Amended  IN  Assembly  March 20, 2019

CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2019–2020 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill No. 429

Introduced by Assembly Member Nazarian

February 07, 2019

An act to add Section 8875.45 to the Government Code, relating to state government.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 429, as amended, Nazarian. Seismically vulnerable buildings: inventory.
Existing law establishes a program within all cities and all counties and portions thereof located within seismic zone 4, as defined, to identify all potentially hazardous buildings and to establish a mitigation program for these buildings. The mitigation program may include, among other things, the adoption by ordinance of a hazardous buildings program, measures to strengthen buildings, and the application of structural standards necessary to provide for life safety above current code requirements. Existing law requires the Alfred E. Alquist Seismic Safety Commission to report annually to the Legislature on the filing of mitigation programs relating to building construction standards from local jurisdictions.
This bill would require the commission, by specified deadlines, to identify funding and develop a bidding process for hiring a third-party contractor to create an inventory of potentially vulnerable buildings, as defined. The bill would require the third-party contractor, in conjunction with the commission, by July 1, 2022, to develop a statewide inventory of potentially seismically vulnerable buildings in 29 specified counties in California using information developed by local jurisdictions pursuant to the above-described provisions. The bill would require the commission to maintain the inventory and to report to the Legislature on the findings of the inventory. The bill would make the operation of these provisions contingent upon the commission obtaining sufficient funding, as provided.

This bill would declare the intention of the Legislature to enact legislation to implement an inventory of all seismically vulnerable buildings within California.

Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: NOYES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature hereby finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California contains thousands of buildings that are known to present an unacceptably high earthquake risk of death, injury, and property loss based on their age, structural system, size, and location.
(b) The most recent Great California ShakeOut study estimates that a major quake along the San Andreas fault could cause more than $200,000,000,000 in physical and economic damage, and could result in up to 1,800 or more deaths. In 2016, the California Geological Survey estimated California’s annualized earthquake loss at the state level at approximately $3,700,000,000.
(c) Protecting our state’s economy, affordable housing stock, and social fabric from the long-lasting turmoil of earthquakes is of utmost importance, and the failure to do so could impact Californians’ quality of life for decades.
(d) The first step toward reducing these expected losses is to quantify them with basic inventory measures that account for structural vulnerabilities.

SEC. 2.

 Section 8875.45 is added to the Government Code, immediately following Section 8875.4, to read:

8875.45.
 (a) For purposes of this section, the following terms have the following meanings:
(1) “Commission” means the Alfred E. Alquist Seismic Safety Commission.
(2) “Potentially vulnerable building” means a building that meets one of the following:
(A) The design and construction of the building was approved by the city or county prior to the adoption of the 1976 edition of the Uniform Building Code and has one or more of the following characteristics:
(i) Unreinforced masonry lateral force resisting systems or unreinforced masonry infill walls that interact with the lateral force resisting system.
(ii) Concrete buildings with a nonductile lateral force resisting system.
(iii) Soft, weak, or open-front walls at the ground floor level of multistory light-framed buildings.
(B) The design and construction of the building was approved by the city or county pursuant to the 1995 or earlier edition of the California Building Code and consists of any of the following structural systems:
(i) Steel frame buildings with moment frame connections.
(ii) Concrete or masonry buildings with flexible diaphragms.
(iii) Buildings with precast, prestressed, or posttensioned concrete.
(3) “Potentially vulnerable building” does not include any of the following:
(A) Residential real property comprising one to four dwelling units, or a manufactured home as defined in Section 18007 of the Health and Safety Code.
(B) A building listed in subdivision (a), (c), or (e) of Section 19100 of the Health and Safety Code.
(C) Facilities regulated by the Office of Statewide Health Planning and Development, public schools regulated by the Division of the State Architect, or buildings owned by the state or federal government.
(b) For purposes of this section, “counties” means the counties of Alameda, Alpine, Contra Costa, Del Norte, Humboldt, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Lake, Los Angeles, Marin, Mendocino, Mono, Monterey, Napa, Orange, Riverside, San Benito, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, and Ventura.
(c) On or before January 1, 2021, the commission shall identify funding for the implementation of an inventory of potentially vulnerable buildings. The funding shall be limited to federal grants and funds from the General Fund.
(d) On or before July 1, 2021, the commission shall develop a request for proposal (RFP) process to contract with a third party to develop the inventory of potentially vulnerable buildings.
(e) On or before July 1, 2022, the third party, in conjunction with the commission, shall develop a statewide inventory of potentially seismically vulnerable buildings in the counties described in subdivision (b) based on the age of each building and other existing information, including, but not limited to, information developed by local jurisdictions pursuant to Section 8875.4, tax assessors’ record surveys, census data, housing data, building permit records, past or ongoing earthquake mitigation program records, emerging technologies, and online searches.
(f) The commission shall maintain this statewide inventory of potentially vulnerable buildings.
(g) The commission shall report to the Legislature, in accordance with Section 9795, on the findings upon completion of the inventory in order to assess the extent of earthquake risk to California and provide recommendations for reducing the number of vulnerable buildings statewide.
(h) The operation of this section is contingent upon the commission obtaining sufficient funding. The commission shall post notice on the homepage of its internet website when this contingency has been met.

SECTION 1.

It is the intention of the Legislature to enact legislation to implement an inventory of all seismically vulnerable buildings within California.