The City Council moved forward with a massive seismic retrofit ordinance this week that could impact as many as 2,000 buildings in the eight-square-mile city.

City leaders spent hours hammering away at the ordinance with the City’s top building official, Ron Takiguchi, during Tuesday night’s meeting. The potential flood of construction brings a wide array of concerns spanning from scammers taking advantage of condominium owners to lengthy delays caused by the sheer amount of paperwork.

The ordinance could come back before the Council for a second reading as soon at Feb. 28. Once it is passed, the ordinance will go into law in thirty days. Takiguchi plans to begin issuing notices to the owners of approximately 200 brick buildings on May first. The rest of the notices will go out in waves.

By July, owners of “soft story” apartment buildings, where one or more units sit over open parking, will get their notices.

The last 900 buildings, which consist entirely of “soft story” apartment buildings will get their notices to begin inspections in 2018.

Read More: http://smdp.com/santa-monica-refines-plan-to-roll-out-seismic-retrofit-ordinance/159837