Last April, WSAFM submitted an emergency rule to the State Building Code Council.  The issue pertains to the increase in density of single family lots to address the “housing crisis”.  In particular, in the number of dwelling units on a single family lot are increasing and lot widths are being reduced to optimize the property as much as possible.  This has resulted in an unintended circumstance as distances between structures and property lines can be as small as 3 feet.  This width needs to support access to units at the center of the property, which results in access doors being located on the side of buildings that do not face the street or alley.  3 feet is not enough space to properly remove a patient in a gurney or put up ladders for rescue or rooftop venting.

The proposal requests a minimum 5 foot clearance between the building and property line where building access is on the side.  The distance is reduced to 4 feet if the building has fire sprinklers.  The logic here is that fire operations would not be as significant for a building that has fire sprinklers. 

The SBCC introduced the proposal at the July 25^th meeting. SBCC directed the proposal be forwarded to the BFRW Committee for further consideration.

The SBCC then directed that the proposal be forwarded to the BFRW Committee for consideration to revise the language and be brought back to the Council. The BFRW recommended a Special Council Committee be formed. 

This was returned to the SBCC for consideration at their September 26^th meeting. The Council voted to create a Special Council Committee. Dan Young is the chair of this committee. 

The committee met for the first time on October 24th. As of now, it appears this proposal will not make it into the 2024 code cycle but will be further pursued for inclusion in the 2027 code cycle. 

As this progresses, we will provide updates.