(a) Each city, city and county, or county, may assess the earthquake hazard in its jurisdiction and identify buildings subject to its jurisdiction as being potentially hazardous to life in the event of an earthquake. Potentially hazardous buildings include the following:

(1) Unreinforced masonry buildings constructed prior to the adoption of local building codes requiring earthquake resistant design of buildings that are constructed of unreinforced masonry wall construction and exhibit any of the following characteristics:

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(A) Exterior parapets or ornamentation that may fall.

(B) Exterior walls that are not anchored to the floors or roof.

(C) Lack of an effective system to resist seismic forces.

(2) Woodframe, multiunit residential buildings constructed before January 1, 1978, where the ground floor portion of the structure contains parking or other similar open floor space that causes soft, weak, or open-front wall lines, as provided in a nationally recognized model code relating to the retrofit of existing buildings or substantially equivalent standards.

(b) Structural evaluations made pursuant to this section shall be made by an architect as defined in § 5500 of the Business and Professions Code, or a civil or structural engineer registered pursuant to Chapter 7 (commencing with Section 6700) of Division 3 of the Business and Professions Code, or staff of the enforcing agency, as described in Section 17960, supervised by an architect or civil or structural engineer authorized by this subdivision to make the structural evaluations.

(Amended by Stats. 2006, Ch. 538, Sec. 375. Effective January 1, 2007.)