Berkeley enforces foundation anchoring (sill-plate bolting) and cripple-wall bracing for existing single-family wood-frame houses through Article 6 of BMC Chapter 19.28 (Repairs to Existing Buildings) and the city's adoption of the California Existing Building Code Appendix Chapter A3. Anchoring is mandatory when a substantial structural repair, addition, or change-of-occupancy triggers compliance, and is strongly encouraged for all pre-1980 homes given Berkeley's Hayward Fault exposure.
BMC 19.28 Article 6 governs repairs and voluntary seismic strengthening of existing buildings, incorporating the California Existing Building Code (CEBC) with Berkeley amendments. CEBC Appendix Chapter A3 provides the prescriptive engineering standard for bolting wood-frame sill plates to concrete foundations and bracing short 'cripple walls' beneath the first floor — the failure mode that destroyed thousands of Bay Area homes in the 1989 Loma Prieta and 1994 Northridge earthquakes. Voluntary retrofits filed under A3 use a streamlined over-the-counter permit at Berkeley Building & Safety. Bolts are typically 1/2-inch anchors at 4-6 ft on center, with plywood cripple-wall sheathing and ventilation holes; the city does not require a structural engineer's stamp when the prescriptive A3 path is used. The Earthquake Brace + Bolt (EBB) state grant program reimburses up to $3,000 of qualifying Berkeley retrofit work.
When a foundation-anchoring retrofit is triggered by other permitted work, the city will not sign off the final inspection until anchoring is complete. Building permit violations under BMC are infractions subject to administrative citations starting at $100 / $200 / $500 for first, second, and subsequent offenses, and unpermitted structural work can be cited as a public nuisance with daily penalties.
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