Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Single‑stair schemes for taller apartments draw support and caution from fire officials
Summary
Sen. Murphy and supporters proposed allowing single‑stair egress for taller multifamily buildings under specified life‑safety requirements. Fire officials and municipal groups urged caution and recommended aligning state building and fire codes and staged implementation.
Senator Keith Murphy told the committee he sponsored SB 282 to reduce construction costs and allow more multifamily housing to be built on smaller lots by enabling single‑stair egress under strict safety conditions. “Stairways in multifamily dwellings have to be generally concrete, very expensive to build,” Murphy said, arguing that single‑stair provisions would lower costs and enable more compact, walkable development.
State Fire Marshal Sean Toomey and the Building Code Review Board (BCRB) participated in drafting technical language; Marshal Toomey told the committee the bill’s safety elements should include sprinklers, fire‑rated…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
