San Diego is mulling a change to its building code that supporters say would spur more family-sized apartments with better natural lighting and ventilation.
The change has to do with the longstanding requirement in most of the United States that buildings above three stories contain at least two stairwells. The rule was adopted in the early 20th century as cities grappled with fire safety, though critics say the advent of sprinkler systems and other fire suppression technologies has made the rule obsolete.
In July, City Councilmember Kent Lee invited supporters of "single-stair reform" — a term that describes efforts to allow buildings of up to six stories with a single-staircase — to give a presentation to the council's Land Use and Housing Committee. Last month he convinced city staffers to add single-stair reform to the city's legislative platform, a list of policies the city's lobbyists can advocate for in Sacramento.
The legislative platform was approved by a council committee last month and awaits a vote from the full City Council.
Lee said single-stair reform would allow architects more flexibility and creativity to deliver a wider variety of housing options. Many dual-staircase buildings feature apartments with only one side that opens to the outdoors, which requires more energy-intensive lighting and ventilation and is less conducive to units with multiple bedrooms.
"We have a lot of microunits, studios, one-bedrooms, but to get a two- or three-bedroom unit within a building is actually much more challenging when you have limited ways in which you can configure those buildings," Lee said. "There's a great need still for small units. All the time we've got young professionals (and) seniors on a fixed income who are fine with the constraint of that. But we have families that don't really have options as much anymore, and they can't all compete for the same type of housing."
Last year the state legislature passed a law that directs the Office of the State Fire Marshal to produce a study on single-stair reform and present it to lawmakers by January 2026. But the law does not mandate any changes to the state building code.
Given the uncertainty at the state level, Lee said he is also interested in pursuing local building code amendments to allow taller single-stair buildings. Seattle adopted such amendments in 1977, while Honolulu did so in 2012. This year, single-stair reform has been discussed in San Francisco and Austin.
Lee said he has had "fruitful conversations" with local officials who oversee the building code and that he believes single-stair reform in San Diego is possible.
"They want to discuss the challenges that they believe would come up in terms of fire safety, which we actually agree is important," Lee said. "These are the early parts of the conversation that we're having with folks, just trying to keep the door open."
