The San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed legislation on March 16, 2010 introduced by Mayor Gavin Newsom to support property owners throughout San Francisco who act immediately to voluntarily retrofit and strengthen wood framed, soft story homes and multi-unit buildings to help protect them from collapse due to a major earthquake. When the next earthquake occurs, San Francisco's overall economic resiliency will depend on structurally safe housing for people to live in. BOMA San Francisco members understand that the small businesses in our commercial buildings can only operate when their employees have a seismicly safe place to live.
Click here to read the ordinance.
The new legislation, which takes effect on April 19, 2010:
- Waives Building and Planning Department Plan Review fees – saving hundreds or even thousands of dollars per project.
- Expedites the processing, review and approval of permits for voluntary seismic retrofit upgrades of soft-story, wood-frame buildings – buildings identified as likely to collapse during the next major earthquake in a January 2009 study by the Community Action Plan for Seismic Safety (CAPSS); and
- Enables those who retrofit voluntarily now, and who meet the building performance standard established by the Department of Building Inspection (DBI) for these voluntary retrofits, to be exempt for 15 years from any requirements that may be adopted in the near future as mandatory retrofitting legislation is enacted.
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