YIMBYana

Introduction

In this proposal, we identify a building code that heavily restricts the type of housing that can be built and propose solutions. Indiana, Bloomington, and most cities and states in the US have adopted the International Building Code (IBC) to regulate the construction of all new buildings. Most of these regulations are reasonable, and critical for ensuring the safety of residents. However, there is a regulation that heavily restricts the type and cost of housing that can be built, leading to the monolithic style of development that many residents despise. It is the requirement that buildings over three stories tall must have two stairways, connected by a hallway on each floor (a “double-loaded corridor”). Although it does not sound like a critical code, it severely restricts architecture and home layouts. The original intention was fire safety, but this code is now antiquated due to modern innovations in fire-resistant building materials, sprinkler systems, and other fire safety technologies. It was put in place in a time when apartment fires were frequent and devastating due to flammable building materials and lack of other fire safety precautions. Studies have shown that this requirement is not necessary, or particularly effective, as we discuss later.

The double-loaded corridor rule promotes massive apartment complexes and obstructs small-scale, family-oriented apartments

The double-loaded corridor requirement makes it nearly impossible to develop anything but low-density homes on small lots, like the ones often found in and around downtown. To incorporate two stairways that are connected by a hallway, a substantial portion of a building’s footprint has to be allocated to the stairways and hallways. In other words, any building design that does not have a lot of living units does not make economic sense to build. As a result, only massive apartment complexes become viable, and developers are pushed to buy up and merge multiple lots, which often results in more opposition.

The double-loaded corridor has some fire safety drawbacks as well. Residents should never be too far away (125 feet) from the stairway in case of a fire, even in these large complexes, for good reason. However, when combined with a double-loaded corridor, this limit leads to narrow apartments, where only one side has windows, the other side has a door, and few units have more than two bedrooms, since the path from additional rooms to the nearest stairway would be too long. The corridor design allows for up to 500 occupants per floor, or about 250 people per stairway per floor, which could lead to crowding during fire evacuation. This configuration also reduces smoke and fire compartmentation, by .