When Does Torrance's Soft-Story Retrofit Ordinance Hit My Building? (2026)

Published July 15, 2026

Torrance Ordinance 3916 took effect in 2023, but your five year clock starts when the city mails your notice, not before.

Torrance's seismic retrofit law, Ordinance No. 3916, took effect April 11, 2023, and covers older wood frame apartment buildings with soft, weak, or open front conditions, think tuck under parking or ground floor openings. But the ordinance being in force is not the same as your deadline arriving. Your building's actual five year, four step compliance clock does not start until the city's Building Official mails you an official notice to comply.

Why the ordinance date and your deadline are different dates

A lot of owners hear "Ordinance 3916, effective 2023" and assume a countdown began that spring. It did not. Torrance structured this the way most California soft story programs work: the ordinance sets the rules, but the city still has to identify buildings, verify which ones qualify, and mail each owner an individual notice before any deadline attaches to that specific property. As of this writing, the city has been in the preparation and building inventory phase and has not yet mailed notices to most owners citywide. If you have not received a letter from Torrance's Building and Safety Division, your clock has not started, but that can change without much lead time once the notification phase begins.

Who is actually covered

The ordinance targets wood frame multifamily buildings built before modern seismic codes, generally pre 1980s construction, with a soft, weak, or open front wall line on one or more levels. In plain terms: the classic two or three story apartment building sitting over an open carport or tuck under garage, where the ground floor has far less shear wall than the floors above. Single family homes and duplexes are not the target of this program. Ground floor commercial with open storefronts, like a restaurant or retail space under residential units, can also qualify.

Priority groups determine who gets a notice first

Torrance's ordinance sorts qualifying buildings into three priority tiers under what the ordinance calls Table B. Priority I covers buildings of three stories or more. Priority II covers two story buildings with seven or more units. Priority III covers everything else that falls within the ordinance's scope but outside those first two categories. The Building Official uses these tiers to decide the order in which notices go out, with the larger, higher occupancy buildings generally moving through the notification process first.

The four step, five year clock, once it starts

Once you receive your official notice, you are on a phased timeline that typically runs in four stages: submit a screening or engineering evaluation report, then submit retrofit plans, then pull the permit, then complete construction. Cities that use this model, including Torrance, generally allow about five years total from the date of notice to substantial completion, with intermediate deadlines for each step along the way. Missing an intermediate deadline can put a building out of compliance even if the final five year mark has not technically passed, so once a notice arrives, the practical move is to get a structural engineer scoping the screening report immediately rather than waiting.

What this means for you

If you own a Torrance apartment building from before the 1980s with any kind of open ground floor parking or commercial space, do not wait for a notice to start planning. Ask a structural engineer for an informal look now, budget for the eventual screening report and retrofit, and watch your mail and the city's Building and Safety Division communications closely. Owners who line up financing and a contractor before the clock starts tend to move through the four steps with far less scrambling than owners who wait for the letter to act.

If you would rather not track city notification timelines yourself, that is what we do for the buildings we manage.

This is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm with a licensed professional, and with the City of Torrance Building and Safety Division directly, before you act.

Sources

1. City of Torrance, Seismic Retrofit Program
2. City of Torrance Ordinance List, Codepublishing.com
3. Seismic Ordinances of California, Torrance
4. ABAG, Soft Story Model Ordinance and Handbook
5. Torrance Municipal Code, Chapter 15, Mandatory Seismic Retrofit in Existing Buildings

Last verified: July 2026.

Topics: compliance, torrance, seismic retrofit, soft story, south bay

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