USA: Oakland to mandate seismic retrofits of unsafe apartment buildings
By Kimberly Veklerov
The Oakland City Council on Friday unanimously passed an ordinance that will require property owners to add seismic retrofits to soft-story apartment buildings in the next six years.
The city law applies to certain types of old, wood-frame residences with at least two stories and five or more units. Soft-story buildings often have commercial retail or parking in the ground floor — vulnerable structural openings that could lead to collapse during a powerful earthquake.
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“We all know that it’s only a matter of time before a major earthquake ... hits the East Bay,” City Councilman Dan Kalb, who introduced the measure, said at the council meeting. “The potential damage would be devastating, in all seriousness, on multiple levels, in loss of life and massive displacement.”
Under the proposal, up to 70 percent of the costs of the retrofit can be passed on to tenants over a 25-year period. Tenants forced to move out while the work is done would be eligible for relocation payments from owners, who can apply for financial assistance from the city, which received grant money from state and federal programs.
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