State fire marshal misses deadline for apartment building safety report, angering housing advocates

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In the fall of 2023, the California Legislature tasked the state’s fire safety regulators with writing a report that some housing affordability advocates say could make it easier to build bigger, airier and better-lit apartment buildings in California’s housing-strapped cities.The Office of the State Fire Marshal was given until Jan.1 to come up with a report on single-stair apartment buildings — a type of midsized multifamily development legal in much of the world, but effectively banned across most of North America.More than a month later, single-stair advocates are still waiting on that report — though a draft version obtained by CalMatters hints that the office may be considering a modest change to the state building code.“They were given a deadline,” said Stephen Smith, founder of the Center for Building in North America, which advocates for cost-reducing changes to building regulations.That safety-minded code is meant to provide residents with multiple escape routes in a fire.

But it has also become a focal point of criticism among a growing number of housing advocates, architects and urbanists, who say it raises the costs of multifamily construction, limits where apartments can be built, pushes developers toward darkened studios and away from family-sized apartments and provides limited health and safety benefits.“I know there’s been a real desire among politicians in California to change the state’s image as a slow-moving state, but in this case I don’t see it,” said Smith, who was also a member of the working group of fire service professionals, building-code experts and housing advocates tasked with writing the first draft of the report for the state fire marshal.The group’s last meeting was Nov.

4.“This report is still under review and we will publish the report as soon as it is approved for publication,” said Wes Maxey, Cal Fire’s assist...