Program Highlights
Mandatory Soft Story
Created in 2013 through a City ordinance, the Mandatory Soft Story Program is a multi-year community-based effort enforced by DBI to ensure the safety and resilience of San Francisco’ s housing stock. It requires property owners to retrofit older, wood-framed, multifamily buildings with a soft-story condition that puts it at risk of collapse.
The ordinance applies to wood-frame buildings of three or more stories or two stories over a basement or underfloor area that have any portion extending above grade, and containing five or more residential dwelling units where the permit to construct was applied for prior to January 1, 1978, and where the building has not yet been seismically strengthened.
In Review
1,097 permits submitted
229 permits issued
577 permits completed
Private School Evaluation
Established in November 2014, the Private School Earthquake Program went into effect, requiring existing private elementary and secondary schools in San Francisco to obtain an earthquake evaluation of their buildings.
Under State law, existing private schools are not required to meet the same rigorous safety requirements as public schools. This program strives to provide greater transparency of the seismic safety of private school buildings.
Initial scope reports listing each structure that needed to be evaluated by the program were due to DBI on November 2, 2015. Throughout 2016-17, the Department began receiving evaluation reports, assessments submitted by structural engineers under their seal and signature. At the evaluation report deadline of November 2, 2017, the Department had received 22 reports from 11 schools. Code enforcement is underway for the 98 non-compliant private schools.
In Review 22 evaluation reports received 11 schools participated
All scope evaluations due on 11 / 2 / 2017
Department of Building Inspection, Fiscal Year 2016-2017 Annual Report 15