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Egress Court Question

J

J. Mulholland

REGISTERED
Joined
Jun 22, 2020
Messages
7
Location
Dallas, Texas
We are having a dispute with a building reviewer regarding an Egress Court (2015 IBC Section 1028.4.2). We have two stairs that exit our building (5-story R-2 over 2-story S-2 garage) on the same side of our property. The stairs are inset and exit 10'-8" away from the property line. The building at grade, however, between the two stairs is less than 10' to the property line. By definition, our egress court is a "yard" because we only have the one wall that parallels the property line. The building reviewer is requiring us to build a free-standing 1-hour, 10' tall wall at the property line because our egress court is less than 10' wide. We read the commentary which states, "The purpose of this section is to protect the occupants served by the egress court from the building that they are exiting FROM". The question - does our egress court, which is a YARD by definition, require a free-standing wall to be built at the property line?

https://www.dropbox.com/s/t8p3dr59pn0udj5/Exit Discharge-W 12th Street.JPG?dl=0
 
The long answer: The requirement is to protect the occupants from the current hazard, which would be inside the building the occupants are egressing from. There is no danger from an adjacent lot if the adjacent lot is vacant. However, if there is a building on the adjacent lot, that building is required to have fire-rated exterior walls and protected opening based on Tables 602 and 705.8. If the building on the adjacent lot is less than 3 feet from the lot line, then at least 1-hour construction is required and no openings are permitted.

Constructing a 1-hour "fence" makes no sense whatsoever.
 
J. Mulholland said:
There is a retaining wall on our property and then another building, probably 6' tall from our grade adjacent to the PL.
Click to expand...
What is the existing building made of, and is it right on the property line?

This sounds like it may be a case where the existing building is non-compliant with regards to FSD and rated exterior walls, and the AHJ is now attempting to add a provision to this lot as a "fix".
 
Ty J. said:
This sounds like it may be a case where the existing building is non-compliant with regards to FSD and rated exterior walls, and the AHJ is now attempting to add a provision to this lot as a "fix".
Click to expand...

Ty J, that sounds like it to me too - - but that's not the way the building code works. The code works to make your building comply within your own property. What happens on your neighbor's property is of no concern (unless they give you a no-build easement/restriction onto their property).
If the neighbor's building is noncompliant, then it is either legally permitted and code compliant for the era in which it was built, in which case there is no code problem; or it was not built legally, in which case the neighbor should make the corrections to make it compliant. But it should not fall onto the new building to fix the building code problems on a different property.
 
Yikes said:
Ty J, that sounds like it to me too - - but that's not the way the building code works. The code works to make your building comply within your own property. What happens on your neighbor's property is of no concern (unless they give you a no-build easement/restriction onto their property).
If the neighbor's building is noncompliant, then it is either legally permitted and code compliant for the era in which it was built, in which case there is no code problem; or it was not built legally, in which case the neighbor should make the corrections to make it compliant. But it should not fall onto the new building to fix the building code problems on a different property.
Click to expand...
I agree Yikes...just wasn't going to dive into it too far unless the OP indicated that it was an issue with the existing building.
 
Ty J. said:
This sounds like it may be a case where the existing building is non-compliant with regards to FSD and rated exterior walls, and the AHJ is now attempting to add a provision to this lot as a "fix".
Click to expand...

Then they should have that property owner installed the fence.
 
Yikes said:
Ty J, that sounds like it to me too - - but that's not the way the building code works. The code works to make your building comply within your own property. What happens on your neighbor's property is of no concern (unless they give you a no-build easement/restriction onto their property).
If the neighbor's building is noncompliant, then it is either legally permitted and code compliant for the era in which it was built, in which case there is no code problem; or it was not built legally, in which case the neighbor should make the corrections to make it compliant. But it should not fall onto the new building to fix the building code problems on a different property.
Click to expand...
Maybe not fix but what of "to protect"?
 
Ty J. said:
What is the existing building made of, and is it right on the property line?

This sounds like it may be a case where the existing building is non-compliant with regards to FSD and rated exterior walls, and the AHJ is now attempting to add a provision to this lot as a "fix".
Click to expand...
Ty and Yikes, Thank you both for your input. I agree Yikes that the code pertains to our building and our property. I've included a link to an image of the building that does sit next to or along the shared property line. It does appear to be a thick wall, extending above the roof of the building so it may be CMU. I would suspect there are no openings in the wall because it's on the property line but I don't know for sure. We will take the information you all have provided into consideration with our argument with the City.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/v9a8dlc1uh37ee6/Exit Discharge-W 12th Street_Adjacent.JPG?dl=0
 
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