The Los Angeles City Council has passed a motion instructing the Department of Building and Safety (LADBS), in consultation with the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) and the Department of City Planning (DCP), along with input from Livable Cities Initiative (LCI) and the American Institute of Architects Los Angeles (AIA LA), to present within 90 days modifications to the City's Building Code. These modifications are intended to allow for single-exit, single-stairway, multifamily residential buildings up to six stories. The motion highlights a longstanding issue in the region's housing market regarding the need for more affordable, family-sized apartments and addresses current building code requirements that act as hindrances to creating larger, well-lit units with enhanced green space. It notes that other major cities like New York and Seattle already permit single-stairwell buildings over three stories, and California is seeing efforts towards similar code changes, including Assembly Bill (AB) 835. The City Council further moved to instruct DCP to report back within 90 days on these jurisdictions and efforts to update building codes.