The City Council Wednesday instructed the Department of Building and Safety and attorneys to develop an ordinance that would allow the construction of single-stairway six-story apartments in Los Angeles.
In a 13-1 vote, council members asked building and safety staff with aid from the City Attorney’s Office, Department of City Planning and Fire Department to amend the necessary codes to allow such developments. Additionally, city staff are expected to consult the California State Fire Marshal on the policy — a decision intended to address concerns about fire safety.
Earlier this year, council members Nithya Raman, Katy Yaroslavsky and Bob Blumenfield introduced a motion calling for more affordable family-sized apartments.
“One of the most significant, but long overlooked barriers to the creation of these units has been the failure to update state and local building codes to reflect modern safety improvements and building techniques,” the motion reads.
Building codes require apartment buildings to have double stairwells and so-called “dual-loaded” hallways. Council members argued those requirements have become a hindrance to creating larger units with more natural light, ventilation and enhanced green space.
Councilwoman Park, who was the lone “no” vote, argued single-stairway developments could be a risk for public safety. Park urged her colleagues to hold off on the proposal until they receive further guidance from fire officials.
“We already have a beleaguered, half-staffed and severely under-resourced fire department that’s already responding to 500,000 emergency calls a year without the resources they need,” Park said.
According to the councilwoman, the state fire marshal is expected to produce a report in January that may guide possible changes to building codes.
Blumenfield agreed with Park about getting more input from fire officials, but he emphasized the city is on a deadline that could prevent them from updating building codes for some time.
“Innovative ideas like this, if we don’t get them in now, they’re not going to be in for years, and that’s a lot of housing that could be at play,” Blumenfield said.
Raman and Blumenfield, who are members of the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee, noted the proposal was vetted by the Los Angeles Fire Department. LAFD officials raised “no objections,” Blumenfield said, adding that they “weren’t all that conversant.”
Raman emphasized that fire risk was an important issue, noting that her Fourth District includes very high-risk fire hazard zones.
“The biggest difference for safety is actually newer buildings tend to be much more fire-resistant than bigger buildings because of how good our new building stock is,” Raman said.
“It is being done in many other cities, and has maintained fire safety standards in all those cities, and as long as we are able to meet the deadline for being able to make these changes that can actually generate new kinds of housing that we haven’t seen here…,” she added.
Other cities such as New York and Seattle allow the construction of single-stairwell buildings over three stories.
Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado was absent during the vote.