MOORPARK : Council Eases Curbs on Repairing Walls

The Moorpark City Council has amended an ordinance passed after last month’s earthquake regulating the reconstruction of damaged walls and buildings after some residents argued that it was too strict.

The council Wednesday voted 5 to 0 to remove a section of the ordinance that dealt with free-standing masonry walls, in response to angry comments by residents who said the restrictions in the new law would force them to rip down partly damaged walls and pay too much to build new walls.

Alarmed by damage sustained during the Jan. 17 earthquake and the potential for more in another quake, the council earlier this month passed the emergency ordinance requiring all new block walls to be designed by a certified architect or engineer, Mayor Paul Lawrason said.

The law also required that block walls that sustained more than 50% quake-related damage had to be torn down and rebuilt according to the most modern building codes, Lawrason said.

But residents at Wednesday’s meeting said the ordinance would force them to tear down walls that could be salvaged.

They also said it would make erecting new walls too costly and cumbersome.

After some debate, council members agreed.

“We modified it and exempted six-foot or under garden walls,” Lawrason said, “which, in effect, says we are going to leave the situation as it was and you are free to do what you will to retrofit them.”