CITY OF SEATTLE
RESOLUTION __________________
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A RESOLUTION declaring the City Council's and the Mayor's intent to consider strategies to ensure that all unreinforced masonry buildings in Seattle are seismically retrofitted.
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WHEREAS, Seattle has over 1,100 unreinforced masonry buildings (URMs), which are buildings typically built prior to 1945 with brick or clay tile bearing walls where the parapets and walls are not secured to the floors and roofs; and
WHEREAS, URMs are vulnerable to damage or collapse during earthquakes, potentially endangering people within the buildings if walls fully or partially collapse and pedestrians if parapets break away and fall into the street; and
WHEREAS, the February 2001 6.8 magnitude Nisqually earthquake injured about 400 people and caused around $2 billion in property damage, including over $8 million in repair costs to URMs in Seattle; and
WHEREAS, of the buildings The City of Seattle ("City") determined to be unsafe following the Nisqually earthquake, two-thirds were URMs; and
WHEREAS, in 2017, Seattle's Office of Emergency Management reported to the City Council ("Council") that within the next 50 years, Seattle has an 86 percent chance of experiencing another 6.8 magnitude earthquake and a 33 percent chance of an 8.0 magnitude earthquake; and
WHEREAS, the City's February 2020 list of confirmed URMs reveals that many of these buildings are located in Seattle's historic neighborhoods, with the highest concentrations in Capitol Hill, Pioneer Square, and the Chinatown/International District; and
WHEREAS, of the confirmed URMs in Seattle, over 70 are identified by the City as critical risk, which are schools and emergency service facilities, and around 180 are high risk, which are buildings over three stories in poor soil conditions and buildings containing public assembly spaces with occupancies of more than 100 people; and
WHEREAS, the City has a long history of attempting to address the safety risks posed by URMs...
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