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Elevator Reform (Building Code)
The Elevator Modernization Act
This bill modernizes state elevator rules so mid-rise apartment buildings can use safe, accessible, right-sized elevators, with the goal of making elevators less costly to include in more homes.
Elevator Reform (Building Code)
About the bill
“When we exclude elevators from apartment buildings, we effectively exclude millions of people from our neighborhood. By updating these rules, we can unlock thousands of affordable, accessible homes and ensure disabled people aren’t excluded from their own communities.”
— The Kelsey
What this bill does
This bill makes it less expensive to include elevators in new housing, which will expand the supply of multi-family homes. It allows smaller, accessible elevators in buildings of up to six stories and 24 homes, and replaces requirements for larger elevators that make many small apartment projects infeasible. The bill preserves all safety requirements and brings local and state elevator standards in line with national standards.
Why it's needed
Elevator installations in apartment buildings in the United States can cost three times more than in other countries. A patchwork of outdated local elevator codes requires unnecessary testing, oversized equipment, and additional regulations that add to complexity and cost – with no measurable improvement in safety.
A 2024 Center for Building Studies report found that peer nations install wheelchair-accessible elevators for around $50,000 each; in the U.S., the same installation starts at $150,000. These costs hit smaller mid-rise buildings hardest; higher elevator costs on four- to eight-story apartment buildings often make the difference between a project that pencils and one that doesn't.
Frequently asked questions
What does this bill actually do?
This bill makes it cheaper and faster to put elevators in apartment buildings by bringing local elevator regulations in line with national and international best practices.
Specifically, it:
- Standardizes safety codes. Requires all jurisdictions to accept the latest national elevator safety standards (ASME A17.1) without local modification. States and local governments must accept the latest national elevator safety standards, including approved performance-based options for newer equipment and technology.
- Allows modern testing. Permits electronic “Category 5” brake testing, eliminating unnecessary burdens imposed by older methods.
- Right-sizes elevators. Prohibits local rules from requiring elevator cars larger than what accessibility standards actually require in buildings up to six stories and 24 units.
- Removes unnecessary construction around ordinary elevators. Many building codes require enclosed lobbies, smoke curtains, extra doors, or costly air-pressure systems around elevator openings. The bill removes these requirements from ordinary apartment elevators below the specified height, while preserving them for elevators used by firefighters or for emergency evacuation.
- Opens the door to international standards. Includes an optional pathway for states to accept the internationally used ISO 8100 standard as an alternative compliance route.
Who benefits?
Everyone who needs housing near jobs and services – but especially seniors, people with disabilities, and families who depend on step-free access and are disproportionately excluded when elevator costs make mid-rise housing too expensive to build.
According to The Kelsey, a disability-inclusive housing organization, costly elevators also result in the exclusion of disabled people – who need elevators to access upper floors – from new housing.
Does this bill lower safety standards?
No. The bill requires compliance with the latest national safety standards. In many cases, stricter and more up-to-date than the local codes it replaces. Modern electronic brake testing, for example, is at least as safe as older mechanical methods and is already accepted under current national standards.
Does this apply to all buildings?
The elevator size and shaft protection reforms apply specifically to apartment buildings up to six stories and 24 units — the mid-rise buildings where elevator costs are most likely to make a project financially unviable. Larger buildings are unaffected.
What's wrong with local elevator codes?
Many local codes haven’t kept pace with updates to national standards, creating a patchwork of requirements that limit competition, slow permitting, and add cost without adding safety. A builder in one city may face completely different requirements than one across the county line.
Why does it matter that the U.S. uses a different standard than the rest of the world?
When U.S. codes don’t recognize internationally manufactured equipment, builders have fewer competitive options, which means higher prices and longer wait times. Aligning with or recognizing international standards opens the market to more suppliers. The U.S. is an outlier in its technical standards: while most of the world uses the ISO 8100 standard, the U.S. uses ASME A17.1, accepted virtually nowhere else.
If this is such a no-brainer, why hasn't it happened already?
Elevator regulation in the U.S. has been shaped by incumbent manufacturers and the inspection regimes built around existing equipment and practices. Larger, more complex elevators mean more parts, more maintenance, and more inspection hours. And the industries that profit from the current system have little incentive to change it. Because elevator regulation is technical and obscure, there’s rarely enough public pressure to push back.
The result is a regulatory patchwork that has drifted further and further from international norms over decades. Not because anyone decided U.S. elevators should cost three times more than European elevators, but because no one with enough power had a strong enough reason to change it. This bill is an attempt to break that inertia by giving states a clear, simple path to modernization.
The Legislation
Full model legislation text
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Annotated
Section 1. Title.
This Act shall be known and may be cited as the “Elevator Modernization and Housing Access Act.”
The purpose of this legislation is to increase the availability of safe, modern, and cost-effective elevators in multifamily residential buildings up to six (6) stories and twenty-four (24) dwellings.
Section 2. Purpose and Intent.
(a) The purpose of this Act is to increase the availability of safe, modern, and cost-effective elevators in buildings with residential uses by requiring statewide acceptance of current elevator safety standards, permitting performance-based and alternative testing methods, reducing unnecessary deviations from nationally recognized standards, and limiting building-code requirements that unnecessarily increase elevator size or hoistway opening protection requirements in ordinary apartment buildings.
(b) This Act is intended to ensure that equipment and methods already recognized by modern elevator safety standards may be used throughout the state, to reduce unnecessary barriers to elevator installation in housing, and to support a more competitive market for elevators while maintaining health and safety protections.
The intent of this legislation is to make elevator access more economically feasible in small multifamily housing, thereby increasing accessible housing choices while maintaining safety infrastructure.
Section 3. Definitions.
For purposes of this Act:
(a) “Accessibility Standards” means the minimum elevator car dimensions prescribed by the following, as amended, supplemented, or superseded from time to time: (1) the most recent edition of the Accessible and Usable Buildings and Facilities standard (ANSI A117.1) as adopted and incorporated by reference in the most current version of the International Building Code published by the International Code Council; (2) any document recognized by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development as providing a safe harbor for compliance with the federal Fair Housing Act design and construction requirements; or (3) any regulations, interpretive rules, guidance documents, notices, circulars, handbooks, frequently asked questions, letters, joint statements, or other interpretive materials issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In the event of any conflict among the foregoing, “Accessibility Standards” shall mean the standard that permits the smallest minimum elevator car dimensions.
(b) “Apartment Building” means a residential building containing dwelling units for occupancy by more than two households.
(c) “Category 5 Testing” means the periodic no-load or full-load safety testing required by the applicable elevator safety standard for elevators in service.
(d) “Latest Published Version” means the most recent published edition of the referenced code or standard as of [date], and any subsequent edition adopted by ministerial update pursuant to this Act.
(e) “Performance-Based Safety Code” means the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Performance-Based Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators.
(f) “Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators” means the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators.
(g) “State Code Body” means the state agency, board, department, or other authority responsible for adoption or amendment of the state building code, elevator code, or referenced standards.
(h) “State Elevator Authority” means the state agency, board, department, or other authority responsible for elevator permitting, inspection, testing, and enforcement.
Defines the buildings, agencies, accessibility requirements, testing procedures, and national safety standards governed by the Act, including the ASME safety codes, federal and nationally recognized accessibility standards, and the state bodies responsible for code adoption and elevator enforcement.
Section 4. Statewide Acceptance of Current Elevator Safety Standards.
(a) The State Code Body and all jurisdictions within the state shall, not later than one (1) year after the effective date of this Act, permit the use of equipment that complies with the Latest Published Version of the Safety Code for Elevators and Escalators, without state or local modification, except where modification is required by federal law.
(b) The State Code Body and all jurisdictions within the state shall, not later than one (1) year after the effective date of this Act, permit the use of equipment, methods, and systems that comply with the Latest Published Version of the Performance-Based Safety Code, without state or local modification, except where modification is required by federal law.
(c) No local jurisdiction shall prohibit, condition, or delay the use of equipment or methods authorized by this Section on the basis that the equipment or method is not specifically described in a prescriptive state or local code provision, if it is authorized by the applicable standard identified in this Section.
(d) The State Elevator Authority shall recognize compliance with the standards identified in this Section as sufficient to satisfy state and local technical safety requirements, except where federal law requires a different rule.
(e) The State Code Body and all jurisdictions shall adopt subsequent published editions of the standards identified in this Section through a ministerial update process not later than [six (6)] months after publication, unless federal law requires a different rule or the State Code Body and all jurisdictions makes a written finding that a specific provision conflicts with binding state or federal law.
This section requires the jurisdiction to, at a minimum, adopt the unmodified American Society for Mechanical Engineers model code. Local governments are prohibited from delaying projects based on prescriptive local rules if the technology is already approved by these national standards. It also establishes a 6-month ministerial update process to automatically adopt future code updates.
Section 5. Category 5 Testing Reform.
(a) Alternative methods that do not require the use of rated load shall be permitted for Category 5 Testing in all jurisdictions within the state.
(b) No state agency or local jurisdiction shall impose additional testing requirements, equipment requirements, or approval conditions for such alternative methods beyond those required by the applicable referenced safety standard.
(c) The State Elevator Authority may require documentation demonstrating that the testing method used complies with the referenced safety standard, but shall not require separate discretionary approval of a testing method that is already authorized by that standard, even where the standard requires such approval.
This section permits modern, no-load alternative testing methods already recognized by national standards, eliminating unnecessary labor costs and reducing wear and tear on the equipment.
Section 6. Elevator Size Reform for Apartment Buildings.
(a) The State Code Body shall not require, in the state building code, local building codes, elevator code, or any referenced standards, passenger elevators in Apartment Buildings that are not more than six (6) stories above grade and contain not more than twenty-four (24) dwelling units in total to be larger than the minimum size necessary to comply with Accessibility Standards.
(b) No local jurisdiction shall impose or enforce any elevator car size requirement for a building described in subdivision (a) that exceeds the Accessibility Standards
(c) Any state or local requirement that effectively mandates elevator cars larger than those necessary to satisfy Accessibility Standards in the building types described in subdivision (a) is preempted and shall not be enforced.
Determines that for apartment buildings up to 6 stories and 24 units, local jurisdictions are prohibited from mandating elevator cabs larger than required by federal accessibility rules.
Section 7. Hoistway Opening Protection Reform for Apartment Buildings.
(a) The State Code Body shall not require, in the state building code, local building codes, or any referenced standards, elevator hoistway opening protection in the form of elevator lobbies, elevator hoistway pressurization, additional doors provided at elevator hoistway doors, or smoke-protective curtain assemblies for elevators serving Apartment Buildings not more than four hundred twenty (420) feet in building height, unless the elevator is required to function as a fire service access elevator or occupant evacuation elevator.
(b) No local jurisdiction shall impose or enforce the protections described in subdivision (a) for elevators serving Apartment Buildings not more than four hundred twenty (420) feet in building height unless the elevator serves as a fire service access elevator or occupant evacuation elevator function.
(c) A state or local jurisdiction shall not require the protections described in subdivision (a) solely because an elevator hoistway connects multiple stories in an Apartment Building that is below the thresholds otherwise requiring a fire service access elevator or occupant evacuation elevator.
(d) Nothing in this Section shall prohibit a building owner or applicant from voluntarily providing elevator lobbies, hoistway pressurization, additional hoistway-opening doors, or smoke-protective curtain assemblies.
Eliminates requirements for dedicated elevator lobbies, pressurization, or smoke-protective curtain assemblies for buildings under 420 feet in height, unless the elevator specifically serves an emergency evacuation function. This frees up valuable square footage and slices construction costs, while preserving specialized firefighting capabilities.
Section 8. Standards Harmonization Policy.
(a) It is the policy of this state that nationally recognized code and standard developing organizations related to elevators should harmonize their codes and standards with those of the International Organization for Standardization.
(b) The purpose of this policy is to help ensure that equipment and methods available in peer nations are also available in the United States and to support a more competitive market for elevators.
(c) The State Code Body and State Elevator Authority may communicate this policy to the International Code Council, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and other relevant standard developing organizations.
Declares it the policy of the state to encourage standard-setting bodies (like the ICC and ASME) to harmonize US codes with international standards (ISO) to drive down equipment costs through global competition.
Section 9. Uniform Statewide Application .
[This section is not necessary if a state already has a single code and regulatory authority]
(a) The standards and permissions established by this Act shall apply uniformly throughout the state.
(b) A local jurisdiction shall not adopt or enforce any ordinance, code amendment, policy, bulletin, guideline, condition, or practice that conflicts with this Act.
(c) Any local requirement inconsistent with this Act is preempted and shall not be enforced.
(d) A person or an organization whose membership is adversely affected by any ordinance, code amendment, policy, bulletin, guideline, condition, or practice, whether written or unwritten, promulgated or caused to be enforced in violation of this section may file suit against the local jurisdiction in any court of this state having jurisdiction over the local jurisdiction for declaratory and injunctive relief and for actual damages caused by the violation.
Ensures absolute preemption—local jurisdictions cannot enact their own restrictive rules, and affected parties have the right to sue noncompliant local governments for damages and injunctive relief.
Statewide alignment of both codes and inspections would streamline compliance and reduce costs over time.
Section 10. Implementation.
(a) The State Code Body and State Elevator Authority shall adopt or amend any regulations, forms, bulletins, and administrative procedures necessary to implement this Act within the deadlines specified herein.
(b) If the State Code Body or State Elevator Authority fails to adopt implementing regulations by the required deadline, the substantive rights and permissions established by this Act shall remain self-executing and enforceable.
(c) Any permit application, plan review, inspection, or approval submitted after the applicable implementation deadline shall be processed in a manner consistent with this Act.
Declares the law self-executing if state agencies fail to issue guidelines by the deadline.
Section 11. Severability
If any provision of this Act or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of this Act that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this Act are severable.
States that the provisions of the Act are severable if any provision is determined to be invalid.
Section 12. Effective Date
This Act shall take effect [____ months] following enactment.
Optional Appendix A. International Standards Alternative Compliance Pathway
(a) The State Code Body and all jurisdictions within the state may, not later than two (2) years after the effective date of this Act, permit the use of equipment and methods that comply with the International Organization for Standardization ISO 8100 family of elevator safety standards as an alternative compliance pathway.
(b) Compliance with the ISO 8100 family of standards may be accepted in lieu of compliance with the standards identified in Section 4, to the extent consistent with federal law and comply with Accessibility Standards.
(c) The State Code Body shall establish a ministerial administrative pathway for demonstrating compliance under this Section, including identification of the specific ISO 8100 standards recognized by the state, required documentation, equivalency review procedures if needed, and the relationship of those standards to existing state code provisions.
(d) In establishing the pathway described in subdivision (c), the State Code Body may evaluate methods used in the United States to recognize, incorporate, or cross-reference standards that were not originally developed as domestic model codes, including product standards, consensus standards, and performance-based standards adopted through referenced-standard or equivalency processes.
(e) No local jurisdiction shall prohibit, condition, or delay the use of equipment or methods authorized by this Appendix on the basis that the equipment or method was developed under a non-United States standard, if the equipment or method complies with the standards recognized pursuant to this Section and any applicable federal law.
Creates an alternative pathway allowing compliance with the ISO 8100 family of elevator safety standards, opening the door for affordable, high-quality international elevator designs to be used directly in the United States. The pathway is intended to make safe international elevator equipment more available in the United States while preserving applicable federal accessibility requirements and state oversight.
Lessons from other states
Elevator reform is rare, in part because monopolistic markets create powerful special interests with strong incentives to maintain the status quo. Following a 2024 report by the Center for Building in North America, Washington and Indiana passed bills narrowly focused on federal accessibility standards, allowing more cost-effective elevators in small apartment buildings. Fully harmonizing U.S. elevator codes with national and international standards remains a much larger challenge.
Internationally, New Zealand folded international elevator standards into its national building code with the passage of the Building Act 1991.
Washington – enacted 2026
Washington passed an amended version of Senate Bill 5156, which directs the state’s building code council to tackle the issue as part of their 2027 code update. The bill also allows smaller elevators in buildings of up to 24 units or 6 stories, provided that they meet federal accessibility requirements. The Urbanist reported earlier in the year that the original bill, which directed the state Department of Labor & Industries to modernize elevator standards whole cloth, faced stiff opposition from the Seattle-area elevator mechanics union, IUEC Local 19, over the previous year.
- Washington's Elevator Reform Bill Rises Again, The Urbanist (February 2026)
- Elevator Followup: Reform Bill Watered Down, PubliCola (February 2026)
- Elevating the Affordable Housing Issue, PubliCola (February 2026)
- Washington State Leads on Elevator Reform, Sightline Institute (March 2026)
Indiana – enacted 2026
Under House Bill 1001, sponsored by state House Rep. Doug Miller, R-Elkhart, apartment buildings of up to 3 stories and 24 dwelling units to have “shall be permitted to have a passenger elevator not larger than an elevator that accommodates a wheelchair.”
New Zealand – enacted 1991
New Zealand (NZ) adopted global elevator standards in 1997-98, mandated by the Building Act of 1991, which overhauled all building codes. Technically, the international standard remains an “alternative solution,” but the old national standards are functionally obsolete.
What happened:
- Supported by major elevator firms as a cost-reduction measure, though controversial within the industry initially
- Prices plateaued for 3-5 years after harmonization following a period of price increases before harmonization; the existing elevator market was disrupted by more affordable, newly available options
- Service contracts shortened from 10-20 years to 3-5 years, driven by more competition in the market
- Seismic standards still require NZ-specific customization
- The transition required investment in workforce training; elevator technicians needed retraining on unfamiliar equipment
“I understand the fear... But the opportunity costs for the market, for the users, for the punters who are buying and using the equipment are immense.”
— Lyall Senior, Vice Chair Management Team, The Association of Building Compliance
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