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Published July 15, 2026
Only Torrance has an adopted mandatory soft story ordinance in the South Bay. El Segundo has signaled it is coming, the rest have none yet.
Torrance is the only South Bay city with an adopted, mandatory soft story retrofit ordinance, Ordinance No. 3916, effective April 11, 2023. El Segundo has publicly signaled it intends to adopt a similar ordinance but has not yet done so as of this writing. Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, Redondo Beach, Hawthorne, Gardena, and Inglewood have no soft story retrofit ordinance on the books.
California does not require every city to adopt a soft story seismic retrofit program. State law nudges high risk jurisdictions, and cities with a documented inventory of vulnerable wood frame buildings tend to move first, usually following the pattern set by the City of Los Angeles, which adopted its own mandatory program years ago covering multi-unit wood frame buildings with weak first stories, commonly the tuck under parking style apartment building built before modern seismic codes. Smaller South Bay cities without that scale of at risk housing stock have been slower to follow, and several are still watching how larger neighbors implement their programs before committing to their own.
Torrance's City Council approved Ordinance No. 3916 on March 14, 2023, and it took effect April 11, 2023. It targets older wood frame multifamily buildings with soft, weak, or open front conditions, generally buildings from before the 1980s with tuck under parking or open ground floor commercial space. The ordinance sorts qualifying buildings into priority tiers, taller and higher unit count buildings first, and each owner's actual compliance clock starts only once the city's Building and Safety Division mails an official notice, not on the ordinance's effective date itself. As of this writing the city has been in the buildings inventory and preparation phase.
El Segundo has been reported to be preparing its own soft story retrofit ordinance, following the same general model as Torrance and Los Angeles. That said, we could not confirm a formally adopted ordinance number or effective date in El Segundo's current municipal code as of this writing. If you own an older wood frame apartment building in El Segundo with open ground floor parking, treat this as a when, not an if, and check with the city's Building and Safety Division directly for the current status before assuming you have more time than you actually do.
None of the three beach cities has adopted a mandatory soft story retrofit program as of this writing. That does not mean older wood frame buildings in these cities are risk free, it means there is no city mandated timeline forcing an evaluation. Owners of pre 1980s wood frame apartment buildings with tuck under parking in these cities are not currently required to retrofit, but that can change, and doing a voluntary structural evaluation now costs a lot less stress than reacting to a new ordinance later.
We found no adopted soft story retrofit ordinance in Hawthorne, Gardena, or Inglewood as of this writing. As with the beach cities, the absence of a local mandate does not eliminate the underlying seismic risk in older wood frame buildings, it just means there is no city imposed deadline attached to it yet.
If your only South Bay holding is in Torrance, you are inside an active ordinance and should be tracking city notices closely. If you own in El Segundo, get ahead of it, ask your engineer for an informal look now rather than waiting for an ordinance to force the issue. Everywhere else in the South Bay, there is currently no city mandated retrofit clock, but seismic risk in a soft story building does not go away just because there is no ordinance attached to it, and insurance underwriters increasingly ask about this regardless of what the city requires.
If you would rather have someone track which of your cities has adopted what, and when it changes, that is part of what we do for our owners.
This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm current ordinance status directly with each city's Building and Safety Division before you act.
Last verified: July 2026.
Topics: compliance, seismic retrofit, soft story, south bay, torrance
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Schofield Properties is a family run property management company at 323 Richmond St, El Segundo, CA 90245. We have managed the South Bay since 1972 and personally oversee about 186 doors today. Book a call to talk about your property.
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