Susan Shelley: Why single-stair buildings don’t belong in risky California

Have you heard about “single-stair reform,” the idea sweeping the urbanist community of developers and housing-density proponents?

Culver City just became the first municipality in the state of California to change its building code with an ordinance that allows buildings up to six stories high to be constructed with just one staircase, departing from the two-staircase requirement for buildings taller than three floors.

“A multiunit residential building over three stories that has only one stairway and one exit is not safe,” wrote the California Professional Firefighters in a September 15 letter to Los Angeles City Council president Marqueece Harris-Dawson. CPF is the labor organization that represents “over 35,000 career firefighting and emergency medical service personnel statewide.”