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San Francisco rolls out ESIP plan, proposes mandatory early‑2013 soft‑story retrofit ordinance
Summary
City earthquake-safety director outlined a 30‑year Earthquake Safety Implementation Program and said legislation to require retrofits for pre‑1978 soft‑story wood‑frame buildings will be introduced in early 2013; staff emphasized a tiered, year‑long evaluation and outreach on financing and tenant protections.
Patrick Otellini, Director of Earthquake Safety for the City and County of San Francisco, told the Building Inspection Commission that the Earthquake Safety Implementation Program will include legislation "in early 2013 for the soft story ordinance." He described the ordinance as mandatory for a defined subset of wood‑frame, type‑V buildings built before 1978 that have five or more residential units and three or more stories.
Otellini said roughly 4,500 buildings meet the initial criteria and estimated that about 2,800–2,900 of those would be classified as soft‑story and thus subject to mandatory retrofit. The proposal uses a four‑tier structure and a year‑long initial evaluation to avoid overloading permitting services and to allow owners time to determine their required engineering work; full compliance timelines would range by tier, with some timelines extending to 2020.
The director emphasized financing outreach: "we've been developing finance products for nonprofit housing developers as well as for‑profit housing developers," and noted plans for a January financial summit that will include community lenders such as the Northern California Community Loan Fund, conventional banks and credit unions. Otellini also said ESIP will continue outreach to tenant groups and private schools and that a new web portal and public notifications are planned to make technical data and timelines available to property owners and residents.
Commissioners pressed on tenant protections and displacement risks. Otellini said the ordinance and implementation plan will prioritize avoiding tenant displacement by limiting retrofit scope where possible to the first story (work focused on commercial or parking areas) and by phasing compliance. He also described development of a screening tool and an opt‑out mechanism for owners who can show they are not subject to retrofit requirements, while cautioning the commission that safeguards will be required to prevent misuse of opt‑outs.
Next steps: staff said ordinance drafts are under review by the city attorney and that ESIP materials (including the work plan) are available through the City Administrator's website and will be integrated into a new ESIP public portal expected in early 2013. The commission encouraged continued outreach to low‑income tenant groups and code‑enforcement liaisons and requested regular implementation updates.
