DATE: July 19, 2016
TO: Mayor and City Council
FROM: Development Services Director
SUBJECT
Title
Overview of Seismic Retrofits for Soft Story Buildings
End
RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
That the City Council reviews this report and attachments, and provides direction to staff on the creation of a mandatory soft story building retrofit ordinance, particularly related to the policy decisions identified in the Discussion section of this report.
Body
SUMMARY
This report provides a framework for developing new regulations to require seismic upgrades to soft-story buildings in Hayward, with three key policy decisions identified: amortization and pass-through costs; implementation timing; and building standards/objectives. Soft story collapse can lead to loss of life and property, high demand for emergency shelter during earthquake response, and the permanent depletion of Hayward's affordable and multi-family housing stock in the long term. Some of Hayward's most vulnerable residents are renters who live in these buildings, including low-income families, young people, and the elderly. ABAG has developed and released this past March a Policy Guidance document for Soft Story Retrofit Program Development, and this report uses information from that document.
Such efforts will not only save lives and property, but will improve the ability to recover from an earthquake that is predicted to occur in the future. In addition, such efforts to respond to the issue of earthquake vulnerability in our community fulfills the Council's "Safe" priority, is consistent with General Plan Policy Haz-2.9 (Seismic Retrofits), and is a top mitigation strategy in the existing and draft new Local Hazard Mitigation Plan for the City of Hayward.
BACKGROUND
The City of Hayward is at high risk of experiencing a major earthquake in the next 30 years. As a major population center, the City is home to many so-called "soft story" buildings. These buildings are genera...
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