How Austin Won Single-Stair Reform
On April 10th 2025, a broad advocacy coalition won a year-long campaign to legalize single-stair buildings up to five stories in Austin. Here’s how they did it and what might be coming next.
Learning the Facts & Crafting Talking Points
Our volunteers consumed every article, study, and video they could find and spoke to experts across the US to understand the issue as deeply as possible.
From this research, our team crafted a set of talking points in support of single-stair reform, which you can read on this website. Those points address the following areas:
The basic safety benefits of single-stair buildings and additional safety measures that could be implemented
Quality of life benefits, including natural lighting, access to the street, and community
Ability to add gentle density and boost housing supply in single-family home areas, while preserving existing neighborhood character
The many downsides of double-loaded buildings
Frequently asked questions to address common concerns
Photos of single-stair buildings to show what these buildings can look like
See here for articles, studies, and videos we found most helpful in our research.
2. Extensive Engagement with the Austin Fire Department
Hearing the Department’s concerns was crucial.
Ongoing conversations with fire personnel and code staff helped us fully understand concerns and find ways — where appropriate — to address those concerns. We found that dialog over time helped ease some concerns.
3. Building a Broad Coalition of Supporters
We demonstrated support from key stakeholders.
This helped elected officials feel confident this reform had sufficient community backing.
Supporters included:
Local housing, land use, and transportation advocacy organizations
Student groups
Neighborhood associations
Architects
Developers
Thank you to our wonderful supporters!
4. Educating Elected Officials
We made sure all Council Members understood this issue.
Our team met with every Council office to explain the arguments for single-stair reform, including from the pivotal safety perspective.
We used this one-pager in our meetings.
Members of our coalition with Austin City Council Members and staff
What’s Next?
We’re not done yet. At a later date, we’re hoping for a study to revisit some of the regulations for single-stair buildings that Austin City Council passed on April 10th.
Such regulations include restricting single-stair buildings to five floors (rather than the more common six) and requiring elevators at four floors and above. These and some other requirements could limit how many single-stair buildings might be built in the future.