Beverly Hills

City of Beverley Hills Official Web Page Beverly Hills Seismic Retrofit Program Guidelines for Evaluating and Mitigating Seismic Hazards in California Southern California Earthquake Center USGS Earthquake Hazards Program Infographic: Look at How Apartments Can Collapse During an Earthquake (LA Times)

The city of Beverly Hills Ordinance #18-O-2767 went into effect on January 11, 2019. The ordinance establishing mandatory standards for earthquake hazard reduction in existing wood-frame building with soft, weak, or open-front walls is available here.

Scope

The mandatory seismic retrofit program for the city of Beverly Hills includes soft-story buildings identified by the following characteristics:

• Wood-frame construction
• Construction permit was applied for prior to January 1, 1978
• Two or more dwelling units
• The ground floor or basement 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

A visual field survey and permit records research have been performed to identify structures with the above listed characteristics. Approximately 300 buildings in Beverly Hills were identified and have been issued notices to comply.

Priority Designations

Buildings were split up into three tiers in order of urgency to complete the retrofit.

                Tier 1: Buildings with 3+ stories

                Tier 2: Buildings with 2 stories and 6+ units

                Tier 3: All other buildings subject to the ordinance

Timeline

The city of Beverly Hills requires that wood-frame soft-story building retrofits adhere to the timeline shown below. An official Notice to Comply was issued to owners of buildings that fall within the scope of the ordinance. Once the Notice to Comply was received, the subsequent deadlines were initiated. Notices to Comply were delivered between July 2019 and August 2020 in the phases outlined above, according to the priority level of the structure.

According to the City of Beverly Hills Soft-Story Program webpage, as of January 2022, compliance with submitting a completed screening form and compliance with submitting retrofit plans for permit application are both now past due. 

Contacts

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.
Phone: 626.696.4650
E-mail: seismicordinances@wje.com

—

Beverly Hills Community Development Department
Development Services Program
455 N. Rexford Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
Alyssa Narciso, Sr. Plan Review Engineer
Phone: 310.285.1103
Email: retrofit@beverlyhills.org