Required amount of exits

[Connor Bause]

I am currently house hacking/BRRRR a duplex in downtown Savannah Georgia. I have a really small back yard that I am about to get started on. The downstairs unit has a back door that enters the backyard. The upstairs unit also has a deck with a stair case that leads down into the backyard. It takes up most of the room and is an eye sore, and I wanted to see if I were legally able to remove the stairs and just leave them with the deck. They will have the front door entrance through the common space. The back door to the deck will remain, but technically speaking, will a door with no staircase down count as a needed escape?

Any insight on if this is legal or not will greatly help. 

[Stephen Korn]

Just to second what @Arlan Potter said, spend a hour or so at the City Hall or County admin building, talk with a building permit folks, they're general very helpful, and its a great free resource.   You may not like what they tell you, sometimes their requirements can be difficult to reasonably accomplish, but at least you have the info directly from the Building Dept. and can decide what to do from there.  Also, they may be concerned about a tenant only being able to exit through a shared egress area, if that were new construction the common space would likely have to be fire rated construction.