to have at least I know for Phoenix, fire-rated doors. And, you know, we even see some cities doing the self-closing doors. And it really contains any kind of breakout within a unit if that were to occur.

LAUREN GILGER: But it is, there’s pushback here from some fire departments. Like the International Association of Fire Fighters says, you know, it’s not a good idea. One staircase in means one way in, one way out for firefighters if they need to get into a building. I mean, you’re saying if these laws are written in the right way, all of those things are mitigated.

NICOLE RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. And I think part of the issues in the conversations in the past with these other states and cities that were passing or trying to pass these code changes, cause it’s building code changes, not zoning reform, um, is potentially they just didn’t have all the right folks at the table when they’re starting these conversations. And, um, you have to have fire officials there. They are a key player in the these discussions and and you have your building safety code people, too, that just focus on fire safety building code.

So ensuring that you have all these subject matter experts and fire personnel who have the lived experience, I think they’re going to make progress in coming out with a solution that it’s it’s going to be feasible in the end, and also we’re going to be looking at cheaper overall to build and more walkable, more community focused. I think everyone will actually learn along the way that it’s safer for us to start looking at single-stair buildings.

LAUREN GILGER: Another pushback I think you see from this is just skepticism from folks in other cities that developers will pass their savings along to consumers, right? Like the effort here is to create more affordable housing, but I mean is there anything here that would stop developers from saving some money in the design and then just making a bigger profit?

NICOLE RODRIGUEZ: So, one of the things that makes it so challenging to build on these small infill lots, right, those vacant lots that no one likes to see, that takes a lot of work to even get a community garden on if you’re lucky enough to get that, um the the problem is the cost.

So let’s say um you do have enough space to do dual staircase in there, but the cost is still exponentially higher than a single-stair building. And then we start seeing, you know, the financing that goes into it. It becomes more and more out of reach of the smaller builders. ... It’s nice to think that we could potentially have builders from our own community, our own neighbors being able to build on infill lots rather than out of state or even out of country people coming in and building what often times we see are the big mega-block apartments.

But you still have to follow on any apartment those basic modern fire safety measures, right, you don’t in single-family homes.

LAUREN GILGER: So if those developers, those smaller builders, build these single-stair buildings and and, you know, can do it in a cheaper and easier way, is there anything that would require them to pass those savings along to renters?

NICOLE RODRIGUEZ: A good business model is, of course, you’re going to have to recoup your cost, um, but when we are building more and more and it becomes easier to build, the more options that you and I have to buy or rent, the cost of rent or the cost to buy goes down.

LAUREN GILGER: So it’s a piece of a bigger pie.

NICOLE RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, exactly.

LAUREN GILGER: Let me ask you lastly about efforts to implement reform like this here in Arizona. I know this has not been part of big efforts at the state Legislature. You work on the municipal level. Are you talking to cities hoping you can get something like this implemented?

NICOLE RODRIGUEZ: Yeah. So with the different cities, they all have a different way of changing building code, so um some are going to be a little more fluid and easier to revise building code, um, than others. And there’s cities like, let’s say, Tempe. Tempe really cannot build out anymore. Tempe’s going to have to start looking to build up. So I think Tempe is going to be one of those cities that might be the leader on this particular topic.

And once again, like single-stair solutions, sing- single-stair building solutions is just one of those many things that we could be doing to make it easier, the cost to build more affordable, right? But what makes it so palatable is that it also creates more walkable communities, and a lot of folks want walkable communities.

Folks are traveling to Europe quite a bit to visit places that look very much like what I’m trying to describe to you right now with these single-stair, more smaller quaint apartment buildings. Um, and we see those communities as being very walkable, and you have more opportunities to go out and do things closer to you.

LAUREN GILGER: That’s really interesting. If you wonder why our streets don’t look like Europe or New York, this is one of the reasons. OK. Nicole Rodriguez, executive director of Valley Urban Action Alliance, as well as president of the Urban Phoenix Project, joining us. Nicole, thank you very much for coming in. I appreciate it.

NICOLE RODRIGUEZ: Thank you, too.