5 stories is hardly a highrise.
I remember the original debate. At the time, the city had just purchased a new ladder truck, and someone decided that it wouldn't be "safe" to have a building higher than the seven stories the truck could reach.
So they "wisely" wrote that into code. Good heavens, we can't risk our students, can we?
Then a few years ago a company built a highrise with "vaulted ceilings", so that it was technically seven stories, but much taller.
I'm assuming the City Council had some sort of backlash to their will being thwarted.
Kind of amazing that public perception would be that the only way out of a burning high rise is via a ladder truck. Too bad there aren't any
construction engineers or
architects in town.
