Earthquake Soft-Story Retrofit Grant Program

A. The Earthquake Soft-Story (ESS) program provides participants who own and occupy a qualifying house with a soft-story vulnerability (a living space built over a garage), and who qualify for the ESS program, an incentive grant to reimburse up to 75% of the total cost of the retrofit, up to $13k to assist in obtaining a seismic retrofit performed in accordance with FEMA P-1100.

A. An ESS seismic retrofit strengthens an older house (pre-2000), making it more resistant to earthquake damage caused by ground shaking and soil failure. The seismic retrofitting required for ESS is performed in accordance with FEMA P-1100 (seismic retrofit construction plan set) and directly addresses the vulnerabilities by:

• Strengthening the walls at the garage door or any other large openings with plywood or other strengthening elements including steel columns or proprietary shear elements;
• Bracing the perimeter walls of the lowest story and, if there is a crawl space, the cripple walls must also be braced; and
• Bolting the house to its foundation.

The ESS retrofit may require new reinforced concrete foundations at some or all of the existing perimeter and interior bearing walls. Strengthening the garage door may involve installation of steel columns or proprietary shear elements.

A. For properties located in a FEMA-designated Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA), receiving a FEMA-funded earthquake retrofit grant of $5,000 or more, FEMA requires compliance with the National Flood Insurance Program regulations. Because CRMP's Earthquake Soft-Story (ESS) grants, and some Earthquake Brace + Bolt (EBB) grants are FEMA-funded grants, affected program participants must comply with these regulations.

To comply with these FEMA regulations, EBB and ESS grant recipients, when the grant amount is $5,000 or more and their house is located in a SFHA, must maintain flood insurance on the property and provide proof of coverage to CRMP. Additionally, grant recipients must complete, notarize, and record the “Acknowledgement of Conditions for Mitigation of Property in a Special Flood Hazard Area with FEMA Grant Funds” Form. 

• SPECIAL FLOOD HAZARD AREA CONDITIONS FORM (fillable PDF)

The completed Form must be:

1. Notarized by a notary of the homeowner's choosing;

2. Recorded with the applicable County Recording Office; and,

3. Proof of the recorded document must be uploaded to CRMP through the Homeowner Dashboard to receive authorization to proceed with a retrofit and to receive grant funding.

 

A. FEMA P-1100 is a prescriptive, pre-engineered set of plans that can be adapted to retrofit crawlspace dwelling cripple walls, living space over garage dwelling, and ground story bracing walls.

A. The prescriptive provision or plan set is a "blueprint" version of a prescriptive ("cookbook") standard for strengthening homes to better withstand earthquake shaking. When approved by the local building official, the plan set may be used to strengthen older homes without the need for costly site-specific plans and design calculations. This plan set provides a low-cost method to help improve an older home's chances of surviving an earthquake.  FEMA P-1100 is an example of a prescriptive standard.