Earthquake Hazard and Unreinforced Masonry Building Vulnerability

Summary

A slide presentation titled Earthquake Hazard and Unreinforced Masonry Building Vulnerability, dated January 15, 2025, by staff of the Washington State Military Department Emergency Management Division and the Washington State Department of Commerce, with a City of Seattle section. It reports that Commerce's 2018 URM inventory, funded by a $200,000 appropriation, evaluated 15,200 buildings and classified 4,493 as suspected or identified unreinforced masonry buildings, including 219 schools. The slides summarize risk reduction efforts, tax incentive study recommendations and lessons learned from SB 5557 (2019). A commercial real estate section estimates retrofit costs of $45 SF under a reduced standard and $156 SF for full code compliance. The Seattle section states the city has 1,100 URMs and lists ways to reduce retrofit costs, followed by supporters of a tax incentive study.

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Earthquake Hazard
and Unreinforced
Masonry Building
Vulnerability
Maximilian Dixon, CEM®, MUP, MIPM
WASHINGTON STATE MILITARY DEPARTMENT, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIVISION
HAZARDS AND OUTREACH SUPERVISOR
MAXIMILIAN.DIXON@MIL.WA.GOV

Alice Zillah
WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE                                     Washington State
MANAGING DIRECTOR, RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT SERVICES UNIT                 Military Department,
ALICE.ZILLAH@COMMERCE.WA.GOV
                                                                      Emergency Management Division
JANUARY 15, 2025                                                                               v1.5
 Earthquake Hazards in Washington
                                    YOU ARE HERE




          WA has
the 2nd highest earthquake
       risk in the US



                   “The Big One”


            Nisqually, 2001


       Seattle & Tacoma Faults
2001 Nisqually Earthquake




                            3
Unreinforced Masonry (URM) buildings
• Vulnerable to collapsing and experiencing severe damage
  during an earthquake.

• Risks include:
  • Falling exterior structures
     and ornamentation
  • Collapsing walls


                                          Seattle 2001, Nisqually Earthquake

WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE                                        4
Commerce’s 2018 URM inventory
• Operating budget proviso - $200,000 appropriation
• Directed to use existing data sources
• Commerce contracted with
  Architectural Resources Group
• Project evaluated 15,200 buildings



WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE               5
WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE   6
Findings
4,493 buildings classified as suspected
or identified URMs
     • 1,176 identified URMs
     • 3,317 suspected URMs:
          • Constructed before 1958
          • One or more masonry bearing walls that
            provide the primary support for vertical
            loads from floors or roofs
          • Was not constructed as a single-family
            residence

WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE                7
Findings (continued)
4,493 buildings classified as suspected or identified URMs
     • 219 schools
     • 395 publicly owned
     • 170 emergency facilities
     • 874 vacant or underutilized
     • 748 listed on the National Register of Historic Places or the
       Washington Heritage Register

WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE                                8
                    URM Risk Reduction Efforts So Far…

Import Exist Data
                                        Priority Tasks
     Existing
      URM
    Database
                                        • Modify URM database (funded)
     (COM)
                                        • Create URM user portal (funded)
                                           • Building information, risk
      URM
    Database
                                             assessment, and mitigation funding
     (DAHP)                                  guidance
                            Resources   • Complete survey of URMs
                             Needed
                                          (ongoing, additional funding needed)
                                        • Resources to reduce/mitigate URM risk
                                          (unfunded)           Source: FEMA P-1024
        Everett and Tacoma URM Surveys




Everett
• 30+ Volunteers
• 131 URMs surveyed
Tacoma
• 60+ Participants
• 300+ URMs surveyed                     10
Seismic Safety Sub-Committee
      Recommendations
    for Tax Incentive Study
• Modifications to State
  Special Valuation Tax
• Current Use Taxation
• Property Tax
• Sales Tax
• Business & Occupation Tax
• Valuation Assessment Zones
• Tax Exempt Entities
  Lessons Learned from SB 5557
             (2019)
• Proposed Functional Recovery Task Force
   • RETAINED
• Local Authority to enact seismic retrofit incentives
   • RETAINED
• Proposed state grant program for URM retrofits
   • RETAINED
• Proposed Tax Exemption for Functional Recovery-based
  retrofits or new construction
   • REMOVED
   • Involvement from county assessors and private sector
     investment stakeholders is key to success.
   • Analysis of impacts to varying sizes of counties is needed.
   • Senate Bill Report recommends a study.
▪   Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater Seattle for Western Washington
▪ 30 years BOMA President; 10 years Space Needle, Director of Property Management
▪ BOMA Seattle is the predominate commercial real estate trade association since 1912
▪ Representing 2,000 BOMA members (275 companies) who own or manage some 75% of
  office buildings and other types of commercial real estate or provide goods and services
  to owners and tenants in the Puget Sound area.
With few exceptions, URM Retrofits are not economically viable without tax
incentives and retrofit requirement considerations.

$100–150 SF = Today’s market value of a URM (Loan default sales driving lower values, in 2025).

$45 SF = The cost to retrofit using a reduced retrofit standard
(not including moving expenses and cost of lost revenue during retrofit construction).

$156 SF = Full code compliant retrofit (not including moving expenses and cost of lost revenue
during retrofit construction).

$12-16 SF/Year = annual operating expenses for an office building

    Retrofit costs can be 1/3 or more of the value of the entire property
          Retrofit costs can be 6-7 times annual operating costs
 URM Retrofits: Improving Seattle’s Earthquake Resilience




                                                       Photo by John Skelton
Amanda Hertzfeld
URM Program Manager
Department of Construction & Inspections
City of Seattle                                      January 15,152025
Seattle has 1,100 URMs
• Higher density of URMs in
  underserved communities.
• 22,000 households
• 609 Commercial buildings




                              16
Economic Impacts of Earthquakes




                                  17
The Burden of URM Retrofit Costs



                                 2016




                                        2024 Adopted a Reduced Standard for Retrofit

                                        Intended to minimize costs of design and
                                        construction while reducing the risk of collapse.
Adopted: 1973   Repealed: 1978   2024

                                                                                            18
Reducing Retrofit Costs
• Federal grants
  • Individual buildings
  • Retrofit Reimbursement Program
  • Finance Incentive Development
• Transfer of Development Rights
• Tax Incentive Programs




                                     19
Supporters of a URM retrofit Tax Incentive Study
1. WA Association of Cities                                   14.WA Trust for Historic Preservation
2. WA Association of Counties                                 15.Association for Preservation Technology- PNW Chapter
3. WA Association of County Officials                         16.Historic Seattle
4. Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA)- Greater   17.4Culture
   Seattle
                                                              18.Masons of Washington
5. WA Association of Building Officials (WABO)
                                                              19.Masonry Institute of WA
6. City of Seattle
                                                              20.Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers Local 1 WA/AK
7. City of Tacoma
                                                              21.American Institute of Architects (AIA)- WA Chapter
8. Downtown Tacoma Partnership
                                                              22.Structural Engineers Association of WA (SEAW)
9. City of Olympia Emergency Management
                                                              23.WA State Seismic Safety Subcommittee of the Emergency
10.Downtown Everett Association                                  Management Council
11.Ellensburg Downtown Association                            24.WA State Emergency Management Association (WSEMA)
12.Kittitas Valley Fire and Rescue                            25.WA Association of Education Service Districts (AESD)
13.Spokane Preservation Associates


                                                                                                                         20
Thank you!
  Questions?


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