Building Connections Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections

Building Connections

Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections news and events

Building Momentum to Fix the Bricks: Working Groups Established to Support Mandatory Unreinforced Masonry Retrofit Ordinance

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The City of Seattle is moving forward with the process to require the earthquake retrofit of its 1100 unreinforced masonry buildings (URMs) which are prone to collapse in an earthquake. In 2021, City Council passed Resolution 32033 declaring the intent to develop a mandatory earthquake retrofit ordinance with a resource program to support URM building owners and tenants.

On January 12, the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (SDCI) and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM), in partnership with the Alliance for Safety, Affordability, and Preservation (ASAP!), hosted a meeting to discuss the timeline and next steps needed to be successful in ordinance adoption.

Update – Unreinforced Masonry Retrofit Policy

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We will be reconvening the URM Policy Committee on December 6, 2016 in room 4080 at the Seattle Municipal Tower. The committee will discuss the results of the URM inventory validation and hear updates since the last meeting in April 2014. This is the first in a series of 3 meetings to finalize the committee’s January 2013 draft recommendations on a retrofit policy for URMs.

Unreinforced Masonry Retrofit Policy Update

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DPD continues to work on the Unreinforced Masonry (URM) policy to develop final recommendations for a URM seismic retrofit program. The URM Policy Committee prepared draft recommendations in January 2013. The department did community outreach during that year and hired a consultant for a benefits cost analysis. We then reconvened the committee to discuss the results of the outreach and consultant work. At the last meeting in April 2014, the committee asked us to validate DPD’s existing building inventory of URMs in Seattle to provide more information for their final recommendations.

Unreinforced Masonry Retrofit Policy Update

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DPD continues to evaluate policy and program development for an unreinforced masonry (URM) seismic retrofit program. The URM Policy Committee asked DPD to validate the inventory list of URMs identified by DPD before the committee finalizes its policy recommendations. DPD is in the process of hiring a structural engineer to do the validation to confirm that the buildings on the list are URMs and to add any additional URM buildings that may be identified.

Unreinforced Masonry Policy Committee

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DPD is creating a proposal for a mandatory unreinforced masonry (URM) retrofit program that will help reduce the earthquake risk to unreinforced masonry buildings. DPD has, with help from a technical committee, developed a proposed standard for retrofits. Next steps include formation of a policy committee this month to help develop recommendations for a retrofit requirement threshold, incentives and penalties, possible financing options, and a time line for implementation.