Soft-Story
From past earthquakes, multi-story buildings with weak and/or open front wall lines creating a “soft-story” (i.e. buildings with tuck-under-parking) performed poorly and collapsed. The goal of the mandatory retrofit program is to reduce structural deficiencies by the most economical and feasible method. Without proper strengthening, these vulnerable buildings may be subjected to structural failure during and/or after an earthquake.
Buildings that are most vulnerable have been identified with the following criteria:
Buildings that are most vulnerable have been identified with the following criteria:
- Consist of 2 or more stories wood frame construction
- Built under building code standards enacted before January 1, 1978
- Contains ground floor parking or other similar open floor space
Each property owner of these buildings will be sent an order to comply. These orders will be send accordingly based on the following priorities:
The property owner must comply with the ordinance within the following time limits:
From the receipt of the Order to Comply:
From the receipt of the Order to Comply:
- 2 years: Submit proof of previous retrofit, or plans to retrofit or demolish
- 3.5 years: Obtain permit to start construction or demolition
- 7 years: Complete construction
Non-ductile Concrete
In the Northridge Earthquake, the Mexico City earthquake, and most recently the Christchurch New Zealand Earthquake, many concrete buildings constructed prior to the 1976 Los Angeles City Building Code provisions, or similar era codes in other countries, performed poorly and collapsed causing loss of human life, personal injury, and property damage. The poor performance of these older concrete buildings is due to deficiencies in the lateral force resisting system that render the building incapable of sustaining gravity loads when the building is subjected to an earthquake.
Buildings that are within the scope of this ordinance and require retrofitting are concrete buildings constructed before January 13, 1977.
Buildings that are within the scope of this ordinance and require retrofitting are concrete buildings constructed before January 13, 1977.
The property owner must comply with the ordinance within the following time limits:
From the receipt of the Order to Comply:
From the receipt of the Order to Comply:
- 3 years: Submit completed checklist for review to determine if building is a non-ductile concrete building
- 10 years: Submit proof of previous retrofit, or plans to retrofit or demolish and obtain permit to start construction
- 25 years: Complete construction
| la-softstory-multifamilyretrofit-ordinance.pdf |
