San Francisco has a mandatory soft-story retrofit ordinance for certain older wood-frame multifamily buildings. The City’s Mandatory Soft Story Retrofit Program was created in 2013 to strengthen vulnerable residential buildings with weak or open lower stories and help preserve the city’s housing stock after a major earthquake.
The City’s Soft Story legislation page describes affected buildings as wood-frame structures with five or more residential units, two or more stories over a soft or weak story, and permits for construction before January 1, 1978.
Which Buildings Are Covered?
San Francisco’s program applies to certain older wood-frame multifamily buildings identified by the Department of Building Inspection. A building may fall within the program if it has:
- Wood-frame construction
- Five or more residential units
- Two or more stories over a soft or weak story
- A permit for construction before January 1, 1978
- Parking, garages, storage, or other weak lower-story conditions
Property owners can use San Francisco’s earthquake safety rules resources to check whether a building may be affected by mandatory soft-story requirements or other seismic upgrade triggers.
San Francisco Soft-Story Compliance Timeline
San Francisco’s original program required owners to submit screening forms by September 15, 2014. Permit applications with retrofit plans and final completion deadlines were then phased by tier:
- Tier 1: permit plans due September 15, 2015; final completion due September 15, 2017
- Tier 2: permit plans due September 15, 2016; final completion due September 15, 2018
- Tier 3: permit plans due September 15, 2017; final completion due September 15, 2019
- Tier 4: permit plans due September 15, 2018; final completion due September 15, 2020
Current Status for San Francisco Property Owners
The original San Francisco soft-story deadlines have passed. The City’s current DBI permit services page states that the deadline to finish soft-story work was September 15, 2021, and San Francisco’s earthquake preparedness page states that the program has strengthened almost 4,700 buildings.
For owners, the key issue is usually whether the building’s soft-story status has been fully resolved through permits, construction, final inspection, and a certificate of final completion. If a building remains noncompliant, the owner may still need to complete retrofit work or resolve DBI enforcement and record issues.
Permits, Plans, and Final Completion
San Francisco’s Soft Story permit process explains that affected projects require prepared plans and permit review through the Department of Building Inspection. Most projects can be reviewed over the counter, but owners still need proper design documentation and DBI approval before construction.
For properties that have not completed the process, owners should review the original program notice, assigned tier, screening response, permit application history, approved retrofit plans, inspection status, and final completion documentation.
Get Clear on Your San Francisco Retrofit Status
If your San Francisco property was included in the Mandatory Soft Story Retrofit Program or has unclear completion documentation, the next step is understanding what DBI records show. Retrofit1 can help property owners review remaining soft-story concerns, coordinate licensed structural evaluation, and plan the path through permitting, construction, final inspection, and compliance documentation when retrofit work is still required.
When a building has seismic concerns beyond San Francisco’s mandatory soft-story program, those improvements can be evaluated through earthquake retrofitting in San Francisco while keeping ordinance compliance and broader retrofit planning clearly separated.