35 Camarillo Buildings May Need Major Earthquake-Proofing

The landmark St. Mary Magdalen Catholic Church and 34 other Camarillo buildings may require substantial improvements to become earthquake safe under a new amendment to the county building code.

Repairs at the picturesque church, with its 90-foot bell tower and an underground crypt for members of the Camarillo family, must be complete within five years, according to the ordinance amending the code.

Other structures, including most of the retail stores in Camarillo’s old downtown that are built of concrete blocks without steel reinforcement, will have up to eight years to complete repairs.

Now known as the St. Mary Magdalen chapel, the church was built by the Camarillo family in 1912 for $75,000 and was meant to last, said Lilian Agaposs, church business administrator .

“These walls are three feet thick,” she said. “It would take an awful lot to push this building down.”

Father Damian Fernando, assistant pastor at the church, said that if an earthquake were strong enough, it could knock any building down.

“Then there would be nobody left inside the church. They would all be outside praying,” he said.

The county’s ordinance affects 22 other buildings scattered throughout the unincorporated areas of the county, including eight buildings in Piru and two in the Meiners Oaks area, county officials said.

Camarillo is the only incorporated city affected by the county ordinance governing unreinforced masonry, because Camarillo contracts with the county for building and safety services.

Camarillo must still adopt the county’s ordinance before it becomes law in the city, but the City Council is expected to hear the issue next month, Assistant City Manager Larry Davis said.

Other cities, like Ventura, have separate earthquake ordinances. All the ordinances are designed to force building owners to make their buildings safe by adding steel reinforcement to structures built of concrete-block or brick before 1962. After that year, steel reinforcement was required.

The amendment, adopted July 24, sets a timetable by which the improvements must be completed. It allows a maximum of eight years for buildings that attract fewer than 20 people at a time and allows only four years for buildings of public assembly like the church.

The ordinance requires owners to order seismic audits of their buildings to determine how much work they will need to meet the new standards.

Daniel Maloney, of Ventura Group Architects in old Camarillo, said seismic audits to find specific problems will cost about $2,000 for each building owner.

Buildings in old Camarillo will likely need steel reinforcement at their glass storefronts, which could cost as little as $5,000, Maloney said. But the dollar figure is impossible to estimate without reports, he said.

The ordinance has prompted merchants in the old downtown area to put on hold some superficial improvements to the area, said Maloney, who is also a member of the merchants association. Members of that group had planned to spruce up their storefronts in an effort to attract more business.