Mayor Garcetti and the LA City Council have enacted the nation’s toughest earthquake retrofit ordinance…Their vision and leadership will prove indispensable in making certain that the Los Angeles basin will survive the next major earthquake. This ordinance will ensure a significant reduction in loss of lives and prevent economic collapse. An estimated 13,500 soft-first-story buildings, which are typically wood-frame structures with large spaces such as parking lots on the ground floor will need to be retrofitted. As many as 1,500 brittle concrete buildings will also require upgrades.
Property owners have 5 years for wood soft-story apartments and 25 years for older concrete buildings.
Retrofitting is inconvenient and costly but doing nothing can prove devastating.
