AR 2026-304 seismic and natural hazards working group

At a glance

What: Resolution establishing a working group to evaluate seismic and other natural hazards and recommend responsible development practices.
Outcome (Oct 20): adopted 12-0 on the consent agenda after being pulled by Baldwin Day, the sponsor, who wanted to explain it. Discussion ran about 12 minutes.
Origin: concerns raised during the missing middle housing opportunity (MHOP) overlay debate about multifamily housing in seismic zones 4 and 5, then two meetings of the Geotechnical Advisory Commission, which recommended a broader review. The seismic hazard maps date from 1979 (after the 1964 earthquake) and are being updated.
What the working group does: brings together planning, building services, the Planning and Zoning Commission and the Geotechnical Advisory Commission to look at how seismic and other hazards are treated in code (today mainly Title 23 building code; adding hazard limits to Title 21 zoning would be a major departure), and reports to the Assembly once the new maps are available.
Discussion: Martinez asked whether it overlaps current legislation (answer: complementary) and linked it to the wildfire-interface work; Volland backed collaborative working groups and urged treating it separately from MHOP; Handeland asked why Title 21 was not in the resolved clauses (the commission's recommendation named Title 23). Baldwin Day noted the downtown transit center and downtown library projects sit in zones 4 and 5.

About 12 minutes across 1 meeting (from transcript timestamps; approximate).

Meeting	Minutes
2026-10-20 - Assembly Regular	12

2026-10-20 - 2026-10-20 - Assembly Regular: pulled from consent by Baldwin Day; discussion of scope (Title 21 vs Title 23, overlap with MHOP); adopted 12-0.
2026-10-22 - Page created from a posted agenda; no meeting transcript processed yet.