Soft-Story Seismic Evaluations
Soft-Story
Berkeley, CA
Many California cities are beginning to require evaluation and sometimes repair of soft-story buildings that include residential uses, and the structural engineers of Interactive Resources can assist owners of these buildings navigate their way through local ordinances and provide compliance quickly and cost effectively.
Soft-story buildings covered by these ordinances are typically multi-story apartment or condominium buildings built before as late as 1991 that have garages, carports or commercial spaces on the first floor. The lack of walls at the first story makes these building vulnerable to serious earthquake damage.
During the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, soft-story collapses killed 63 people and left 7,700 housing units uninhabitable. In the 1994 Northridge earthquake, soft-story apartment and condo buildings collapses killed 16 people were responsible for about two-thirds of the 46,000 uninhabitable housing units in the Northridge earthquake.
In 2005, AB 304 (now California Health and Safety Code Sections 19160 et seq.) allowed local jurisdictions to identify soft-story residential buildings that are potentially hazardous to life in the event of an earthquake and establish local standards for retrofitting them. Cities have taken varying approaches.
- Oakland requires the owner to make an evaluation of buildings designed prior to January 1, 1991, by August of 2011.
- San Francisco encourages voluntary upgrades of soft-story buildings by providing permit incentives, including expedited processing, fee reductions and exemptions from future mandatory requirements.
- Alameda requires mandatory evaluation of soft story buildings constructed prior to December17, 1985, not later than 18 months following notice by the city.
- Fremont requires evaluation of soft-story buildings constructed prior to January 1, 1978. Compliance is voluntary except for apartment houses, which must be upgraded within four to five years, depending on the number of units.
Interactive Resources has completed evaluations for many soft-story buildings in the East Bay area and has a good understanding of the requirements in each City. Our structural engineers can assist building owners in both understanding and complying with soft story ordinances in a timely and cost effective manner.
For more information on our soft-story services and projects, Please view our brochure here
(LINK).
