Did You Know? San Francisco’s Pending Concrete Building Safety Program and How It Affects Multifamily Landlords
San Francisco is on the Verge of Adopting New Seismic Retrofit Requirements for Concrete Buildings that were Constructed with Substandard Reinforcement
Do you own an apartment with concrete construction? Be on alert for San Francisco’s upcoming Concrete Building Safety Program.
San Francisco’s Concrete Building Safety Program is pending legislation that will mandate the assessment and possible seismic upgrade of buildings of older non-ductile concrete construction. As of 2024, the ordinance is making its way to the board of supervisors for approval. Landlords must prepare themselves with knowledge of its requirements, the retrofit process, and their options. We’ve done our research on the subject and provided an overview of what we know about the ordinance at this time.
What is Non-Ductile Concrete?
Non-ductile concrete is a general label for any building that contains brittle concrete structural elements, such as walls, beams, columns, floors, and the joins between these components, that are unable to withstand the forces of a strong earthquake. This usually stems from an insufficient amount of reinforcing steel (rebar) or other steel reinforcement. Concrete lacking the proper reinforcement will crack and fail – this poses a significant risk to life and property in the event of an earthquake.
Example of insufficient and poorly designed rebar in non-ductile concrete structural members. https://taxonomy.openquake.org/terms/non-ductile-dno
What era of buildings in San Francisco may be affected?
Concrete buildings constructed before the Uniform Building Code was updated in 1979 likely contain non-ductile concrete and may need assessment and retrofit. The concrete in these buildings has insufficient steel reinforcement to resist cracking, thus the concrete may chip and fall out of the supporting steel cage and compromise the safety of the building. Concrete buildings are usually quite large in footprint and/or height – smaller multifamily properties are usually wood-frame designs, which are not subject to the Concrete Building Safety Program.
What is the process and timeline to retrofit a Non-Ductile Concrete structure in San Francisco?
Based on other cities that have implemented a similar seismic retrofit program, the basic process can be broken down into the following:
If your property appears on a list of buildings identified to be at-risk, a landlord must hire a structural or civil engineer to analyze the building and determine if retrofits are needed to comply with the ordinance.
If retrofits are needed, the landlord must hire an engineer to create a seismic retrofit plan for Department of Building Inspection review.
Once approved, the landlord must hire a contractor to implement the retrofits.
Once complete, the Department of Building Inspection will inspect the retrofits to ensure building code compliance and sign off on the completed work.
The timeline to complete these actions for properties in San Francisco has not been publicized. For perspective, landlords in the City of Los Angeles have 3 years from the time their non-ductile concrete ordinance was passed to identify if their property requires retrofit, 10 years to submit plans to retrofit or demolish their property, and 25 years to complete retrofits or demolition. It is possible that San Francisco will adopt a similar timeframe.
How can a non-ductile concrete structure be retrofitted?
The official requirements of the San Francisco Concrete Building Safety Program have not been finalized. However, based on other cities that have already implemented similar ordinances, the criteria to modernize a non-ductile building may require strengthened supporting structures by wrapping columns with rebar, reinforcing existing rebar with additional ties, creating shear walls, reinforcing existing walls with gunite/shotcrete, and/or bracing the building with a moment resisting frame, among other solutions. Only a structural or civil engineer can prescribe the correct mitigation for an affected property.
How much does it cost? How do costs compare to soft story retrofit?
The cost of non-ductile concrete retrofits is dependent on the amount of work that is needed to satisfy the requirements of the new ordinance. A reputable structural engineering company out of Los Angeles, Alpha Structural, estimates the cost to retrofit most buildings in that market to range between $50-100 per building square foot, before factoring in engineering and permit costs.
A non-ductile concrete retrofit will almost certainly cost more than a soft-story retrofit as it will likely require work on the entire building’s structure, rather than just the ground floor of a soft-story impacted building.
How does this impact tenants of the property as it is retrofitted?
Likely, construction related to a non-ductile concrete retrofit will temporarily displace tenants. In Los Angeles, landlords are required to locate temporary housing for their tenants in case they are displaced. To comply with this requirement, landlords must submit a tenant habitability plan (THP) to the city, which outlines how a landlord intends to mitigate the impact of construction on their tenant; it includes a signed agreement from a third-party landlord who will temporarily house the tenant and lists measures that the landlord will take to protect the tenant’s property from theft and damage during construction. Again, while San Francisco has not finalized its Concrete Building Safety Program, it will likely follow in Los Angeles’ footsteps in this regard. Linked is an example of the Los Angeles THP form.
Example of the Tenant Habitability Plan form that Los Angeles landlords must complete when embarking on a Non-Ductile Concrete Retrofit. https://hcidla2.lacity.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/thp_for_seismic.pdf?download=1
What are likely sources of guidance/financial assistance for landlords affected by the Non-Ductile Concrete Retrofit?
When San Francisco’s soft-story ordinance was implemented, the City of San Francisco arranged special fixed-rate financing for landlords to complete soft-story retrofits. The Rent Board also allowed landlords to pass all design, build, permit, and financing costs to their tenants if amortized over 20 years. The city will likely offer a similar financing program and rent adjustment allowance to landlords who must retrofit their non-ductile concrete properties.
What progress has the City made so far on the Concrete Building Safety Program?
According to the Office of Resilience and Capital Planning, the Concrete Building Safety Program is still in the development phase. The program design is expected to be finalized near the end of 2023, after which an ordinance will be brought to the Board of Supervisors for approval.
The progress made so far includes contracting with the Applied Technology Council (ATC) to develop technical materials in support of program development. Additionally, Civicmakers, LLC was contracted to conduct stakeholder engagement to involve relevant stakeholders, like landlords and tenants, to weigh in on the program’s development. Over the summer of 2022, the City conducted more than 30 interviews with stakeholders to understand key issues and concerns related to the Concrete Building Safety Program. Therefore, while progress is being made, the program is still in the planning stages and has not yet been implemented.
LL CRE is committed to helping you navigate San Francisco’s upcoming Concrete Building Safety Program; consider us as a resource when you need commercial real estate guidance. With more than 60 years of combined experience, our team has successfully advised our clients through similarly complex issues such as the soft-story ordinance, underground storage tank program, San Francisco Rent Control, building permits, COPA, and more.
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