14 Dec Seismic Safety and Retrofit Tax Incentives
Earthquake expert Dr. Lucile Jones presented vital information to brokers, architects, contractors, CPA’s, attorneys and apartment complex owners at the Seismic Retrofit Safety Meeting on Thursday, May 14, 2015 at the Burbank Association of Realtors.
Dr. Jones discussed the City of Los Angeles Resilience by Design report that includes retrofitting unsafe buildings. The report looks at housing and commercial buildings, water supply and telecommunication needs after a major earthquake. Retrofits will be required within 5 years at “soft-first-story” buildings built prior to 1980, and retrofits would be required within 25 years at “non-ductile reinforced concrete” buildings built prior to 1980.
Adrin Nazarian, Assemblymember of the 46th California Assembly District was also in attendance and discussed seismic retrofit tax incentives. This legislation would provide a five-year 30% state seismic tax credit to property owners for safety improvements to their vulnerable buildings.
Moderated by Alex Tieu from Jaurigue Law Group, other speakers included Jess Talamantes, Vice Mayor of City of Burbank, Mareta Zuniga with Workforce Connections, Inc., and Matthew Epstein, Vice President of the American Institute of Architects.