BILL NUMBER: AB 2181 INTRODUCED
BILL TEXT
INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Bloom
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
An act to amend Sections 19160, 19161, 19162, and 19163 of the
Health and Safety Code, relating to building standards.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
AB 2181, as introduced, Bloom. Building standards: seismic
retrofit.
Existing law authorizes a city, city and county, or county to
establish, by ordinance, building seismic retrofit standards
applicable to the seismic retrofit of any buildings identified, as
specified, by the city, city and county, or county as being hazardous
to life if an earthquake occurs. Existing law identifies specified
types of buildings as potentially hazardous under these provisions,
including certain unreinforced masonry buildings and specified
woodframe, multiunit residential buildings constructed before January
1, 1978.
This bill would additionally authorize each city, city and county,
or county to require that owners assess the earthquake hazard of
soft story and older concrete buildings, and would include concrete
residential buildings that were constructed prior to the adoption of
local building codes that ensure ductility, as specified, as
potentially hazardous if an earthquake occurs. The bill would
authorize a city, city and county, or to employ seismic evaluation of
older concrete residential buildings to address individual
seismically hazardous buildings without regard to how the buildings
came to the attention of its officials. The bill would require the
seismic retrofit of a concrete residential building identified as
potentially hazardous to comply with the recommendations of a
qualified expert, with nationally recognized research
recommendations, or with a nationally recognized model cake, as
specified.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. Section 19160 of the Health and Safety Code is amended
to read:
19160. The Legislature finds and declares that:
(a) The harmful effects of future earthquakes can be reduced
through sound retrofitting programs, also known as reconstruction
programs.
(a)
(b) Because of the
generally acknowledged fact United States
Geological Survey predicts a greater than 99 percent likelihood
that California will experience moderate to severe earthquakes
in the foreseeable future before 2038 ,
increased efforts to reduce earthquake hazards should be encouraged
and supported.
(b)
(c) Tens of thousands of buildings subject
to severe earthquake hazards continue to be a serious danger to the
life and safety of hundreds of thousands of Californians who live and
work in them in the event of an earthquake. The buildings
themselves are also at risk.
(c)
(d) Improvement of safety to life is the
primary goal of building reconstruction to reduce earthquake hazards.
(e) Because every dollar spent on mitigation saves several dollars
in future postdisaster expenditures, a second major goal is to
reduce public costs for disaster relief.
(d)
(f) In order to make building
the evaluation and reconstruction of
buildings that are at high risk of seismic failure economically
feasible for , and to provide
improvement of improve the safety of life in
, seismically hazardous these
buildings, building standards enacted by local government for
building reconstruction may differ from building standards which
govern new building construction.
(g) Because higher costs will discourage necessary reconstruction,
the standards that govern new buildings should not apply to
reconstruction unless they are needed to achieve the desired increase
in seismic capacity.
(h) "Older concrete residential buildings," also known as
"nonductile concrete residential buildings" and "pre-1980 concrete
residential buildings," are a subset of concrete buildings that may
be unable to resist earthquake motion. They include lift-slab
buildings with concrete lateral force resisting systems.
(i) These buildings were a prevalent construction type in highly
seismic zones prior to the mid-1970s, are an important component of
the state's housing stock, and are in jeopardy of being lost in the
event of a major earthquake.
(j) The California Office of Emergency Services reports that
concrete buildings, particularly older ones with high numbers of
occupants, can collapse and kill hundreds, and are the fastest
growing cause of earthquake losses around the world.
(k) During an earthquake, older concrete residential buildings may
create dangerous conditions, as illustrated by the catastrophic
damage or collapse of older concrete buildings in the earthquakes of
San Fernando, Loma Prieta, and Northridge, California (1971, 1989,
and 1994), Kobe, Japan (1995), Chi Chi, Taiwan (1999), Kocaeli,
Duzce, and Bingol, Turkey (1999, 1999, and 2003), Sumatra (2005),
Pakistan (2005), Sichuan, China (2008), Haiti (2010) and
Christchurch, New Zealand (2011).
(l) California instituted building code changes in the mid-1970s
to prevent these problems in future construction, but four decades
later, the great majority of California's concrete buildings that
were constructed before these changes have still not been evaluated
or retrofitted.
(m) The assistance of the public is necessary in identifying older
concrete buildings, because no accurate inventory of older concrete
buildings exists, and none can be compiled by external appearances or
an examination of public records.
(n) Once identified, older concrete buildings must be evaluated
individually by a qualified architect or engineer to assess their
seismic capacity and whether reconstruction is necessary.
(o) The failure of older concrete apartment buildings is likely to
be the source of a disproportionate share of the public shelter
population in areas of the state where they are occupied by the very
poor, the very old, and the very young.
(e)
(p) "Soft story" residential buildings are a
subset of multistory woodframe structures that may have inadequately
braced lower stories that may not be able to resist earthquake
motion.
(f)
(q) Soft story residential buildings are an
important component of the state's housing stock and are in jeopardy
of being lost in the event of a major earthquake.
(g)
(r) Soft story residential buildings were
responsible for 7,700 of the 16,000 housing units rendered
uninhabitable by the Loma Prieta earthquake and over 34,000 of the
housing units rendered uninhabitable by the Northridge earthquake.
(h)
(s) During an earthquake, soft story
residential buildings may create dangerous conditions as illustrated
in the Northridge Meadows apartment failure that claimed the lives of
16 residents.
(i)
(t) The collapse of soft story residential
buildings can ignite fires that threaten trapped occupants and
neighboring buildings and complicates emergency response.
(j)
(u) The Association of Bay Area Governments
(ABAG) estimates that soft story residential buildings will be
responsible for 66 percent of the uninhabitable housing following an
event on the Hayward fault.
(k)
(v) The failure of soft story residential
buildings is estimated by ABAG to be the source of a disproportionate
share of the public shelter population because they tend to be
occupied by the very poor, the very old, and the very young.
(l)
(w) The Seismic Safety Commission has
recommended that legislation be enacted to require state and local
building code enforcement agencies to identify potentially hazardous
buildings and to adopt mandatory mitigation programs that will
significantly reduce unacceptable hazards in buildings by 2020.
(m)
(x) The current nationally recognized model
code codes relating to the retrofit of
existing buildings is Appendix Chapter A4 of
are the International Existing Building Code and the
Seismic Evaluation and Retrofit of Existing Buildings by the American
Society of Civil Engineers . However, it is not the intent of
the Legislature, if other research-based recommendations or
model codes relating to the retrofit of existing buildings are
developed, to limit the California Building Standards Commission or a
local government, pursuant to Section 19162, to adopting a
particular research-based recommendation or model code.
Equally, the Legislature does not intend for local governments
to delay needed evaluation and retrofitting programs in the hope that
improved methods to evaluate and retrofit buildings may be
developed. Rather, the Legislature finds that existing scientific
knowledge permits immediate evaluations and retrofitting of older
concrete buildings to significantly increase the safety of life in
and reduce earthquake damage to seismically hazardous older concrete
buildings.
(n)
(y) Therefore, it is the intent of the
Legislature to encourage cities and counties to address the seismic
safety of older concrete residential buildings and
soft story residential buildings and encourage local
governments to initiate efforts by encouraging and
imitating programs to inform owners, residents, and the public about
the dangers of these potentially hazardous buildings, mandate their
evaluation at owner expense, and require retrofitting to reduce
the seismic risk in vulnerable soft story residential
buildings those that are unacceptably hazardous
.
SEC. 2. Section 19161 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to
read:
19161. (a) Each city, city and county, or county, may assess the
earthquake hazard in its jurisdiction or require that owners
assess the earthquake hazard of soft story and older concrete
buildings, and thereby identify buildings subject to
its jurisdiction as being potentially hazardous to life in the event
of an earthquake. Potentially hazardous buildings include , but
are not limited to, all of the following:
(1) Unreinforced masonry buildings constructed prior to the
adoption of local building codes requiring earthquake resistant
design of buildings that are constructed of unreinforced masonry wall
construction and exhibit any of the following characteristics:
(A) Exterior parapets or ornamentation that may fall.
(B) Exterior walls that are not anchored to the floors or roof.
(C) Lack of an effective system to resist seismic forces.
(2) Woodframe, multiunit residential buildings constructed before
January 1, 1978, where the ground floor portion of the structure
contains parking or other similar open floor space that causes soft,
weak, or open-front wall lines, as provided in a nationally
recognized model code relating to the retrofit of existing buildings
or substantially equivalent standards.
(3) Concrete residential buildings, including lift-slab buildings
with concrete lateral force resisting systems, that were constructed
prior to the adoption of local building codes that ensure ductility.
(b) Structural evaluations made pursuant to this section shall be
made by an architect as defined in Section 5500 of the Business and
Professions Code, or a civil or structural engineer registered
pursuant to Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 6700) of Division 3 of
the Business and Professions Code, or staff of the enforcing agency,
as described in Section 17960, supervised by an architect or civil
or structural engineer authorized by this subdivision to make the
structural evaluations.
SEC. 3. Section 19162 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to
read:
19162. (a) Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 19100 or
19150 or any other provision of law, the governing body of any city,
city and county, or county may, by ordinance, establish building
seismic retrofit standards applicable to the seismic retrofit of any
buildings identified pursuant to paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of
Section 19161 by the city, city and county, or county as being
potentially hazardous to life in the event of an earthquake.
(b) (1) Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 19100, 19150, or
any other provision of law, the governing body of any city, city and
county, or county may, by ordinance, establish building seismic
retrofit standards applicable to the seismic retrofit of any
buildings identified pursuant to paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of
Section 19161 by the city, city and county, or county as being
potentially hazardous to life in the event of an earthquake. Any
standards established pursuant to this section shall apply until the
effective date of building standards adopted by the California
Building Standards Commission relating to the retrofit of existing
buildings, if any, at which time the standards adopted by the
commission as amended by the city, county, or city and county
pursuant to Section 17958.5 shall apply.
(2) A local ordinance establishing building seismic retrofit
standards applicable to soft story residential structures adopted
before January 1, 2006, shall remain in full force and effect until
the effective date of building standards adopted by the California
Building Standards Commission relating to the retrofit of existing
buildings unless the city, county, or city and county after January
1, 2006, adopts an ordinance pursuant to paragraph (1).
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of Section 19100 or 19150 or
any other provision of law, the governing body of any city, city and
county, or county may do both of the following:
(1) Employ seismic evaluations of older concrete residential
buildings, including lift-slab buildings with concrete lateral force
resisting systems, to address individual seismically hazardous
buildings, without regard to how these buildings came to the
attention of its officials.
(2) Establish, by ordinance, building seismic retrofit standards
applicable to the seismic retrofit of any of these buildings that are
potentially hazardous to life in the event of an earthquake. Any
standards established pursuant to this paragraph shall apply until
the effective date of applicable building standards adopted by the
California Building Standards Commission relating to the retrofit of
existing buildings, if any, at which time the standards adopted by
the commission as amended by the city, city and county or county
pursuant to Section 17958.5 shall apply.
(c)
(d) Building seismic retrofit standards
adopted pursuant to this section may be applied uniformly throughout
the city, city and county, or county, or may be applied in specific
areas designated by the city, city and county, or county , or to
specific buildings within the city, city and county, or county if
those buildings are those described in paragraph (3)
of subdivision (a) of Section 19161
.
(d)
(e) For purposes of this chapter, "seismic
retrofit" means either structural strengthening or providing the
means necessary to modify the seismic response that would otherwise
be expected by an existing building during an earthquake, to
significantly reduce hazards to life and safety while also providing
for the substantial safe ingress and egress of the building occupants
immediately after an earthquake.
SEC. 4. Section 19163 of the Health and Safety Code is amended to
read:
19163. Any local ordinance adopted pursuant to Section 19162
shall require the following:
(a) Any seismic retrofit of any building identified pursuant to
paragraph (1) of subdivision (a) of Section 19161 as being hazardous
to life in the event of an earthquake shall provide for the
reasonable adequacy of all of the following:
(1) Unreinforced masonry walls to resist normal and inplane
seismic forces.
(2) The anchorage and stability of exterior parapets and
ornamentation.
(3) The anchorage of unreinforced masonry walls to the floors and
roof.
(4) Floor and roof diaphragms.
(5) The development of a complete bracing system to resist
earthquake forces.
(b) Any seismic retrofit of any building identified pursuant to
paragraph (2) of subdivision (a) of Section 19161 as potentially
hazardous shall comply with a nationally recognized model code
relating to the retrofit of existing buildings or substantially
equivalent standards. If the city, county, or city and county adopts
local amendments to those provisions, it shall determine that the
amendments are consistent with Section 17958.5.
(c) Any seismic retrofit of any building identified pursuant to
paragraph (3) of subdivision (a) of Section 19161 as potentially
hazardous shall comply with the recommendations of a qualified expert
under paragraph (b) of Section 19161 or with nationally recognized
research recommendations, a nationally recognized model code relating
to the retrofit of existing buildings, or substantially equivalent
standards. If the city, city and county, or county adopts local
amendments to those provisions, it shall determine that the
amendments are consistent with Section 17958.5.
(c)
(d) Seismic retrofit of any building or
portions of any building shall be designed to resist and withstand
the seismic forces from any direction as set forth in the building
seismic retrofit standards using the allowable working stresses
adopted pursuant to this article.
(d)
(e) The governing board of any city, city
and county, or county may establish, by ordinance, standards and
procedures to fulfill the intent of paragraph (2) of subdivision (a)
without regard to the remainder of the requirements specified above.