Portland Hosts Public Forums on Proposal for Retrofitting Unreinforced Masonry Buildings Vulnerable During an Earthquake
On Thursday (9/22), Portland is hosting the second of two public forums to discuss a draft proposal to require the seismic retrofit of the city’s 1,700 public and privately-owned unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings. The forum is being held at the Portland Development Commission (222 NW 5th Ave) from 6 to 8 p.m. URM buildings are typically structures built before the 1960s using brick with little to no steel reinforcement in the walls that are highly vulnerable to collapse even during a moderate earthquake.
Public Forum
Thursday, September 22
6:00 – 8:00 pm
PDC, 222 NW 5th Ave.
The draft proposal was developed by the Portland URM Seismic Retrofit Project, a group sponsored by Commissioner Steve Novick that includes the Portland Bureau of Development Services (BDS), Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM), Portland Development Commission (PDC), and community members. Since December 2014, the group has been meeting to find ways to reduce Portland’s risk from URM buildings.
Information about the proposal, along with a searchable URM map and way to provide feedback, is available online.
Questions? Please email or call 503.823-7300.