Item 8-A

Council Meeting: June 8, 1999 Santa Monica, California

TO: Mayor and City Council

FROM: City Staff

SUBJECT: Recommendation to Adopt a Resolution Making Findings of Local Climatic, Geological and Topographical Conditions as Required to Adopt Local Amendments to the California Building Standards Code; and Adopt the California Building Standards Code, Santa Monica Amendments to The California Building Standards Code, Other Technical Codes, New Technical Standards for the Existing Seismic Retrofit Requirements; and Declare the Presence of Emergency

This staff report explains the adoption process for building standards; why and how the City can amend these codes; and what amendments will benefit the City. This staff report recommends that the City Council adopt the attached resolution making findings of local climatic, geological and topographical conditions, which State law requires be adopted before the City can adopt local amendments to the California Building Standards Code (See Attachment A). This staff report also recommends introduction of the attached emergency ordinance that adopts the California Building Standards Code, other uniform technical codes, local amendments and new technical standards for the existing seismic retrofit requirements (See Attachment B).

Pursuant to the Health and Safety Code, the California Building Standards Code applies

throughout the State of California. This set of building standards incorporates by reference various model codes with amendments created by interested State agencies. The California Building Standards Commission publishes these amended codes once every three years. One hundred and eighty days later, all cities and counties must follow these building standards unless the local jurisdiction makes any amendments.

During the period between publication of the California Building Standards Code and mandatory local adoption, cities and counties may make amendments based on topographical, geological and climatic concerns. For amendments to be effective , the local governing body must make specific findings of any one of the aforementioned concerns, pass an ordinance adopting these amendments and file a copy of the express findings and local ordinance with the Building Standards Commission.

The new issues before the Council for adoption include:

• clarification of administrative provisions for permits and appeals

• supplemental seismic safety requirements

• supplemental fire prevention requirements

• improvements in building security and pool fencing requirements

• new electrical requirements not regulated by the model codes

• new plumbing requirements to protect ground water and the Santa Monica Bay

• adoption of seismic retrofit standards

• authorization of new fees for projects subject to the Seismic Hazards Mapping Act

• new property maintenance standards for existing buildings and structures

As part of the local adoption of the California Building Standards Code, the affected portions of the Santa Monica Municipal Code are reorganized to reduce the number of digits in all code references and match the majority format of our Code. Staff believes this will assist building inspectors and code compliance officers in citing code sections for notices of violation and citations. As part of this reorganization, new chapters of the Municipal Code have been created, but in most instances, the substantive provisions in these new chapters remain essentially the same as current law.

Some previous local amendments may now be deleted because they are now included in the California Building Standards Code or other technical codes adopted by reference. These include low flush fixtures and some fire prevention requirements. Existing requirements for seismic retrofitting and damage repair for the Northridge Earthquake are also separated in the reorganization so that the new retrofit design standards can be incorporated without conflict.

Boards of Appeal

Previous amendments to the 1994 Administrative Code created requirements and limits of authority for two appeals and advisory boards: the Building and Safety Commission and Accessibility Appeals Board. The new amendments will clarify the jurisdiction of each board in relation to the Nuisance Abatement Board. These amendments will give clear governing jurisdiction to the Nuisance Abatement Board for all items brought under abatement proceedings. They will also clarify the role of the Building and Safety Commission for appeals from all other technical codes except for issues of accessibility (See Section 8.08.020).

Required Permits

Building Permit Terms

In the past, the City experienced a number of situations where minimal construction work was performed under a building permit, and completion of the project stretched over a period of years. This practice raised a number of concerns. These include:

1. neighbors of such sites being impacted by the dust and noise of prolonged construction activity;

2. safety issues associated with construction sites;

3. extended visual and aesthetic impacts;

4. changes in either building and planning codes since the permit was issued due to unique local conditions, resulting in concerns about public safety and consistency with community planning objectives.

Permit Fees

Suspension of Work

Currently, the authority of the Building Officer to stop construction is mostly limited to errors in permit issuance or the failure to follow the technical codes. However, other violations of both Municipal and State law frequently occur during construction. These violations include excessive noise and failure to follow City required construction mitigation measures. The Uniform Administrative Code is silent on the ability of the Building Officer to suspend work or revoke a permit for violations such as these. To clarify intent of the City to enforce its own regulations, the proposed amendment will authorize the Building Officer to suspend or revoke a permit when City related construction requirements and standards are not being followed (See Section 8.08.070).

Building Address Numbers

Frequently, commercial buildings may use several numerical addresses. This practice poses two areas of concern. Without adequate restrictions, addresses can change over time for the same portion of a building. Addresses can also change to a different building on the same parcel. Reasonable rules are necessary to protect record integrity for building and land use approvals.

Another area of concern is the ability to quickly identify a building for emergency services. When a building has several addresses, emergency personnel must often review addresses at each main entrance on one or more buildings to find the address in question. A remedy to these problems is to limit the address for any main building to one main numeric address during its lifetime. This provision will only affect new buildings (See Section 8.08.140).

Mobile Home Parks

Pursuant to Health and Safety Code Section 18300, the City may assume the responsibility for the enforcement of state building standards relating to mobilehome parks, and on November 11, 1961 the City Council adopted Resolution # 2536 by which the City assumed this responsibility. This Ordinance will continue that provision (See Section 8.08.110).

Security Provisions

Pool Enclosure

For a number of years, the City has required pool enclosures for any body of water 18 inches or deeper. Recently, State laws have changed regarding the height and nature of pool enclosures. The State also distinguishes between private pools and public pools. Under State law, private pools are bodies of water for swimming by up to three owners on a parcel. Public pools are all other pools.

To ensure that City code is no less restrictive than State law, certain amendments and definitions must now be added to the pool enclosure requirements. These include requirements for heights no less than five feet for all pools as defined under State law and separate enclosure requirements for private and public pools. Public pools cannot open to private habitable space while private pools can with certain additional restrictions like pool covers, alarms or latches at certain heights. These requirements will now be added by reference to the appropriate State code (See Section 8.52.020).

Repair and Maintenance

Existing City code requirements for repair and maintenance are mostly limited to provisions for substandard residential buildings under the Housing Code (Chapter 8.92) and unsafe buildings of all types under the Dangerous Building Code (Chapter 8.88). While these code sections provide a remedy for serious problems, there are some important gaps that should be filled.

Staff believes that the City is best served by requiring that repair work, past certain thresholds, meets current code requirements. Currently, Uniform Building Code Appendix Chapter 34, which was written in response to FEMA concerns, only addresses buildings damaged by a declared natural disaster. Adopting this appendix alone will not speak to the issue of repair of damage in the non-declared general case. Staff believes that the thresholds shown in the Appendix Chapter apply to all buildings in need of repair. This will ensure that aid is available to repair damaged structures from any source and that all property owners will have the same requirements for repair (See Section 8.84.040).

The following are local amendments to the California Building Standards Code. Many of the Fire Safety amendments are identical to those previously adopted. Seismic retrofit amendments no longer require special findings because they are recognized by right in the California Building Code (Part 2 of the California Building Standards Code).

Seismic Safety

The following amendments relate to the seismic safety provisions of the California Building Code. These amendments are necessary due to a number of unique local conditions outlined in Attachment A:

• Adopt the most current seismic provisions (1997) for steel frame buildings that incorporate the lessons learned to date from the Northridge Earthquake instead of the outdated Pre-Northridge reference standards (1992) in the California Building Code.

• Require improved connection of tile roofing to prevent slippage during earthquakes and the associated falling hazards.

• Require all masonry and concrete chimneys to be structurally designed by a licensed architect or registered engineer instead of by prescriptive rules that have allowed failed performance in recent earthquakes, including the Northridge Earthquake.

• Require the engineer or architect of record to verify that their structural designs are followed during construction.

• Establish Seismic Hazard Zones and Geologic Hazard Filled Area Zones to require special design requirements (See Section 8.04.100).

• Require adequate seismic bracing of fire sprinkler installations

The seismic retrofit provisions for the protection of existing automatic fire sprinkler systems are based upon experience from the Northridge quake. The new provision addresses those components of fire sprinkler systems that contributed to the failure of fire sprinkler systems as a result of the earthquake. The goal is for all fire sprinkler systems to remain intact and to be fully operational following a major quake. The new provisions address mechanical couplings, means of attachment, and other components that can be replaced or repaired in advance of a seismic event (see Chapters 8.16 and 8.20 and Section 8.44.120).

Fire Safety

The amendments to the California Building and Fire Codes are necessary for a number of unique local conditions as outlined in Attachment A.

In order to address climatic, topographical and geological conditions that place demands on emergency services, the City has adopted Supplemental Fire and Safety Prevention Requirements for a number of years, including a fire sprinkler requirement that applies to all new construction.

The fire sprinkler amendments are necessary because in the event of an earthquake or other major disaster, the Fire Department must depend on built-in fire suppression systems to extinguish or limit fires in those structures so that they do not spread to the older structures. This reduces the potential demand from simultaneous incidents on emergency services resources. The following are the local amendments:

• Continue to require automatic fire extinguishing and detection systems in all new construction and when there is a change in use to a higher classification (See Section 8.44.050).

• Continue to require compliance with the high-rise provisions of the California Building Code in new high rise buildings with human occupancy above 55 feet of the lowest level of fire vehicle access point in accordance with authority granted to the City in the California Health and Safety Code Section 13216 (See Section 8.44.090).

• Continue to require automatic fire sprinkler systems for existing public assembly spaces above 5,000 square feet that protect assembly areas and exit ways (See Section 8.44.050).

• Continue to require the connection with control valves on each floor level with full automatic sprinkler systems in any new building with floors more than 55 feet in height (See Section 8.44.090).

• Continue to prohibit the use of non-fire retardant wood shingles or non-fire retardant wood shakes for new or replacement roofing and require a moderate level of fire retardant roofing as a minimum standard. (See Section 8.44.140).

• Require adequate seismic bracing of fire sprinkler installations (see Section 8.44.120).

ELECTRICAL CODE AMENDMENTS

The enactment of local amendments to the California Electrical Code are necessary for a number of unique local conditions. The California Electrical Code does not address electrical safety requirements for non-construction related electrical equipment, including portable electrical equipment and machinery. The unregulated use of such equipment poses a potential safety hazard to citizens and property in Santa Monica by increasing the risk of fire.

Based upon the local conditions outlined in Attachment A, it is necessary to enact local amendments to the electrical code to ensure fire safety and prevent accidents from electrical procedures and appliances. The local amendments include the following:

• Ensure that any wiring not having metal protection over the conductors shall be entirely concealed within the building structure to prevent and inhibit tampering and restrict the use of aluminum wiring found to be hazardous (see Section 8.24.030).

• Prohibit the sale and use of any electrical material, device, or equipment unless it complies with provisions of this section, including rating and conformance with national standards (see Section 8.24.040).

• Provide regulations for temporary service poles used on construction sites (see Section 8.24.060)

• Provide regulations for underground concrete vaults and handholes (see Section 8.24.070).

MECHANICAL CODE

The amendments to the California Mechanical Code are necessary for a number of unique local conditions as detailed earlier in Attachment A. As a result, it is necessary to enact local amendments to the mechanical code to ensure fire safety and prevent loss of support of grease ducts.

The local amendments include the following:

• Provide sufficient gage support of grease ducts during earthquakes (see Section 8.28.030).

• Require the use of Type I fire protective hoods for all cooking ovens that cook food with grease (see Section 8.28.040).

PLUMBING CODE

The enactment of local amendments to the California Plumbing Code are necessary for a number of unique local conditions as outlined in Attachment A.

Based upon the local conditions outlined above, along with the local conditions related to fire risk detailed earlier in the staff report, it is necessary to enact local amendments to the California Plumbing Code to reduce consumption of scarce water resources and ensure fire safety by preventing accidents from pressure gas systems and preserving local water supplies. The local amendments include the following:

• Require initial approval and more thorough inspection of medium pressure gas installation to prevent potentially hazardous and confusing systems for emergency services which could result in fire hazards if not properly installed (see Section 8.32.030).

• Prohibit water softener systems from using drywells to discharge effluents in order to protect local ground water and the Santa Monica Bay (see Section 8.32.040). (This standard is already used by the City of Santa Clarita and is a proposed amendment for the Los Angeles Regional Code Adoption Program).

• Prohibit the use of combined storm drain and sewers to prevent the possible future contamination of the Santa Monica Bay (see Section 8.32.050).

The California Building Code is a set of building standards whose primary use is for the design and construction of new structures. Because it dedicates only one chapter to existing buildings, this code does not speak to the unique engineering challenges presented during the repair or rehabilitation of buildings. These challenges include equivalency of alternatives and the extent of repair required to meet the intent of the code.

State law, in recognizing these facts, mandated all cities and counties to use the Uniform Code for Building Conservation (U.C.B.C.), Appendix 1 for the seismic rehabilitation of structures with unreinforced masonry bearing walls. This code gives alternative values for materials no longer allowed in the current California Building Code. The most current edition of the U.C.B.C. now also gives guidance for the retrofit of concrete tilt-up buildings. The next edition, due to be published in September 1999, will also include retrofit standards for non-ductile concrete and soft story apartments. These standards are essentially complete and are proposed as the retrofit standards to be adopted by this ordinance. Modifications are made to the language of these standards to accommodate the mandatory status.

Certain administrative features are being added to the existing requirements to enhance their implementation. These features include:

• improving definitions of the building types affected

• requiring all alteration permits to include the retrofit work unless minor in nature

• recording notices on properties so that future owners will understand their obligation to retrofit the building they are buying

• making it unlawful to occupy buildings that do not meet their obligations within the time periods allowed.

Unreinforced Masonry Buildings

In addition to the aforementioned amendments, new requirements are added to better define the strength of existing unreinforced masonry walls. Tests of existing walls are already required and this amendment will better define the test procedure. This codification of the test procedure will ensure that the strength values reported for unreinforced masonry walls are not overestimated (see Chapter 8.60).

Concrete and Reinforced Masonry Buildings

The existing retrofit requirements address only one class of building in which heavy walls are attached to a flexible roof: concrete tilt-up buildings. The proposed amendments will include reinforced masonry and poured in place concrete wall buildings when they have the same inadequate roof connections. As was demonstrated during the Northridge Earthquake, heavy mass walls, whether concrete or masonry, will accelerate away from lighter flexible roofs unless adequate connections exist. Adding the small number of buildings included in these two other classes, will ensure that all building types with this structural weakness are addressed. This will implement the legislative intent of the original ordinance to protect public safety and welfare and reduce the associated demand for emergency services.

One other important amendment is to change the year of construction for affected buildings. After the Sylmar Earthquake, roof connections for these buildings were first improved in the 1976 Uniform Building Code. As a result, most retrofit standards before the Northridge Earthquake, referenced pre-1976 construction as problematic. However, other important code requirements have changed for these structures and their connections.

In 1991, the Uniform Building Code increased the strength requirement of connections fifty percent for the middle portion of the roof structure based on actual acceleration readings of wood roofs in buildings during an earthquake. The roof accelerated more than the ground itself in a whiplash-type motion. This important finding must be considered in the

retrofit of buildings and in determining which buildings need to be included in the scope of the mandatory requirements (see Chapter 8.64).

Wood Frame- Unbolted Houses and Small Apartment Buildings

One new voluntary retrofit standard is being added to the municipal code. Chapter 8.68 addresses the need to bolt down pre-1940 houses to their foundations and strengthen the weak walls that support raised floor construction. This retrofit standard is essentially the same as the draft version of Appendix 6 of the Uniform Code for Building Conservation, 2000 Edition.

This chapter will set provisions for the number of bolts, plywood sheathing and other connections that will meet the intent of the current building code provisions for proper connection of a small wood frame dwelling to its supports. The strengthening provisions of this new chapter will be followed when homeowners elect to retrofit their buildings voluntarily (see Chapter 8.68).

Soft Story Buildings

Current provisions for Soft Story Buildings include all buildings that have a soft story as defined in the Uniform Building Code. As stated, this scope would include all building types. However, the original intent of these provisions was to address certain types of wood frame buildings that were damaged during the Northridge Earthquake. The proposed amendments to the existing provisions will better identify the type of building targeted and provide the scope of work necessary to comply with the required retrofit work.

Non-Ductile Concrete

Current scope provisions include all existing concrete buildings, whether of precast or cast-in-place construction. Such width of scope lumps together buildings designed with current code provisions with others that have little ability to absorb earthquake forces. Amendment to these existing provisions will better identify the targeted buildings and set a standard for their strengthening.

created by the Structural Engineers Association of California and is recommended as the base document (see Chapter 8.80).

Steel Frame Buildings

Except for the aforementioned administrative provisions added, only one amendment is proposed to the existing regulations for steel frame structures. This amendment recognizes the newest FEMA guideline as produced by the SAC Joint Venture (see Chapter 8.76).

There is no direct budget and financial impact to the City of adopting the 1998 California Building Standards Code and local amendments. As a result of the standards for seismic and fire life safety, the approval of this ordinance will increase costs of construction and repair to certain structures, including City-owned structures. The specific costs and cost sharing arrangements for City structure repairs that might be mandated by the standards are not known at this time. Council will have the opportunity to review such costs and cost sharing arrangements when repair contracts are agendized.

It is recommended that the City Council take the following actions:

1. Adopt the attached resolution making findings of local climatic, geological and topographical conditions as required to adopt local amendments to the California Building Standards Code.

2. Adopt the California Building Standards Code, Santa Monica amendments to the California Building Standards Code, other technical codes and new technical standards for the existing seismic retrofit requirements.

Prepared by:

Suzanne Frick, Director of Planning and Community Development
Tim McCormick, Building Officer
Jim Hone, Fire Marshal
Steve Locati, Assistant Fire Marshal

Attachment A:

Resolution making findings of local climatic, geological and topographical conditions as required to adopt local amendments to the California Building Standards Code

Attachment B:

Ordinance adopting the California Building Standards Code and adopting the Santa Monica Amendments to the California Building Standards Code