L.A. Now Live: Century City tower site raises quake fault concerns

Join us at 9 a.m. when we talk with Times reporter Rong-Gong Lin II about a luxury residential tower that Los Angeles city officials approved and that the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority says sits atop an earthquake fault line.

When Los Angeles officials approved plans for the 39-story tower in Century City, they declared the site suitable for development without a review of earthquake faults.

Not long after, the MTA examined the area as the site for a subway station. It was alarmed at what it found: an earthquake fault running below Santa Monica Boulevard. The MTA concluded that the area was too hazardous for the subway station.

The agency’s research also shows that a strand of the Santa Monica fault runs underneath the tower property.

Experts say structures built atop faults can be torn in two during a large earthquake as the ground splits. Los Angeles has multiple active fault lines. The Santa Monica fault, which runs about 25 miles from the Pacific Ocean to Century City, is considered active by the state. Seismologists believe it is capable of producing an earthquake greater than magnitude 7.0.

But California has not yet drawn the fault on its regulatory map. As a result, the Century City property is not covered by the state’s building ban known as the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act.

Responding to questions from The Times about the site, the city acknowledged Tuesday that it did not require a fault investigation before the City Council approved the tower in 2009. Such a study would determine definitively whether the fault is actually below the proposed tower.

The tower development illustrates a loophole in state law banning new buildings directly above faults.