Building Smarter: Why North Carolina Should Consider Single Stair Housing
A new approach to housing design could help North Carolina grow smarter, not just bigger.
Introduction: A Housing Problem That Hits Close to Home
Across North Carolina, from Raleigh and Charlotte to Asheville and Wilmington, people are feeling the squeeze. Housing costs are climbing, traffic congestion is worsening, and more green spaces are taken over by suburban sprawl every year. The state’s population is booming, and our housing supply isn’t keeping up. According to Michael Cline, a Demographer writing for the NC Office of State Budget and Management, North Carolina is set to become the 7th most populated US state by the year 2030. In order for people of all demographics to be able to afford quality, family-oriented housing, we need to rethink how a growing American city could be structured.
Here in the beloved City of Oaks, we have beautiful greenery throughout our city and new retail coming to our downtown areas. Unfortunately though, in order to get to those lovely spaces from our suburban homes, we’re forced to drive our cars or risk walking along dangerous roads with no sidewalks.
Our question is this: how could housing options in our city be reimagined to allow us to be walking distance from our favorite attractions and essential urban amenities?
What Is Gentle Density?
Urban development in major cities of the United States has evolved to be “monolithic”. This refers to the existence of a high-density urban core, with sprawling, low-density suburbs surrounding the core. This method of urban development prioritizes profits off of land use and car-based infrastructure. Unfortunately, the experience of a space like this doesn’t feel comfortable at the human scale. The buildings are too tall and roads are too wide for us to comfortably navigate. Mark Johnson of CIVITAS focused his research on landscape planning in urban environments. He states that urban development has been designed around the 20th century ideal of separation of spatial uses, which doesn’t support us experiencing the world at a human scale. Currently, 56% of people are living in an urban environment and that number is projected to increase to 70% by the year 2030.
The introduction of gentle density could create “pocket neighborhoods,” a space with medium-rise buildings and essential amenities within walking distance. There’s an architectural idea gaining traction in cities across the U.S. that is already widely used abroad: single stair buildings. At first glance, this might sound like a technical detail tucked away in building codes. But in reality, it’s a design shift that could shape how our neighborhoods grow, how much homes cost, and how families experience daily life.
What Is a Single Stair Building?
Most of us are familiar with privately-funded, large-scale apartment buildings that have long, double-loaded hallways: a corridor in the middle with apartments on both sides, stretching on for what feels like forever. These buildings usually require at least two staircases for fire safety, one at each end of the long hallway.
A single-stair building is different. It’s a smaller, more compact apartment building (typically six stories or fewer and on a lot as small as 2,500 sqft (25ft x 100 ft)) that has just one central stairwell serving all the apartments. Think of it as a mid-rise building designed for a neighborhood block, not a skyscraper. Due to the low number of apartment units on each floor from the small footprint of the building, only one exit stairway is needed. Each floor’s apartment units open up within just a few feet of the staircase, reducing the travel time from each unit’s door to the outside of the building when exiting the building.
This approach allows architects to create more efficient floor plans. Apartments can have windows on multiple sides, meaning more natural light and better airflow. Courtyards, playgrounds, and small gardens can be tucked into the site instead of being crowded out by extra stair towers and long hallways. Instead of feeling like a giant dormitory, these buildings can feel more like a cluster of homes.
Single stair construction is common in Europe and in U.S. cities like Seattle and New York, where code changes have allowed them. The New York City walk-up is a common type of single-stair housing, traditionally made on those small 2,500 sqft lots, which allows a higher density of housing units to be built on a lot that was historically just one home. However, in North Carolina—and much of the South—our building codes still forbid this method of land use.
This large-scale style of construction is very expensive and requires a big developer who has access to those resources. By opening up single stair housing to NC, we can make small-scale developments accessible to smaller developers, providing economic opportunities to more individuals.
Why This Matters for North Carolina
According to recent census data, the state is one of the fastest-growing in the country. Cities like Raleigh and Charlotte are expanding at a rapid speed, while smaller urban centers like Durham, Wilmington, and Asheville are also attracting new residents.
The downside? Suburban sprawl. Every year, new subdivisions push residents farther out from city centers, paving over farmland and forests. This strains our infrastructure by increasing traffic into city centers, and makes nearby housing even less affordable as commuting times climb.
If we want to grow sustainably, we need gentle density: housing options that add more people per acre without overwhelming the character of neighborhoods. Single stair buildings are one way to achieve that balance. They allow three- to six-story apartment buildings to be tucked onto small lots. This gives us the opportunity to fill in the gaps of urban blocks and create walkable, family-friendly communities.
Currently in North Carolina, residential buildings with one staircase are allowed up to
Compared to our southern, urban neighbors, North Carolina is behind. Just recently, Tennessee changed their legislation to allow single-stair apartment buildings up to five stories tall. This allows developers to increase the variety of housing options in the fast-growing cities of Nashville, Memphis, and Chattanooga, while reducing the infrastructural impacts on the areas. Additionally, Atlanta, Georgia has approved single-stair apartment buildings up to four stories tall.
Weighing the Tradeoffs
So where does that leave us?
The truth is, single stair housing isn’t a silver bullet. It won’t solve North Carolina’s housing crisis overnight, and there are safety concerns that must be addressed through careful architectural design. However, it’s clear that our current approach of strict two-stair requirements in maze-like apartment complexes, sprawling suburban subdivisions, and limited housing diversity isn’t working either.
In practice, evacuation challenges faced in large-scale apartment complexes could actually be mitigated by the use of single-stair housing. When the occupant load of a floor in a single-stair building is compared to that of a large-scale apartment, the number of occupants per floor per stair is actually significantly lower in a single-stair building. Instead of forcing residents to walk down long, confusing hallways in a massive apartment complex, single-stair buildings create smaller, more direct pathways to safety while optimizing floor areas for living spaces.
Cities like Seattle and New York have already demonstrated that single stair construction can be done safely when paired with strong fire codes, sprinklers, and modern safety standards. Austin, Texas, along with nearby cities of Nashville and Memphis in Tennessee, have been actively debating the issue, with fire officials and housing advocates weighing the tradeoffs. North Carolina can learn from these examples rather than starting from scratch.
One possible path forward is to pilot single stair construction in select areas, perhaps in neighborhoods surrounding downtown Raleigh, Charlotte, or Durham, where fire departments are better equipped and demand for housing is highest. These test cases could help identify best practices and build public trust before the model is expanded statewide.
Building for a Growing Future
North Carolina is changing fast. Our cities are swelling, our neighborhoods are stretching, and our housing supply is lagging behind. If we want to grow in a way that preserves our landscapes, builds stronger communities, and keeps housing within reach, we need to consider new approaches.
Single stair buildings are a promising tool for the creation of the “missing middle” housing. This method of development could allow us to add gentle density, improve housing quality, and make better use of limited urban land. The key is to balance innovation with safety, learning from other cities while tailoring solutions to our unique context.
At the end of the day, this isn’t just about stairs. It’s about how we want North Carolina to look and feel in the decades to come. Do we want endless sprawl and sky-high rents, or walkable neighborhoods where families, young professionals, and retirees can all find a place to call home?
The conversation about single stair housing is really a conversation about our shared future. It’s a conversation worth having, before the choice is made for us by the pressures of growth.
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