# Egress and accessibility in new apartment



## Miki Dora (Mar 26, 2019)

Hello, I’m in the early planning stages on a privately funded, new construction, 7-unit apartment building in Southern California (R-2 Occupancy).  The lot size is quite small and will require most of the ground floor to be parking. With the various requirements shaping this project, we’ve come up with an initial scheme with a single accessible unit on the ground floor, 3 units on the second floor, and 3 units on the 3rd floor for a total of 7 units.  As it is currently planned, the building will not have an elevator and the upper two floors will be served by a single stairway in the middle of the building.

*Question 1:* Are we correct to interpret that a newly constructed three story apartment building does not require an elevator for egress or accessibility as long as we offer an accessible ground floor unit?

I’m having a hard time finding a section of code that addresses this directly for egress.  CBC 2016 1009.2.1 states that “_In buildings where a required accessible floor is four or more stories above or below a level of exit discharge, not less than one required accessible means of egress shall be an elevator complying with Section 1009.4_”.  Because our building is less than 4 floors and because our non-ground level floors are not accessible, I interpret this to mean that an elevator is not required in our building.  I’m seeing some talk about a per story (or sometimes aggregate) square footage maximum of 3,000sf, but this seems to be related to public or commercial buildings (CBC 2016 11B-206.2.3).  In case it’s relevant, the second and third floors will each be around 2500 sf.  Regarding the accessibility part of the question, I am basing this on CBC 1104A.1

*Question 2:*  Are there any size or use requirements for the ground floor unit?  For instance, if the units above are one bedroom units or two bedroom units (non-accessible), can the accessible ground floor unit be a studio?  Or would we need to provide the same options to the ground floor that the upper, non-accessible units have?

We are basing our assumption on CBC 1104A.1 which states that “_all ground-floor units in nonelevator buildings shall be adaptable and on an accessible route…_”  There will be no common use areas located above the accessible ground floor.

*Question 3:* This question is related to our single exit and <125’ common path of egress requirement.  Does an exit discharge into a side yard walkway count as the termination of our exit path, or would our common path of egress travel extend all the way to the public way (sidewalk/street)?  Or the front yard?  The walkway is 5’ wide, open to above and would have walls on two sides (the building on one side, a low wall along the property line on the other).  The side yard walkway leads to the front yard/street in one direction and the backyard in the opposite direction.

To justify a single exit from the upper stories, we are using Exception 1 to CBC 1006.2.1 which states that “_In Group R-2 and R-3 occupancies, one means of egress is permitted within and from individual dwelling units with a maximum occupant load of 20 where the dwelling unit is equipped throughout with an automatic sprinkler system in accordance with Section 903.3.1.1 or 903.3.1.2 and the common path of egress travel does not exceed 125 feet._”  CBC Table 1006.3.2(1) references a single exit exception for R-2 stories (up to 3) with 4 or fewer dwelling units per story, sprinklers and emergency escape and rescue openings.

From the farthest point in the farthest third story unit, it’s roughly 110’ out of the unit and down the stairs to ground level.  The stairs discharge into the side yard walkway described above.

Thanks for any help.


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## cda (Mar 26, 2019)

Welcome

Good questions

Not my area of un expertise

Plus there are some Calif’s on here.

Give it a day or two


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## Miki Dora (Mar 26, 2019)

Thanks cda.  I feel like it's helpful even just writing it down (semi) coherently in one place!


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## cda (Mar 26, 2019)

Some great reading while you wait


http://www.specsandcodes.com/articles/code_corner/The Code Corner No. 10 - Means of Egress.pdf

http://www.specsandcodes.com/articles/code_corner/The Code Corner No. 29 - Travel Distance.pdf


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## cda (Mar 26, 2019)

And for extra points:::


http://www.specsandcodes.com/articles/default.html

You can also become a Sawhorse and help support this fabulous forum


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## ADAguy (Mar 27, 2019)

Hey Miki, Gidget here (smiling).
What you don't mention and isn't mentioned is visitablility of units and how do I get furniture to the upper floors without an elevator?
Also, what of accommodating the future gentrification of tenants?


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## Miki Dora (Mar 27, 2019)

Gidget! 

Agreed the lack of an elevator is not ideal for many reasons.  At this point it's a mandate from the client and we're trying to determine if it's even workable.


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## ADAguy (Mar 27, 2019)

Hold your ground on this for the tenant's sake. also better resale later.


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## KylieHodges (Dec 24, 2020)

Thank you all for the answers, I had a similar problem. Now I am in my hometown in the United States and I have a project to build an apartment building. A few years ago, I moved to Egypt for permanent residence and thought to start building my house. But I was not well versed in their legislation and so I had a lot of questions, but I realized that it would be more profitable to just buy a house with the help of these guys Brokereg and I was satisfied with my purchase. Thanks to your thread, I will finish the construction of the project in the USA much faster.


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