In 2010, San Francisco instituted a program that would require rental housing owners to seismically retrofit certain soft story buildings. Because the program is currently voluntary, the improvements are not being made. Therefore, legislation has been introduced to mandate retrofits.
The proposed regulations would affect only wood-frame soft-story buildings built before 1978 that are at least three stories high and contain five or more dwelling units. The requirements do not apply to single-family homes. Buildings retrofitted within the last 15 years are also exempt.
For more information on the program, please read this SFGate article.
To see if one of your buildings is on the list, please check out San Francisco Public Press’s recent list here.