A new Los Angeles City Council proposal envisions a future in which renters live in buildings with less room for stairs and more room for apartments.
The motion introduced Wednesday could lead to eliminating parts of the local building code that currently require mid-sized apartment buildings to include more than one staircase.
Councilmember Nithya Raman, chair of the council’s Housing Committee and a co-author of the new motion, said this seemingly small change has potential to greatly increase the amount and variety of apartments getting built in a city starved for affordable housing options.
“I see this as part of a larger effort for me to push the city to do more to make it easier to build housing,” Raman told LAist.
She said single-staircase blueprints could give developers more physical space for each new apartment. Only 14% of the city’s existing rental housing units have three bedrooms or more, leaving young parents who can’t afford L.A.’s single-family houses with few family-sized options.
“A big part of why people end up leaving Los Angeles right now is because their family grows and they’re unable to find a home at their price point,” Raman said. “If we had more rental stock that had two or three bedrooms rather than just one bedroom, I think that could also encourage people to stay in Los Angeles. I’d really like to make that possible.”
Why you’re likely to hear more about single-staircase policy
Calls for single-staircase reform have been percolating in a handful of cities across the country in recent years. Local governments in San Francisco and Austin, Texas are weighing changes to their building codes that could permit single-staircase designs.
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