Culver City Council considering ordinance to address “Soft Story” buildings
By Chad Winthrop
Culver City is considering a new seismic strengthening law to address buildings of wood construction that have soft, weak, open walls at the ground floor that are particularly vulnerable to earthquakes.
The Culver City City Council may take up a new seismic strengthening ordinance to address “Soft Story” buildings in Culver City and will be holding a series of virtual meetings to gather input from the community (see more below).
In earthquakes, many multi-story buildings with weak and/or open front wall lines creating a “soft-story” (i.e. buildings with tuck-under-parking) performed poorly and collapsed. Under a City of Los Angeles ordidnace on soft-story buildings, buildings that are most vulnerable have been identified with the following criteria:
- Consist of 2 or more stories wood frame construction
- Built under building code standards enacted before January 1, 1978
- Contains ground floor parking or other similar open floor space
Culver City Virtual Meeting Info
WHERE: ***ATTENDEES MUST REGISTER TO ATTEND** See below for instructions.
WHEN: Tuesday, November 03, 2020 at 7:00 PM
Persons who are unable to attend the meeting but wish to submit written comments may do so before 12:00 PM on Tuesday, November 03, 2020, and/or may attend the follow up meetings scheduled on November 10 and 19, 2020.
Tuesday, November 10, 2020 at 7:00 PM
Persons who are unable to attend the meeting but wish to submit written comments may do so before 12:00 PM on Tuesday, November 10, 2020.
Thursday, November 19, 2020 at 7:00 PM
Persons who are unable to attend the meeting but wish to submit written comments may do so before 12:00 PM on Thursday, November 19, 2020
WHY: The purpose of the public outreach meeting is to engage in an informational discussion to help
inform the City Council on the potential draft ordinance.
Persons may submit comments BEFORE 12:00 PM on the day of the hearing by LETTER to the Culver City Community Development Department, Building Safety Division, Culver City City Hall, 9770 Culver Blvd., 2nd Floor, Culver City, CA 90232, E-MAIL to lukas.quach@culvercity.org, or Phone at (310) 253-5802.
How to Attend the Meeting Remotely: All attendees must Register to Attend on Webex, after which you will receive an email with directions and a link to join the meeting, once it has begun. Watch a video tutorial on how to register on Webex. No Internet or computer? Please call (310) 253-5700 to request call-in information, no earlier than two days before the meeting.
