‘Holding us back’: Mass. weighs ending old fire safety rule to build more housing
Changes could be coming to longstanding Massachusetts building codes that advocates say would make it much easier to build multifamily housing.
Gov. Maura Healey signed an executive order Thursday establishing an advisory group to explore allowing new residential buildings with a single staircase, which is banned for those taller than three stories under the current building code. The change would make it much cheaper to build mid-sized multifamily projects, encouraging increased production.
"We're all about making it easier to build more housing across our state to drive down costs for everyone," Healey said in a statement. "While the double stair requirement plays an important role in ensuring safety, it's also holding us back from the type of housing construction we need to meet demand. This group will include the best subject matter experts and fire safety officials to explore how we can make it easier to build housing by allowing single stair construction, while continuing to protect our residents and first responders."
The current version of the building code, adopted in 2017, requires buildings with more than three stories to have two staircases. Single-stair buildings, typically have one entry point and a central lobby and can have a maximum of four units per floor, for a total maximum of 12 units per building.
However, few 12-unit buildings are built because construction and land costs render them financially infeasible. Similarly, because buildings with two staircases are more expensive to construct, developers must design them to be very large with many units in order to make them financially feasible.
Single-stair construction was first outlawed in Boston in the early 1900s as a way to improve fire safety, giving building occupants multiple escape routes in case of an emergency. However, a 2024 report found that increasing the exemption from three to six stories in a single-stair building would not negatively affect fire safety while allowing the construction of up to 130,000 new homes in Greater Boston alone.
Last year, a state commission tasked with determining ways to revise state regulations to allow more housing production also included single-stair buildings in its final recommendations .
Especially in the Boston area, where developable land is scarce, most available parcels of land cannot fit a large, multi-staircase building — but many would easily be able to fit a smaller one, according to the 2024 report, published by Boston Indicators.
Most fire ladder trucks can reach up to six stories, so allowing developers to increase the size of a building vertically from three to six stories would potentially double the number of homes that could be built on a lot.
The researchers found that technological developments since the building code was first implemented mean multiple staircases are no longer necessary for safety — and single-stair buildings may even be safer, because the occupants of each unit would have less distance to travel to reach the stairs and there would be fewer people using them.
The United States is one of just a few countries in the world to limit single-stair buildings to three stories, along with South Africa, Uganda and Saudi Arabia, according to the report. At the same time, the U.S. is tied for the highest fire death rate among high-income countries.
Several other states are considering or have changed their building codes to allow single-stair construction up to six stories, including Tennessee, Montana and Connecticut. They have been allowed for decades in cities like New York City and Seattle.
The new advisory group will include fire services, building officials, architectural experts, accessibility advocates and public safety professionals. They are expected to evaluate whether single-stair buildings can be safely permitted and eventually recommend updates to the State Building Code.
"Every safe, evidence-based strategy to build more homes is needed to meet the housing demands we're facing, and single-stair multifamily residential buildings could offer us a new way to increase our housing supply," said Housing and Livable Communities Secretary Ed Augustus.
Other fire safety requirements, such as sprinklers, were not mentioned in the order and would likely remain the same under the changes.
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