In April 2022, Conrad Speckert – a Toronto-based architect and author of secondegress.ca, a project to compare multifamily egress rules around the world – submitted two code change requests (CCRs 1815 and 1816) to the Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes, to raise the country's two-story limit on single-stair multifamily buildings to three and six stories, depending on building type, with additional life safety measures. The board reviewed the requests and in April 2023, decided to develop these for the upcoming code change cycle.

AB 835, introduced by Asm. Alex Lee and coauthored by Asm. Ward and Sen. Scott Wiener in 2023 with the Center for Building’s help, requires the State Fire Marshal to research standards for single-stair buildings above three stories, and provide a report to the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management and to the California Building Standards Commission by Jan. 1, 2026. It was signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October 2023. The bill is supported by the Livable Communities Initiative and California YIMBY.

In 2024, State Rep. Alex Valez and Sen. Kevin Priola introduced House Bill 24-1239 to allow for the construction of single-exit multifamily buildings up to six stories in total height. Colorado does not have a statewide building code, so the bill requires counties and municipalities to adopt these code provisions, similar to how the state has required local and county adoption of energy codes in the past. The Center for Building worked with Peter LiFari (CEO of Maiker Housing Partners, the Adams County public housing authority), Sean Jursnick (an architect with Denver-based SAR+), and others to assist with this legislation.

In 2024, the Public Safety and Security Committee of the Connecticut General Assembly introduced SB 343, to make a number of changes related to building codes in the state. One of the provisions, written with the help of the Center for Building, requires the State Building Inspector and Codes and Standards Committee to amend the state's building and fire codes to allow single-stair multifamily buildings up to six stories in height during the upcoming code revision cycle. The details are to be worked out administratively, but the bill requires consideration of local fire service capabilities, as well as experience in Seattle, New York City, and Honolulu.

In 2023, the Center for Building worked with Minneapolis-based developer Cody Fischer, Minnesota Rep. Larry Kraft, and the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry to introduce a code change to the state’s building code to allow single-stair apartment buildings taller than the three stories currently allowed. Currently there are bills in the Senate (SF 3538, authored by Sen. Lindsey Port) and House (HF 3351). Both bills direct the state’s Commissioner of Labor and Industry to adopt rules to allow single-exit apartment buildings up to to 75 feet (measured to the highest occupiable floor or roof), with considerations for local water supply and fire service capacity, among other things. New code language would be required to be adopted by July 1, 2026.

District 20 Council Member Horton Rollin introduced a bill, BL2024-181, in the 2024 legislative session to change the consolidated city-county’s building code to allow single-stair buildings up to six stories, modeled on Seattle’s code section, with the Center for Building’s help. It currently has the cosponsorship of 10 of the Metropolitan Council’s 40 members.

Int. 0794-2022 would have amended the New York City Building Code to double the allowed floor plate of single-stair buildings up to six stories, from the current 2,000-sq. ft. limit to 4,000 sq. ft. The bill was sponsored by CMs Rita Joseph and Farah Louis, with the help of the Center for Building.

S6573, introduced by Sen. Rachel May with the help of the Center for Building and cosponsored by Sen. Jabari Brisport in 2023, asks the state fire prevention and building code council to consider changes to the state building code that would bring it more in line with codes in New York City and elsewhere, which allow for single-stair buildings above the current three-story height limit that applies to the state (but not New York City, which has its own code). The bill passed the State Senate unanimously, and then was included in the Senate’s one-house bill in 2024.

SB 847, introduced by Sen. Kayse Jama in 2023, asks the Building Codes Structures Board to update the state's building code to allow single-exit apartment buildings by Oct. 1, 2025, consistent with existing codes such as Seattle's single-stair code section. The bill language was reintegrated into HB 3395 and passed by the legislature and signed into law by Gov. Tina Kotek on June 30, 2023. The single-stair study provision is part of a much package of housing reforms, and was championed by Sightline Institute, with the Center for Building’s help.

SB 195 and HB 368, introduced by Sen. Schuyler VanValkenburg and Del. Adele McClure, direct Virginia's Board of Housing and Community Development to convene a stakeholder advisory group to evaluate and recommend building code revisions to allow single-stair apartment buildings up to six stories, with findings and recommendations due by December 1, 2024. The bills were supported by a coalition of YIMBY, urbanist, affordable housing, Realtor, and homebuilder groups. The legislation passed both houses with overwhelming bipartisan support, and was signed into law by Gov. Glenn Youngkin on April 4, 2024.

SB 5491, sponsored by Sens. Salomon, Shewmake, Frame, Liias, and Stanford, directs the state's Building Code Council to draw up reforms to allow single-stair apartment buildings up to six stories tall, with recommendations due in time for the 2024 International Building Code update, and adoption into code by July 1, 2026. The bill was signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee in May 2023, and had the support of Sightline Institute and Center for Building board member and Seattle architect Mike Eliason, of Larch Lab.