Los Angeles Municipal Code § 91.9304 Priority Designations

(Amended in Entirety by Ord. No. 183,893, Eff. 11/22/15.)

Section

• 91.9301 Purpose.

• 91.9302 Scope.

• 91.9303 Definitions.

• 91.9304 Priority Designations.

• 91.9305 Compliance Requirements.

• 91.9306 Administration.

• 91.9307 Occupant and Tenant Advisory.

• 91.9308 Historical Buildings.

• 91.9309 Engineering Analysis.

• 91.9310 Information Required on Plans.

• 91.9311 Violation / Penalty.

• 91.9312 Severability.

The purpose of this division is to promote public welfare and safety by reducing the risk of death or injury that may result from the effects of earthquakes on existing wood-frame multi-story buildings with soft, weak or open front walls. In the Northridge Earthquake, many multi-story wood-frame buildings with tuck-under parking performed poorly and collapsed, causing the loss of human life, personal injury and property damage. It has been determined that the structural vulnerability of this building type is typically due to soft, weak or open front walls. This division creates minimum standards to mitigate hazards from these deficiencies. Adherence to these minimum standards will improve the performance of these buildings during earthquakes and reduce, but not necessarily prevent, the loss of life, injury or earthquake-related damage.

The provisions of this division shall apply to all existing buildings of wood-frame construction, or wood-frame portions thereof, where:

1. A permit for construction of a new building was applied for before January 1, 1978, or, if no permit can be located, the structure is determined by the Department to have been built under building code standards enacted before January 1, 1978; and

2. The ground floor portion of the structure contains parking or other similar open floor space that causes soft, weak or open-front wall lines, and there exists one or more stories above.

EXCEPTIONS: This division shall not apply to any building containing three dwelling units or less if the building is used solely for residential purposes. Moreover, notwithstanding any provision of this Code, compliance with this division shall not require existing electrical, plumbing, mechanical or fire-safety systems to be altered to comply with existing code unless they constitute a hazard to life or property.

The following words and phrases, whenever used in this division, shall be construed as defined in this section. Words and phrases not defined here shall be construed as defined in Division 2 of this Code.

CRIPPLE WALL is a wood-framed stud wall extending from the top of the foundation wall to the underside of the lowest floor framing of the building.

DWELLING UNIT shall include any individual residential unit within either an R-1 or R-2 occupancy building, including a mixed-occupancy building when part of it is either an R-1 or R-2 occupancy. A dwelling unit shall include the area of a building that is occupied as a dwelling unit, whether the building is approved or unapproved for residential use.

GROUND FLOOR is any floor within the wood-frame portion of a building whose elevation is immediately accessible from an adjacent grade by vehicles or pedestrians. The ground floor portion of the structure does not include any floor that is completely below adjacent grades.

OPEN-FRONT WALL LINE is an exterior wall line, without vertical elements of the lateral force-resisting system, which requires tributary seismic forces to be resisted by diaphragm rotation or excessive cantilever beyond parallel lines of shear walls. Diaphragms that cantilever more than 25 percent of the distance between lines of lateral force resisting elements from which the diaphragm cantilevers shall be considered excessive. Exterior exit balconies of six feet or less in width shall not be considered excessive cantilevers.

QUALIFIED HISTORICAL BUILDING is any building designated or currently in the process of being designated as a "qualified historical building" as defined in Part 8, Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations.

RETROFIT is an improvement of the lateral force-resisting system by alteration of existing structural elements or addition of new structural elements.

SOFT WALL LINE is a wall line, the lateral stiffness of which is less than what is required by story drift limitations or deformation compatibility requirements of this division. In lieu of the engineering analysis required by this division to determine whether a wall line's lateral stiffness is less than the aforementioned story drift limitations or deformation compatibility requirements, a soft wall line may be defined as a wall line in a story where the wall stiffness is less than 70 percent of the stiffness of the exterior wall above for the direction under consideration.

STORY is as defined in this Code, but includes any basement or underfloor space of a building with cripple walls exceeding four feet in height.

STORY STRENGTH is the total strength of all seismic-resisting elements sharing the same story shear in the direction under consideration.

WALL LINE is any length of a wall along a principal axis of the building used to provide resistance to lateral loads.

WEAK WALL LINE is a wall line at the ground floor where the wall strength is less than 80 percent of the strength of the wall above in the direction under consideration.

The Department shall prioritize its enforcement of this division as follows:

Priority I. Buildings containing 16 or more dwelling units.

Priority II. Buildings with three stories or more, containing fewer than 16 dwelling units.

Priority III. Buildings not falling within the definition of Priority I or II.

Qualified historical buildings shall comply with requirements of the California Historical Building Code established under Part 8, Title 24 of the California Code of Regulations.

Notwithstanding any other provision of this Code to the contrary, it shall be unlawful for any person, firm or corporation to maintain, use or occupy any building within the scope of this division that fails to meet the minimum earthquake standards specified in this division after receiving an order described in Section 91.9306.

Any person who violates or causes or permits another person to violate this division is guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be subject to prosecution and/or administrative enforcement under the Los Angeles Municipal Code. For purposes of this paragraph, "any person" includes an owner, lessor, sublessor, manager or person in control of a building subject to this division. This term shall not include any person who is merely a tenant or other individual occupying any dwelling unit, efficiency dwelling unit, guest room or suite in a building. The legal owner of a building is that person, firm, corporation, partnership or other entity whose name or title appears on the record with the Office of the County Recorder, as well as all successors or assignees of these persons.

EXCEPTION: This section shall not apply to any building on which work is proceeding in compliance with the time limits set forth in this division, or in compliance with any extensions of time granted by the Department or the Board; or any action, order or determination made by the Department or the Board in the implementation of this division.

If any subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this article is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by a court of competent jurisdiction or by reason of any preemptive legislation, such decision or legislation shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. The City Council hereby declares that it would have adopted this section, and each and every subsection, sentence, clause and phrase thereof not declared invalid or unconstitutional, without regard to whether any portion of the ordinance would be subsequently declared invalid or unconstitutional.