NEWPORT BEACH : Quake-Vulnerable Buildings Listed

The city is preparing a list of dozens of commercial buildings across Newport Beach that will have to be upgraded to meet minimum earthquake safety standards.

“The average person involved is an absentee owner and probably doesn’t know about it yet,” said Newport Beach Building Director Ray Schuller.

A final list of unsafe buildings is being completed this month and owners will be notified, Schuller said.

“Most are in areas developed early on, right around the Newport Pier and Balboa Pier,” he said. “Others are in West Newport and laced along Pacific Coast Highway in Corona del Mar.”

A 1986 state law requires cities and counties in areas at risk for earthquakes to identify hazardous buildings, develop a program to improve them, and report to the Seismic Safety Committee in Sacramento by Jan 1. So far, Newport Beach exceeds other areas in the number of unsafe buildings reported, according to data from the Seismic Safety Committee.

Susan Merkel, committee assistant, said only four of the 27 Orange County cities required to submit programs for upgrading buildings have done so.

“Many will probably miss the Jan. 1 deadline,” she said. “So far, there’s nothing we can do in terms of penalties, but we’re working on legislation to correct that now.”

Cities that have filed are Anaheim, Placentia, Santa Ana and Huntington Beach. The total number of unsafe buildings in those areas is 92, with more than half in Huntington Beach.

Buildings in Newport Beach that will be affected are those built before 1936 of unreinforced masonry and those with unreinforced walls or foundations.

“These kinds of buildings basically fall to the outside, hurting people walking by,” Schuller said.

Exempt from the ordinance are residential properties of less than six units, warehouses and government owned and occupied buildings.

Buildings on the list will be classified according to degree of risk. “High-hazard” buildings must be renovated or demolished by Jan. 1, 1994. The deadlines are 1995 and 1996 for medium- and low-hazard buildings, respectively.