The West Hollywood City Council voted last night to extend its protection of condo owners from the cost of earthquake retrofitting. The council had voted on June 19 to exempt condominiums from having to protect their buildings against earthquakes. Its decision last night also would exempt condo associations from having to conduct studies to determine whether their buildings were at risk from an earthquake. That decision ensures that information that a building is at risk of earthquake damage can’t be used by insurers to raise the condo building’s rates or by prospective buyers who might be dissuaded from making an offer.
The City Council agreed in April to require so-called “seismic-retrofitting” for wood-frame buildings with soft or open front walls such as those with first floor “tucked in” parking areas. It asked city staffers then to return with more information on a proposal to require strengthening of non-ductile concrete and steel frame buildings, which typically is the structure of multi-story residential buildings. “Non-ductile” refers to brittle concrete that isn’t reinforced with metal mesh or bars.
The proposal brought before the Council in June noted the opposition of local condo owners to required retro-fitting of non-ductile concrete and steel frame buildings owned by condo associations. The final resolution concerning such buildings that the Council reviewed last night eliminated that requirement. However it did include a requirement that owners of condo and apartment buildings identified as at risk conduct seismic studies and provide them to the city.
Several condo residents spoke before the Council last night, saying that retrofitting their buildings to protect them in the event of an earthquake would be too expensive. The father of one condo owner, who identified himself as a risk consultant, said there is a small chance of an earthquake that would affect West Hollywood and a small chance that a seismic retrofit would make a difference if it did. Councilmember John Duran, however, noted that the U.S. Geological Survey has says there is a 50% chance that there will be an earthquake in the Los Angeles area in the next 25 years. One major earthquake fault, the Hollywood fault, runs along Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood.
Duran noted that there are office buildings and hotels in West Hollywood built in the 1920s and 1950s that might be at risk. Mayor John Heilman said the city hadn’t heard from owners of hotels or high rise office buildings that would be affected by the seismic retrofit requirements and should reach out to them.
While owners of condos will get a pass, owners of the 780 “soft-story” apartment buildings in West Hollywood have until 2023 to retrofit them to protect them from earthquake damage. Such retrofits could require four steel frames for a total cost of about $160,000 per building. The City Council has asked that a consultant study whether building owners should be allowed to pass some of the retrofit costs on to a building’s residents. No state or federal grants are available for seismic retrofits, but a few companies do offer loan programs.Owners of at-risk apartment buildings will be required to retrofit them and may be allowed to pass along some of the cost of that to their tenants.
