Culver City Council to Discuss Implementation of Seismic Retrofit Program

Discussion to include Tenant Cost Sharing, Financial Incentives and Potential New Fees

On Monday, October 24^th at 7:00 p.m., the Culver City Council will discuss and provide direction to staff on the implementation of the City’s Soft Story Seismic Retrofit program, including tenant cost sharing, possible financial incentives to assist owners and proposed new fees (Agenda item A-5).  As further background, the retrofit ordinance was adopted by the City last year, on September 27, 2021.

While seismic retrofitting serves an important societal need in minimizing the potential devastating life and safety impacts of an earthquake. It is important to recognize that such projects are extremely costly. The DegenKolb Engineers who were contracted by the City to conduct a citywide survey, indicated that the probable costs “to retrofit most multifamily / commercial will range from $40,000 to $160,000, with most averaging $80,000.” These estimates are from 2019, and construction and related costs have recently skyrocketed due to high inflation and supply chain shortages.

Rental housing providers continue to struggle due to the impacts of COVID-19 related government mandates, and limiting rent collections resulting in thousands of dollars in uncollected deferred  rent  owed  while at the same time, paying ever-increasing property taxes, insurance, trash hauling and ongoing repairs and maintenance costs. To now require the payment of $80,000 on average for retrofitting costs is simply unmanageable and will force more of the City's rental housing providers into foreclosure and Culver City to permanently lose the majority of its most affordable rental housing. 

City staff have also acknowledged that they are struggling to implement the program under excessive burdens with existing permits.  As noted in the Staff Report, “The current plan check workload exceeds staff capacity. Building Safety utilizes third party outside consultants to review the overflow, which is currently approximately 40 percent of the plan review.”  Implementation of this new program will only make an already bad staffing situation worse at a time when no one can afford to pay for more headcount or new fees.

While we appreciate the City Council’s willingness to consider various forms of financial assistance, the proposals currently  under consideration are inadeequate and do not provide the substantial relief needed to address the $80,000 average cost estimate necessary to complete these retrofit projects.  Based on the historic COVID-19 pandemic and the significant negative financial impacts to all that are still being impacted by it, the current hyper-inflation and major supply chain disruptions and further increasing prices for such projects, and especially the inability of the City to timely process the applications already filed,  the City should delay implementation of this new retrofit program and allow time for everyone to regain financially stability before proceeding.

If the City continues to pursue program implementation under the current timelines, it is critical that the City allow all rental housing providers to pass-through a greater portion of the cost to renters and eliminate the pass-thorough cap of no more than 3% of the rent in place at the time of the pass-through, currently stated under the City’s Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO).  

LET THE CITY COUNCIL KNOW THAT:

1. Seismic retrofitting is costly, and costs have exponentially increased since 2019 when the DegenKolb survey and analysis was conducted.
2. The current pass-through cap must be eliminated and the City should allow for a larger percentage of the cost to be shared with renters.
3. The City should pause this program until both rental housing providers and renters have a chance to stabilize themselves following the unprecedented circumstances of the last several years.
4. Share your personal stories and the severe financial challenges that you have experienced and continue to experience due to the pandemic.

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How to Attend the Meeting:

Members of the public may attend the meeting either in-person or remotely via Webex. If attending in-person, indoor masking is highly recommended, but not required. If you wish to attend virtually via Webex, please go to www.culvercity.org/agendas and click on the meeting date on the right-hand side of the screen. You will be joined once the meeting starts. You may need to download and install the Webex application if you have not already done so. The best way is to select the “call me” option and enter your phone number. As a reminder, chat function allows you to send a message to the meeting host only.

How to Provide Public Comment In-Person or Remotely

You may provide live public comment both in-person and online via Webex. Those interested in providing a public comment are strongly encouraged to request to speak as soon after the agenda is posted, to ensure inclusion on the speaker list. Please register to speak by going to www.culvercity.org/agendas and selecting the appropriate meeting date in the “Request to Speak at a Meeting” section on the right-hand side of the screen. Please indicate how you will attend (in-person or virtually) and specify the agenda item on which you wish to speak by selecting the agenda item number A-5. Those attending in-person shall register in the Mike Balkman Council Chambers when they arrive, via a virtual speaker card by clicking the QR CODE or on a signup sheet.

If you have no way to join via internet, you may join the meeting by calling on your phone. For this option, you will need to contact the City Clerk’s Office and provide your name, phone number and the Agenda Item about which you wish to speak so that we can find you and allow you to talk. Please contact the City Clerk at city.clerk@culvercity.org, phone number: (310) 253 5851.

How to Submit Written Public Comment Via Email

Members of the public may also submit written public comments using via email. Please email your written comments to public.comment@culvercity.org. Written comments received by 3:00 P.M. on the meeting date will be compiled and provided to the members to ensure sufficient time for them to review. Please note that written comments will not be read aloud during the meeting but will be filed and become part of the correspondence.

Complete information on how to attend and participate in a City meeting and provide public comment can be found at www.culvercity.org/agendas.

How to Watch the Meeting

The City Council meetings may be viewed:

• live online at culvercity.org/meetings by clicking on the “In Progress” link;
• via YouTube.com/c/CityofCulverCityGov;
• via the Webex meeting link at culvercity.org/agendas.

City Council meetings may also be viewed live in Culver City on Channel 35 (Spectrum subscribers), on Channel 37 (Frontier subscribers), and Channel 99 (AT&T U-Verse subscribers). Please check channel guide listings for your provider.

Any person needing reasonable accommodation related to disabilities, including assisted listening devices, is welcome to contact the City Clerk’s Office at 310-253-5851 or via email at city.clerk@culvercity.org.