Mayor Ed Lee signs mandatory seismic upgrades into law
Posted By: John Coté - San Francisco Chronicle "City Insider"There is always a nod to the past at the annual commemoration of the devastating 1906 earthquake and fire at Lotta's Fountain.
This year there was action for the future.
Besides the entire event getting shifted to Union Square because of a bomb scare, Mayor Ed Lee used the occasion to sign legislation requiring property owners to retrofit an estimated 3,000 large residential buildings prone to collapse in a major earthquake.
"Today, we renew our commitment to making sure that disasters such as the 1906 earthquake and fire do not devastate our city again," Lee said in statement afterward.
Lee's administration says the legislation, years in the making, will help ensure that housing for about 58,000 residents and businesses employing 7,000 workers will withstand a severe temblor.
Requiring such seismic upgrades had been a contentious issue for years among both property owners, who will be forced to pay an estimated $60,000 to $130,000 for the work, and tenant advocates, who are concerned rents could increase as much as $100 a month because 100 percent of the upgrade costs can be passed on to tenants.
The Board of Supervisors, though, citing safety needs, unanimously passed the legislation earlier this month after Lee's administration agreed to streamline what had been an onerous process for low-income and fixed-income residents to qualify for an exemption to the cost pass-through.
Under pending separate legislation, people like single parents on welfare or senior citizens on permanent disability will automatically qualify for an exemption.
The newly signed law applies to so-called soft-story buildings, those multistory, wood-frame buildings with a garage, large windows or similar opening on the ground floor.
The requirement covers only soft-story buildings built before 1978, that are at least three stories high and contain five or more dwelling units. The requirement does not apply to single-family homes. Buildings retrofitted within the last 15 years are also exempt.
In the coming months, the city will send notices to property owners indicating they may have a soft-story building. Property owners would then have one year to have an architect or engineer do an inspection to determine whether their building needs to be retrofitted.
Lee has rated seismic safety among his top concerns. Earlier Lee said that when he took over the mayoral reins from now-Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2011, Newsom warned him the next big one would likely hit on his watch.
"This was a priority of Mayor Lee's when he came into office," Jason Elliott, the mayor's legislative director, said before the signing ceremony. "It was something he worked on as city administrator, and ultimately it is going to save lives. That's the most important thing."
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