City Plans Crackdown to Force Quake Repairs

Los Angeles city officials are planning a crackdown on the owners of 61 earthquake-damaged high-rises who have failed to begin repair inspections by the city’s deadline.

Building and Safety Department officials said they will mail letters this week to the owners, giving them 30 days to have the welds of their buildings’ steel frames inspected.

Those who fail to complete the report will be issued a notice of noncompliance, which acts much like a property lien, making it difficult for the building owner to sell or refinance the building.

City Councilman Hal Bernson, who heads the City Council’s Ad Hoc Committee on Earthquake Recovery, said he is hopeful that owners will comply; if they do not, he said, he will consider revoking the buildings’ occupancy permits.

The City Council targeted 259 steel-frame buildings for inspections and repairs; as of Wednesday, the owners of 61 had failed to submit inspection reports, most of which were due in December 1995.

Even the owners of 10 buildings who were given extensions of up to six months to complete the inspections have failed to comply, according to city records.

Most of the buildings on which inspection reports have not been filed are in the San Fernando Valley, with a dozen such structures along Ventura Boulevard in Encino, Tarzana and Woodland Hills.

The damage inflicted on steel-frame buildings by the January 1994 Northridge earthquake surprised many structural engineers, who previously believed the frames were virtually immune to seismic forces.

In February 1995, the council adopted an ordinance that gave the owners six months to inspect the buildings and draft a repair plan.

The ordinance provides an additional three months to obtain repair permits and two additional years to complete the repairs.

The ordinance applies to those 259 steel-frame commercial buildings in the Valley and West Los Angeles, where damage was most widespread.

Some of the 198 structures that have been inspected were found to have dangerous cracks in the building joints.

For example, an inspection report on a four-story building on the 15000 block of Ventura Boulevard found that 34 of the 40 steel joints inspected, or 85%, were damaged.

An inspection of an eight-story building on the 11000 block of Olympic Boulevard in West Los Angeles found that 142 of the 178 joints inspected, or 80%, were damaged.

On the other hand, inspections of 57 of the 198 buildings found no damage to the steel joints.