Wood-Frame Soft-Story Structures

Hayward

The City of Hayward adopted Ordinance No. 19-14 on July 2, 2019. Hayward’s Mandatory Soft Story Seismic Screening Ordinance can be found here (Chapter 9, Article 7). The intent of the program is to identify wood-frame soft-story buildings that are vulnerable to earthquake damage and collapse; no mandates for retrofit of the identified buildings have been established as of June 2024. However, the City provides provisions for voluntary seismic retrofit in Section 9-7.500 of the Hayward Municipal Code.

Scope

Hayward’s mandatory seismic screening program applies to existing buildings that have the following characteristics:

Constructed or permitted prior to January 1, 1978
Contains three or more dwelling units
Two or more stories

Compliance Tiers

Subject buildings are assigned to compliance tiers as follows. The deadlines for submitting the required screening documents are based on the compliance tier.

COMPLIANCE TIER	BUILDING DESCRIPTION
Tier 1	5 or more dwelling units
Tier 2	Buildings not assigned to Tier 1

Timeline

The city of Hayward requires that the mandatory seismic screenings are performed in accordance with the timeline shown below.

COMPLIANCE TIER	DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING SEISMIC SCREENING DOCUMENTATION
TIER 1	12 MONTHS AFTER NOTIFICATION
TIER 2	18 MONTHS AFTER NOTIFICATION

CONTACTS

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

Gary Nordahl | City of Hayward Chief Building Official
777 B Street, Hayward, CA, 94541
Phone: (510) 583-4153
Email: Gary.Nordahl@hayward-ca.gov