Infill: A YIMBY Podcast Are Staircase Requirements Making Housing More Expensive? The Case for Single-Stair Reform
Sep 10, 2026
Rollin Horton, a Nashville councilmember advancing housing and childcare reforms, joins Stephen Smith, a building-code researcher, to explore single-stair apartments. They trace Nashville’s unanimous reform, question the value of fire escapes, and examine how elevators, windows, air conditioning, zoning, and light wells shape housing costs and design. They also discuss childcare zoning and why better architecture may not overcome NIMBY opposition.
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How Nashville Found Its Single-Stair Champion
- Rollin Horton discovered single-stair reform through Stephen Smith’s social-media post and contacted local architects for an accessible explanation.
- Those architects connected him to Mike Eliason and Stephen Smith, who supplied technical expertise and model legislation.
Nashville Turned Fire Opposition Into Reform
- Nashville’s first single-stair bill faced state fire-marshal opposition and was withdrawn.
- After Tennessee shifted authority to cities, Nashville adopted the reform within its building-code update and passed it unanimously for buildings up to six stories.
Boring Legislation Can Enable Big Housing Changes
- Single-stair reform attracted little backlash because its technical language stayed below the media’s radar and was folded into a routine code adoption.
- Its immediate effect was geographically limited because roughly 80% of Nashville remained single-family-only zoning.
