ABAG Honors Six Bay Area Cities with Exceptional Earthquake Programs
ABAG, in conjunction with its program to draw attention to, and encourage mitigation of, housing problems in future earthquakes has given awards to six Bay Area cities for their earthquake programs. The impressive part about these programs is that they do more than focus on residents trying to pick up the pieces -- for they focus on trying to have fewer pieces to pick up.

Berkeley's
award-winning Seismic Retrofit Incentive Program has two remarkable aspects. First, the City waives all Building Permit Fees for seismic retrofit work. This waiver policy has meant that the City has not collected almost $220,000! Second, the City offers up to one third of it's 1.5 percent Property Transfer Tax if the funds are used by the homeowners for earthquake retrofit work. The City has refunded an additional $900,000 in the last years! These are impressive amounts for a program with an impressive success story.

San Leandro's
award-winning Home Earthquake Retrofit Program is a program that truly exemplifies taking "the extra step." This program emphasizes neighborhood preparedness and home retrofitting. Courses on how to retrofit homes have been offered for both contractors and do-it-yourself homeowners. The Building Department has developed model building retrofit plans and works with residents so that they can get competitive bids from several contractors for the SAME work. The City even has a "Tool Lending Library" so the do-it-yourselfers can borrow the special tools that they need to bolt their homes and install plywood for strengthening from the City.

ABAG also awarded four Honorable Mentions to the Cities of Albany, Sunnyvale, Foster City and San Jose.

Albany's
award is for EQPP, its EarthQuake Preparedness Program. Although it was not the first program, this city's effort is amazing because over 70 percent of Albany's neighborhoods are involved. The Fire Dept. also works with residents to offer assistance in bolting water heaters and training on bolting homes to foundations.

Sunnyvale's
SNAP program (for Sunnyvale Neighborhoods Actively Prepare) was the first comprehensive program to work with people in neighborhoods to ensure that they were better able to cope with the aftermath of earthquakes. This innovative program serves as the model for other preparedness programs Statewide.

Foster City's
Honorable Mention is for a preparedness program which is innovative because it is a joint effort with the Foster City Lion's Club. This partnership between a City and a Service Organization now offers residents assistance in general preparedness, as well as bolting water heaters and other retrofit activities.

San Jose's
Honorable Mention is for its new Residential Seismic Safety Program offering encouragement in preparedness. But it is remarkable because San Jose is the first City to make a special effort to attack a particularly thorny issue--that of multi-family housing. The City's effort to prepare these residents, and encourage retrofitting apartments over garages that tend to collapse during earthquakes, is ambitious and particularly notable.

ABAG, the Association of Bay Area Governments, is the regional planning and services agency for the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area.

This page was last updated 9/29/03 by jbp.