After a brief presentation, many speakers, and some questions from council members, the Culver City Council approved the ‘single stair reform’ with a unanimous vote at the September 29, 2025 meeting.
‘Single stair’ is a building code that would allow for buildings of up to six stories to have one staircase rather than the current requirement for two. It’s a building code that has been used in many major cities, from New York to Seattle. Adopting it for Culver City was “urgent” as the state of California will be closing out the option for cities to change their own building codes on Oct. 1 for a six year moratorium.
A significant obstacle came up over the inclusion of elevators; that was resolved by requiring elevators in all buildings taller than four stories. A requirement to have elevators in all buildings would have been a challenge to keeping the new options affordable.
The city had initially modeled the proposed ordinance for Culver City on the Los Angeles ordinance, but the language needed some slight changes. Looking to the Livable Cities Initiative, they were able to make adjustments.
“We thought that LA would do a carbon copy of the Seattle ordinance, and they did not…so it was a bit of a curveball for us, as well.” Travis Morgan of the Livable Cities Initiative highlighted where Seattle’s language worked; that city updated to the single stair code more than a decade ago.
Erik Mar, a USC professor of architecture, spoke from the podium to ask for the city to “adopt the changes [proposed by Livable Communities Initiative…] and pass the reform” noting that buildings taller than four stories had other code changes that put them into another category regardless.
The changes offered by LCI were included in the ordinance, but then questions arose in regard to elevators as a safety measure. it looked for a moment as if those objections might kill the measure, as it needed a four-fifths vote to pass, but Morgan offered that using a standard of “buildings more than four stories” would meet both the safety issue and allow for the most affordable options to be accessible.
After years of discussion, Culver City will have ‘single stair’ buildings, providing an opportunity to create more affordable housing.
Judith Martin-Straw
