Will Austin really be the next single-staircase city?

City staff is pushing back on a proposal to allow single stairways for multifamily buildings.

City Council unanimously approved a resolution to amend the code and allow multifamily projects up to six stories to have a single staircase in May. The change is intended to support the development of smaller-scale complexes with family-sized apartments and has been adopted by cities like Seattle and New York City in an attempt to facilitate such building types.

However, a June 26 memo from Development Services Director José Roig, Austin Fire Chief Joel Baker and EMS Chief Robert Luckritz recommends the city maintain its current standards as set by the International Building Code.

The memo says that technical code and first responder experts “reviewed Austin’s single stairway amendment and found significant potential safety risks to occupants and first responders were we to amend the Code.”

“As a result, staff recommends that the City of Austin continue to allow the model national codes to set minimum standards for construction in Austin, thereby maintaining two means of egress for multifamily developments,” it continues.

The memo goes on to explain that a single staircase poses an escape hazard in an emergency and that a national proposal to allow such buildings was rejected by the International Code Council Technical Committee based on the danger it would pose to occupants and first responders. Austin is specifically hindered by a lack of ladder trucks – there are only 13 in the area, which includes two near Williamson County and one on the Hays County border – and a lack of water infrastructure in residential areas. 

Additionally, the memo states that, in terms of evacuation, two exits are recommended by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in an active shooter situation and that in an emergency, the city’s Fire Department designates one stairwell for evacuation and one for firefighting operations.

Despite testimony at City Council from architects and builders in favor of the change, which advocates say will make building smaller complexes with larger apartments much easier, the memo also argues that the new regulations could result in higher construction costs to build safer elevators and staircases. 

“Austin is not facing the same population density challenges as Seattle and New York. This allows Austin time to seek solutions for more middle-scale density with fewer life safety implications,” the memo reads. 

The feedback from the city’s public safety departments is just part of a process that will ultimately have the changes before City Council once again for adoption into the code or rejection. Council Member Chito Vela, who sponsored the resolution, responded about the memo to the Austin Monitor via email.

“I appreciate the safety concerns staff outlines in its memo about allowing single stair apartment buildings and look forward to discussing and addressing them,” Vela wrote. “As staff mentions, multiple US cities safely and successfully allow single stair construction with appropriate safeguards for fire protection and accessibility.”

The city’s Planning Commission is slated to discuss the potential code change at its July 9 meeting.

Photo by Virtual-Pano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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