Austin City Council members will consider an amendment to city code today that would allow apartment buildings with a single staircase to be constructed in town.
The benefit to such apartment complexes, according to Austin City Council member José “Chito” Vela, is that they could be built on smaller lots, offer up more windows and better light, and include more family sized units. Vela has been leading the charge on single-stair apartments since last year.
“Hopefully, we can put these more in Central Austin, along our transit corridors where our parks and our amenities and all that kind of stuff (is). So, we’re trying to find ways to kind of bring affordable housing,” Vela told City Cast Austin.
Austin currently requires two stairways and a hallway to connect the stairs in apartment buildings with more than three stories, leading to bigger buildings.
“There's a building bloat going on in multi-homes, where the buildings have been growing bigger and bigger and bigger, but the units themselves have been getting smaller and smaller and smaller,” Chris Gannon, a Shams Gannon Architecture architect who sits on the city’s building and fire board of appeals, told Austin Business Journal.
The amendment Austin City Council will review during today’s meeting limits buildings with a single staircase to no more than five stories tall with just four units per floor. Vela said safety features to protect the staircase, like additional sprinkler requirements, are also included in the amendment.
“They’re smaller footprints, so they require less land and you can stick ‘em where there was a corner store. That lot might be just big enough to put a little apartment building,” Vela said.
Vela has pointed to cities like New York City, Seattle, and Honolulu as examples where there are single-stair apartment buildings, saying Austin could be part of a movement.
“I’m really excited about it,” Vela said.
🏗️ What do y’all think? Is this a good idea for Austin?
