sr-041481-6c
CA:SSS:LBC:bl
Council Tieeting 4/14/81 Santa Monica, California
STAFF MEETING
T0: Mayor and City Council
FROM: City Attorney
SUBJECT: Amending the Uniform Administrative Code to Include
a Seismic Safety Provision, Filing an Amended Notice
of Substandard and Potentially Hazardous Building
and Notifying Building Owners .Subject to the
Proposed Ordinance
Ii~iTRODUCTION
This report transmits for second reading a proposed
ordinance amending the Uniform Administrative Code to include a
seismic safety provision requiring pre-1915 non-residential
unreinforced mansonry buildings to comply with 1915 standards.'
It also transmits a proposed notice to be filed with the County
itecorder amending the Notice of Substandard and Potentially
Hazardous Building filed in June 1978. This report also presents
a proposed notification letter to the building owners subject to the
proposed ordinance.
-iQ-i.VRTC
The Ordinance
The proposed ordinance requires.that any buildings built
prior to 1915 must be certified in writing by a licensed architect
or engineer that (1) the roof and walls are tied and anchored
and (2) the parapets are anchored. The standard for this can be
either the 1915 or 1921 Santa Monica Building Code.
fed
The Amended Notice
In April 1977, the Council directed the Building
Department to undertake a study of pre-1933 earthquake hazardous
buildings. This included collecting additional factual data on
these buildings and rating them on a preliminary hazard index.
It also entailed filing recorded notices of potentially hazardous
buildings.
Notices were filed with the County Recorder in June 1978
after over a year of data collection and study. These notices
which were filed on 243 Santa Monica buildings read in oast as
follows:
NOTICE OF SUBSTANDARD AND POTENTIALLY
HAZARDOUS BUILDING
Notice is hereby given that those certain
buildings described and known as:
on the below property have been declared
"Potentially Hazardous" by the Building. Officer
of the City of Santa Monica for the following
described conditions:.
Inspection and review indicates that
the subject building is of a design and
type of unreinforced construction that
does not conform to the 1933 minimum
California earthquake safety standards.
Ref.: California Administrative Code
Title 24, Chapter 2, Article 23, Section
T17-2314
To date, at least 15 buildings .have been rehabilitated to the
1933 standards of seismic safety. A "Termination of Notice of
Substandard and Hazardous Building" has been filed with the County
Recorder in each instance.
The proposed ordinance only affects pre-1915 buildings
and only requires compliance with 1915 or 1921 codes. Owners of
buildings built between 1915 and 1934 would not be required to do
-2-
anything. However, since recorded notices cannot be unrecorded,
only compliance with 1933 standards could actually terminate the
existing notices. The proposed amended notice states as follows:
AMENDED NOTICE OF SUBSTANDARD AND
POTENTIALLY HAZARDOUS BUILDING
Notice is hereby given by the City Council
of the City of .Santa. Monica that those certain
buildings described and known as:
on the below property have met the minimum
structural standards of the City of Santa i~2onica.
This document is being recorded to notify all
interested parties of the above action.
This proposed notice would be a public record as to the
buildings' compliance with local standards. It would be filed
on all pre-1934 and post-1915 buildings originally filed upon and
on all pre-1915 buildings as they become certified. Both the
original notice and the amended notice will be public record as
to the condition of the building and its compliance with the law..
Neither notice, however, affects the title to any property in any
manner.
The Proposed Notification Letter
A proposed letter to notify pre-1915 building owners
has been drafted by the Building Department. The letter states
the options and alternatives to modifying these buildings. A
copy of the ordinance will be enclosed with. the letter. The
proposed mailing schedule is +(1} to-all 2:0 property o~~ners on
July 1, 1981, and (2) to all remaining non-conforming property
owners on the first of July, 1982, 1983, 1984 and P+iay 1, 1985.
-3-
ALTERNATIVES AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The Council may either adopt, amend or send the proposed
ordinance back f_or further study. If the Council adopts the
proposed ordinance, it is respectfully recommended that the
amended notice and letter bf notification be approved for
recordation and mailing.
Prepared by: Stephen Shane Stark, Acting City Attorney
Lyn Beckett Cacciatore, Deputy City Attorney
William D. Rome, Building Officer
Att.: The Ordinance
Amended Notice
Notification Letter
-4-