Occupancy load

The legal maximum number of people allowed in a space, set by the fire authority and posted in the room.

How it works in practice

The occupant load is set by the fire authority and posted in the room, usually on a sign near the main door. It is a legal maximum. A venue sales person may tell you a room “does 300 for a party”, but if the posted number is 250, the room does 250, staff and performers included.

The Ontario Building Code sets the floor area per person by use. Planners need four of them:

Those are code calculations, not comfort levels. Exits, washroom counts and other limits can make the posted number lower. Whichever is lower wins. If a room has several posted signs for different layouts, use the one that matches how you will actually set it.

Worked numbers

The Harbour Gala ballroom is 420 m². At the code dining figure it could hold about 440. But a banquet with a stage, a dance floor, a bar and two pillars plans more comfortably at 1.0–1.1 m² per seat once the stage and floor are taken out. The gala seats 200 at 20 rounds of 10, well inside both numbers, with room for the mentalist’s stage and an egress path that stays clear.

How to handle it

1. Ask the venue for the posted occupant load for each room in the layout you plan to use.
2. Count everyone: guests, staff, vendors, performers, photographers.
3. Subtract floor taken by stage, dance floor, bars, buffets and FOH before calculating seats.
4. Plan to the comfortable density, not the code maximum.
5. For standing events, manage crowd density with counts at the door.

The venue capacity calculator runs these figures by layout, and the venue tour checklist reminds you to photograph the posted sign.