A high level of fire safety in multifamily buildings can be achieved using multiple strategies: hardwired smoke detectors, sprinklers, refuge areas such as balconies, building materials that are slow to burn, firefighter rescue, and, of course, egress. The International Building Code—which in spite of its name is only used in the United States and some of its island territories—reduces incentives to achieve fire safety using materials that are slow to burn, such as masonry or concrete, because a building of a certain height must have two staircases regardless of its construction materials.

Because the International Building Code requirement for multifamily buildings to include two interior staircases makes it infeasible to build skinny multifamily buildings, it rules out many small infill sites as places for multifamily construction in Virginia. Infill construction can take place on lots that are already served by all necessary infrastructure and are often located closer to job centers than to greenfield sites, but the building code takes many of them off the table for multifamily construction. Housing-starved localities across the state, from Hampton Roads to Charlottesville to Alexandria, can ill afford-regulations that prevent multifamily construction where it makes the most sense.