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City of Seattle

Edward B. Murray, Mayor

 

Department of Construction and Inspections
Nathan Torgelson, Director

 

March 31,2016

Proposal: Unreinforced Masonry Building Retro?t Program
Reference: Parcel Identi?cation Number 8804900935
URM Building Address 516 Union St

As part of the City?s continual effort to be better prepared for emergencies such as an earthquake,
the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections (Seattle DCI) (the former Department of
Planning and Development has been working with a policy advisory committee to
develop a program that could require building owners to seismically retro?t buildings with
unreinforced masonry (URM) bearing walls. These are the buildings that are most vulnerable to
damage and collapse during earthquakes. The City's goal is to reduce the risk of collapse of
URMs without resulting in demolition or abandonment of buildings.

You are receiving this letter because a building you own see reference above) has been
identi?ed as a URM building that may be affected by new regulations developed to implement
the policy. The policy has been under development for several years and is not complete, but
once it is implemented, the URM retro?t program would be phased in over a period of years so
no immediate action on your part is required at this time. This letter is noti?cation of the
continuing policy development.

In response to a Public Disclosure Request, Seattle DCI is about to release an updated list
of URM building addresses, which includes your building. Washington State?s Public
Disclosure Act requires that the City release records unless the records are speci?cally
exempted from disclosure. As a person affected by the request, however, you have the legal right
under RCW 4256540 to bring a legal action to enjoin the release of any records you believe
may not be subject to disclosure. The City will make the requested records available on or about
April 20, 2016, unless you have obtained and served the City with a court injunction prohibiting
disclosure.

Seattle DCI has been working on updating the list of URMs for several years. Since April 2015,
a structural engineer has been validating the list by reviewing photographs of the buildings,
visiting selected buildings to View the exterior construction details, and reviewing permit
records, as well as consulting other documents to determine if each building on the list has a
strong probability of being a URM. The list that Seattle DCI has compiled is intended to be a
nearly complete list of URM buildings. However, even if a building is not on the list, it would be
subject to the new policy if it is found to have URM bearing walls. Buildings retro?tted in the
past may or may not meet the seismic retro?t standard adopted in the ?rture. The extent of
retro?t that would be required by a future ordinance would be determined on a case by case
. 6%
City of Seattle, Department of Construction and Inspections
700 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2000

PO. Box 34019, Seattle, WA 98124?4019
An equal employment opportunity, af?rmative action employer. Accommodations for people with disabilities provided upon request.

 

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basis. If you think your building does not have URM bearing walls, you can work with Seattle
DCI to investigate the URM designation of the building using the procedure listed under
?Procedure to Challenge URM Building Designation? on the department website.

Seattle DCI plans to reconvene the URM policy committee during 2016. Once the discussions
have concluded, the work of the policy committee will be summarized in a report with advice
and recommendations for a URM retro?t program. A draft report can be found on Seattle 
website for the URM policy work at the link below. The draft recommendations include
thresholds for retro?t and any exemptions from the program, compliance timelines, incentives,
and penalties for non?compliance. The committee also discussed ?nancing options and
incentives for seismic renovations.

Based on committee recommendations, Seattle DCI will draft legislation for the Mayor and
Council to consider. This legislation is anticipated to be drafted by the end of 2016. We
encourage you to stay informed and participate in the policy development. The committee
meetings are open to the public; you may follow the committee progress by visiting Seattle DCI's
website for the URM policy work at Signing up for email
updates in the right hand column of the website will ensure that you receive noti?cation of future
meetings. If you would like to provide comment to the committee as they ?nalize their
recommendations, you may write to the email address found on that page.

We hope that you will take a moment to visit our website and provide comment to the
committee. If you have questions or need more information, please contact Nancy Devine by
phone at 206?684?3406, or by email at nancy.devine@seattle.gov.

Sincerely,
w? 

Nathan Torgelson

Director