In 2021 I connected “stair daddy” @holz-bau.bsky.social with CoV staff to see if they had any funding for a study. His report (and obsessive posting) helped kick off a movement that now is taking hold across North America.

Did you know that as per a new Planning Act Regulation, as long as a building setback is 90% of a required min setback from a lot line, it no longer has to go to Committee of Adjustment? EG if a required front yard setback is 3 m, you can have 2.7 m.

They are single exit stair configurations as permitted for sprinklered buildings of up to 25m in height by the National Construction Codes of Australia.

I feel that there hasn’t been attention paid to the fact that as per Bill 17, development charges on condos & ownership housing are no longer payable upon building permit, but upon occupancy permit. This is helpful, bc developers no longer have to finance the cost of DCs thru construction.

Interesting that private apartment construction tanked across all the former TO municipalities by the end of the 70s, not just the one with a new reform council in ‘72. Plus a lot of new units were built in the burbs! nb data is from a diffrnt source than Jeff’s chart, so #s not exactly comparable.

Just a note on the pressurized stairwell.. our units open directly into the stairwell, which in itself contravenes code. If we had vestibules/corridors, pressurization would not have been needed but we opted for the latter because the former would have impacted unit layouts given our small building.

Update on my single exit stair ASP: we have an approval! Thanks to sixplex and single stair supporters Mayor Olivia Chow, Cllr Jamaal Myers, @joshmatlow.bsky.social and others who get why single exit stairs are key to creating livable, accessible, small scale housing. 1/6

This is an interesting finding: that variation in housing gaps ie excess demand occurs within LAs ie municipalities, rather than between them. In other words, there no high or low excess demand municipalities, but there are high and low excess demand neighbourhoods within all municipalities.

This is a really interesting study and approach that identifyies where, specifically, new homes are most wanted and where the housing gaps are.

This is a great explainer of the excellent reasons for and current obstacles to building livable, larger housing units in smaller, low-rise buildings. #singlestair

Because of these two posts, and considerable bitter experience. Even if you design the regulations the right way, the silo-cultural nature of our various building/zoning depts means they will still use discretionary authority to escalate details, demands and requirements.

This is yet another example of where the province *should* do unilateral housing reform for all municipalities via changes to the building code, to enable single stair buildings. A lot of people with moderate opposition to new housing claim to want more 2+BR apartments; this is how we get there.

This pilot project for SES building design is also featured here. Others of similar configuration have been accepted in Vancouver, Edmonton and Hamilton. singlestair.ca/Office-Ou

Toronto simply does not want to solve the housing crisis.

This is another place the mayor could force some change. It's wonky and won't win hearts and minds widely but when asked about what she's doing about housing she can point to it vs her councillors stopping housing (Fletcher on Craven Ave)

And it has a friggin elevator!! A three-story building in North America with an elevator. You NEVER see that – it’s likely costing around $200,000 (CAD). Stair injuries and deaths are far more common than fire ones. Disability and elderly advocates should be storming City Hall about this decision.

This far exceeds US (IBC) standards and Toronto still denied – wide stairways and even wider landing, passive ventilation, very low occupant load, and balconies for refuge and rescue. Balconies alone make it safer than code compliance, because they avoid a single point of failure (unit front door)

After TO Council passed a motion indicating the City was open to Alternative Solution Proposals for a single stair in apts up to 4 storeys, I applied for a single stair in a 3 storey Part 9 6plex. I’m told it’s the first one, so it’s a test case. Here’s how it’s going. #singlestair #sixplex

We love to see it: NYC adds four more bus routes to its wildly successful bus camera enforcement program (47 routes now have them).

You can argue about DCs, but this article fails to mention that by provincial law, existing taxpayers must pay for any benefit they receive from growth-related infrastructure (GRI). In TO, existing taxpayers pay about 50% of GRI costs ($24 billion), new development 31% ($14B).

Anybody else have an ASP application for a single stair building in Toronto under review rn?

Single exit stair people: What would/should be considered a reasonable stair width in a single stair bldg? BC Code says 1500 mm up to 6 storeys. City of Toronto guidance report says maybe 1650 mm up to 4 storeys. What’s reasonable for a small footprint 3 storey 6plex? For a 6 storey apt building?

What struck me about the debate was that 6 plexes were portrayed by opponents as some kind of cataclysmic change to neighbourhoods. But 4 plexes are already allowed city-wide. 6 plexes would maintain the same building envelope,…. 1/2

This includes a report recommending updates to our zoning to allow up to a sixplex (plus garden suite) across the city; updates to allow for semi-detached fourplexes (i.e. four units on each side); and allowing new housing around "tower-in-the-park" sites. 3/

Congrats @conradspeckert.bsky.social 2025 RAIC Awards: Single Exit Stair Building Code Reform — www.canadianarchitect.com/raic-awards-...

www.nytimes.com/2025/04/16/w... Quelle surprise! Sounds like good grounds for cancelling the deal.

Isn’t the whole US tariff agenda really about replacing (progressive) income taxes with much a more regressive consumption tax?

Great! I hope the sixplex package will also include the same financial incentives currently available to fourplexes? ie no parks levies or DCs….

Good to see the City consulting on allowing 6 plexes re EHON. One thing the City could do *right now*: extend existing multiplex (up to 4 units) incentives (financial, zoning) to 6 plexes in those areas of the City where apartments are already permitted! 1/6

On obstacles to small apartment buildings in the City of Toronto, Exhibit X: parks levy. I am trying to build a 6 unit, 3 storey apt building on a residential street where apartments are as-of-right. Parks levy is payable to support creation of new parks. All fine. 1/7

This analysis I did for Neptis Foundation in 2018 seems newly relevant…. mapping the location of GGH jobs in the industries that are most vulnerable to trade shocks (based on the share of industry jobs relying directly on exports). neptis.org/publications...