GARDEN GROVE : Upgrading Buildings for Quakes Weighed

Unreinforced masonry buildings in the Main Street business district of Garden Grove must be upgraded to meet earthquake standards, under a draft ordinance unveiled this week.

The proposal was presented Thursday to the city’s Parking and Main Street Commission, where it drew some criticism from commission and audience members who said it placed too much of a financial burden on property owners.

California law requires that all cities adopt plans to mitigate potential hazards of old brick buildings that are not strengthened with steel rods. A survey of buildings in the downtown area, which dates back more than 100 years, identified 12 structures that appeared to pose a potential hazard in case of a major earthquake, according to Richard A. Peters, building services manager for the city.

The proposal would offer owners two options in dealing with the problem. If owners chose not to immediately anchor roofs and walls to eliminate the most severe hazard--a collapse--all work to comply with the city’s ordinance would have to completed with three years. However, if the anchoring was done within one year, the full compliance period would be stretched to five years.

Under the proposal, the property owner would pay for all repair work, but the city is considering paying up to half the cost of engineering reports.

“The state is putting this on the city, and the city is putting this on us,” said Tom Beem, a Main Street merchant and the commission chairman, referring to the expenses of studies and planning. “I feel that the city should prove to us that the building may be unsafe, and I feel that the city should pick up the soft costs.”

The total cost may be substantial, said one property owner. Dorothy Jordan, who owns a doll shop on Main Street, said: “I had an engineer come out and tell me it would cost $40,000 to bring the property up to where it would qualify for earthquake insurance. I haven’t got that kind of money.”

Beem suggested that property owners and business people who would be affected by the proposal work through the Main Street Merchants Assn. to ask the City Council to pay more of the costs involved and to help arrange low-income construction loans.

Under the proposed ordinance, if a building is not in compliance after the deadline, an evacuation would be ordered. Non-complying buildings could later be demolished.