Reinforced Concrete and Masonry Wall Structures

San Francisco

The City and County of San Francisco adopted a Concrete Building screening program on April 21, 2025 under Ordinance 70-25, which added Chapter 5G of the San Francisco Existing Building Code (SFEBC): Building Inventory Assessment of Rigid-Wall-Flexible-Diaphragm and Certain Concrete Buildings. The ordinance mandates screening of rigid-wall-flexible-diaphragm (RWFD) buildings and concrete buildings, as defined in the ordinance, to identify buildings that may be vulnerable to earthquake damage and possibly subject to future mandatory seismic retrofit programs. Voluntary seismic retrofit criteria for vulnerable buildings are also established in the ordinance that, if implemented, would exempt buildings from future mandatory local seismic retrofit ordinances for a period of time.

Program requirements specific to RWFD buildings are summarized below and program requirements for older concrete buildings are summarized on this page.

Scope

San Francisco’s mandatory screening program for building inventory assessment applies to existing buildings with specific characteristics, which are deemed to be Subject Buildings per the program The City and County will maintain an inventory of Subject Buildings that may be vulnerable to earthquake damage.

RWFD Subject Buildings

One-story building or building portion, not counting mezzanines, classified in the latest edition of ASCE 41 as PC1, RM1, or C2a with flexible roof diaphragm,
Footprint of RWFD portion of building is larger than 3,000 square feet, and
Any RWFD portion constructed or permitted for construction prior to July 1, 1999 or designed based on a code adopted or amended before that date.

Conventionally, RWFD buildings are often warehouses or big-box stores (or were originally constructed as such) with concrete or masonry walls and a wood-framed or unfilled steel deck roof.

Timeline

The City issued official notices to potentially subject property owners in December 2025. If you received a notice about the Concrete Building Screening Program, you are required to submit an online screening form. The deadline for compliance with the Screening Program is June 9, 2027.

Screening Process

As a part of the screening process, owners will be required to answer initial questions related to the potentially subject building through an online screening form. Some of the pertinent information for building owners to gather is listed below; more information can be found on the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (SFDBI) Concrete Building Screening Program website. If the initial screening questions and review by SFDBI find that the building is exempt, the building will be in compliance with the Ordinance and no further action is required.

Date of original permit and construction
Number of stories above grade (maximum and minimum, if it varies)
Number of residential units and occupancy classification
Total footprint area (if one-story RWFD building)
Information regarding any prior permitted and completed seismic retrofits such as the applicable code used for retrofit

If the initial screening questions find that the building is possibly subject to the Program, additional information will be required that can only be provided by an architect, civil engineer, or structural engineer licensed in the state of California.

Once the screening form is completed and reviewed by SFDBI, a notice of compliance will be issued.

No seismic retrofit is required of subject RWFD at this time; however, should property owners of subject buildings wish to undergo a voluntary retrofit, the ordinance has identified SFEBC/CEBC Appendix Chapter A2 as the applicable minimum standards for RWFD buildings. It is understood that a completed voluntary seismic retrofit pursuant to these identified standards would exempt a building from any potential future mandatory local seismic retrofit ordinances for 20 years from the effective date of the ordinance.

CONTACTS

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.
Phone: (510) 428-2907
E-mail: seismicordinances@wje.com

San Francisco Department of Building Inspections - Technical Services Division Counter
49 South Van Ness Avenue, 2nd floor, San Francisco, CA, 94103
Phone: (628) 652-3720
Email: dbi.concrete@sfgov.org