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Los Angeles Jumps on Board with Soft Story retrofitting ordinance

According to the Los Angeles Daily News (“Apartment retrofit law advances at Los Angeles City Hall,” posted on 10/7/15), the Los Angeles City Council’s Housing Committee passed a retrofitting proposal Wednesday that will affect 13,500 soft story buildings. The proposal is expected to be approved by the full City Council when it meets Friday. Under the law being proposed, soft story building owners would have 7 years to upgrade their structures. Failing to do so could result in misdemeanor charges against the building owners.In light of the 200 soft story buildings destroyed during the 1994 Northridge earthquake, a plan like this couldn’t come soon enough and is an overall victory for the safety of LA residents. As Los Angeles City Councilman Felipe Fuentes, who sits on the housing committee, said “a (future) earthquake is inevitable”.

For Los Angeles building owners interested in knowing if their building is a soft story structure and what to expect in going through the retrofitting process, please see  http://www.enginious-structures.com/contact.html for my contact information. My firm has already helped dozens of soft story building owners up here in the Bay Area with seismic retrofits since local city ordinances addressing the issue started being passed 10 years ago.

 

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