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Private schools in SF require seismic engineering evaluation

The Private Schools Earthquake Safety Working Group, comprised of volunteer parents, school representatives, other interested persons, and City staff presented a report that resulted in having a new legislation introduced requiring all Private Schools to perform a seismic evaluation by 2017.   Buildings within the scope of the ordinance to be evaluated at one of two levels of analysis, depending on the school’s student population size. The retrofit is NOT required at this time.

Private schools are regulated at the local level, with no special requirements over regular buildings while Public schools are regulated at the state level by the Division of State Architect, formed in 1933 in response to the school collapses after Long Beach earthquake. With 1/3 of school aged children in San Francisco attending private schools, the lower seismic safety standards of Private Schools is of special concern to the City and it’s ability to recover after the next big Earthquake.  While this is not exactly Soft Story related, this may affect the owners of Soft story Building as it will stretch resources of seismic retrofit minded engineering firms even further.

For more information see the city of San Francisco website at http://www.sfgsa.org/index.aspx?page=6047.

 

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