Conrad Speckert got in touch with me following yesterday's post (about single-stair buildings) and he was kind enough to let me know that, this Thursday, Toronto Planning and Housing Committee will be considering this single exit stair item.
Included in the agenda item is a building code report that was done because City Council wanted to know if it were feasible to design multi-residential buildings up to four storeys that wouldn't be detrimental to human health.
Now that the report is done, one of the recommendations being put forward this week is for Toronto to create a guideline that would help people prepare alternative solution proposals under the Ontario Building Code.
Alternative solutions provide greater design flexibility. We almost always have them come up on our projects. In essence, they are a way of saying, "yeah, I know this design doesn't precisely meet the code, but it still satisfies its intent, and it works, so please approve it."
In this particular instance, the idea is to create a public-facing guideline so that more people will be able to figure out how to build 4-storey buildings with a single means of egress. Again, the current maximum is 2 storeys.
Four storeys isn't quite six storeys. But we're getting there. And it has become increasingly obvious that it is now just a question of when, not if. At some point, we won't be calling this an alternative solution proposal. It will just be -- the way.
