The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday postponed a vote on a proposal that would allow construction of single-stairway apartment buildings up to six stories tall.<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Nithya Raman asked for the draft ordinance to be sent back to the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, saying the measure in its current form does not reflect the goals of the motion she co-authored with Councilmembers Bob Blumenfield and Katy Yaroslavsky.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis motion is part of a broader set of legislation Councilmember Raman has put forward to try and update our building and zoning codes to adapt to modern day realities,\u201d according to a statement from Raman\u2019s office. \u201cThis is all part of an effort to push us to build more housing in L.A. and, in particular, build the type of housing we need, like units that can accommodate families.\u201d<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, the three council members introduced a motion calling for more affordable family-sized apartments.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne 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,\u201d the motion reads.<\/p>\n
Building codes require apartment buildings to have double stairwells and so-called \u201cdual-loaded\u201d hallways. Council members argued those requirements have become a hindrance to creating larger units with more natural light, ventilation and enhanced green space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe double staircase requirement is one of those outdated requirements which has limited the kinds of buildings which can be built here in L.A. A well designed single staircase policy can help us build more units on smaller lots, and would allow for 2 and 3 bedroom units rather than just studios, all while maintaining safety,\u201d the statement from Raman\u2019s office continued.<\/p>\n
In August, the City Council instructed the Department of Building and Safety and attorneys to draft the ordinance. Councilwoman Traci Park criticized the proposed policy over safety concerns related to limiting escape routes to just one stairwell.<\/p>\n
Park, who represents the fire-recovering community of Pacific Palisades, had urged her colleagues to hold off on the single-stairway policy until they received further guidance from fire officials.<\/p>\n
Other cities such as New York and Seattle allow the construction of single-stairwell buildings over three stories.<\/p>\n
The International Association of Fire Fighters criticized the city\u2019s efforts and other proponents of such proposals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe International Association of Fire Fighters is concerned these efforts are short-sighted and dangerous to the public and responding fire fighters. It is imperative that the adverse consequences of a decrease in life-safety design are fully considered by decision makers,\u201d IAFF said in a previous statement. \u201cWhile we understand and support the urgent need for additional affordable housing, the IAFF also believes that all housing must be safe housing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles City Council Tuesday postponed a vote on a proposal that would allow construction of single-stairway…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":232455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[9097,1582,276,2451,6283,26470,2961,224,5337,6514,125220,13235],"class_list":{"0":"post-232454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-apartment","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-city","12":"tag-council","13":"tag-delays","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-los-angeles","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-proposal","18":"tag-single-stairway","19":"tag-vote"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115216586028909721","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/232455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}