Mayor Daniel Lurie on Friday quote-tweeted an article announcing an obscure policy change that would supposedly spark housing construction.
This “new policy,” he wrote in a celebratory post, would modify the requirement for developers to build second staircases in apartment buildings, allowing projects up to six stories to have just one. Housing advocates say additional staircases add unnecessary costs and limit the number of units developers can fit on cramped lots.
There was one problem: The city has not actually issued any new rule.
The Department of Building Inspection will present a draft of new guidelines to a panel of building industry professionals Wednesday. Those guidelines (opens in new tab) propose letting developers of four- to six-story apartment buildings request on a case-by-case basis to build with one interior staircase — as long as they add a second exit. A fire escape would suffice for four-story buildings, but for those of five and six stories, developers must build an exterior stairway that reaches the roof.
YIMBYs say that’s thin gruel.
The city’s building code wouldn’t change, which they argue is necessary for any reform to have a meaningful effect on development. DBI’s committee may take a nonbinding vote or make revisions to those recommendations — but the process for how inspectors sign off on projects does not change.
Allowing single-stair buildings outright would require an ordinance passed by the Board of Supervisors. No such policy has been proposed.
Housing advocates and building experts decried Friday’s announcement as hollow. “This is the case of doing nothing and trying to get a headline out of it,” architect Mark Hogan wrote on X (opens in new tab).
Corey Smith, executive director of Housing Action Coalition, tweeted (opens in new tab) in response that “any framing that this is single stair reform in SF is factually inaccurate.”
Aside from the Chronicle article (opens in new tab), which reported that the mayor and DBI “issued a set of new rules” last week, neither office released any official statement to accompany or address Lurie’s tweet.
A spokesperson for the mayor said he stands by his announcement, which stated that San Francisco for years has made it easier to block housing than to build it. One of several fixes involves fixing the “broken permitting system.”
Emilio Garcia-Ruiz, editor-in-chief of the Chronicle, said the paper stood by its reporting in response to The Standard’s questions about the story’s phrasing that day.
A spokesperson for DBI said an information sheet containing the proposed changes was posted to the department’s website on Thursday, a day before the Chronicle’s story was published.
The San Francisco Fire Department — which has been resistant to lowering safety standards — has privately pushed back against a single-stair ordinance, sources familiar with those discussions say.
“We are encouraged by the inclusion of additional safety measures and believe this approach can benefit all parties while keeping public safety at the forefront,” said a Fire Department spokesperson.
Any proposed apartment building currently requires two staircases. | Source: Sean Fan/The Standard
Single-stair reform has long been a holy-grail issue for YIMBYs seeking to spur housing development. In a 2024 essay (opens in new tab), Hogan called for San Francisco to change its building code so that developers could fit more units onto small lots. Hogan argued that the United States is an outlier in its guidelines that all mid-rise apartment buildings should have two staircases, and many other countries allow buildings with only one.
The logic for staircase reform is that modern sprinklers and fire-resistant construction methods have made it safe for residents to live in a building with one stairway. Carving out space for a second staircase and connecting corridor swallows up areas that could otherwise be used for housing.
Other U.S. cities have come around. Seattle, New York City, and Culver City allow single-stair buildings up to six stories.
Complicating the matter, Gov. Gavin Newsom last year signed AB 130, which freezes residential building codes until 2031, meaning cities cannot simply rewrite their rules to allow single-stair buildings. Culver City passed its reform (opens in new tab) a day before that law went into effect.
Lurie’s announcement was not the first time single-staircase reform has been seriously considered. After Hogan published his essay, former Supervisor Aaron Peskin called on the city (opens in new tab) to figure out how it could build single-stair buildings that are safe for residents.
“It went over like a lead balloon,” Peskin said.
A working group composed of representatives from the Fire Department, Planning Department, Mayor Breed’s office, and DBI met several times, according to a report. The group was briefly reconvened this year, sources say.
Assemblymember Alex Lee, who represents parts of San Jose and Milpitas, introduced a bill (opens in new tab) in February that would have codified single-staircase in the building code at the state level.
Lee, who sponsored AB 2252 alongside Assemblymember Buffy Wicks and Sen. Scott Wiener, said he proposed the bill to pave the way for more mid-rise construction in urban areas. “Reforming the building code, while maintaining rigorous fire safety standards, is essential to unlocking previously undevelopable properties,” he said. Lee’s bill stalled in committee in April.
Smith said he hopes city leaders continue pushing beyond last week’s announcement.
“We want the city to pursue a single-stair case ordinance to get Family Zoning projects built,” the Housing Action Coalition chief said.
Correction: A previous version of this story misstated the actions taken by the single-staircase reform working group