“California Building Safety Week is an excellent opportunity to educate our community and increase public awareness of the role of Building Inspection staff in building safety,” said Sheila Lee, CALBO President and Building Official for the City of Santa Clara.

The Building Inspection office takes appropriate steps every day to ensure the safety of the places where people live, work, play, and learn by reviewing building plans, issue building permits, and inspecting buildings during construction. This work protects the health and safety of the public by ensuring that applicable code requirements are met and maintained. The City of Santa Clara Building Inspection Office issues more than 6000 permits and handles more than 27,000 inspections each year.

The City Council of Santa Clara approved a resolution declaring May 7-13, 2006 as Building Safety Week in Santa Clara. At CALBO’s request, California state legislature will declare California Building Safety Week 2006 statewide.

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. To commemorate the event, the City of Santa Clara Building Inspection Office will hold various activities during the Building Safety week to raise awareness of earthquake safety. Learn more about earthquake preparedness by participating the following free activities:

May 8th – 12th: Building Inspection Office will provide free standard single family residential seismic strengthening plans for Santa Claran interested in retrofitting their houses. This will eliminate the cost of hiring an engineer, architect, or contractor to prepare the drawings.

May 8th – 12th: Building Inspection Office will offer free over the counter plan check to citizens who submit applications to perform seismic strengthening to their single family houses. The free seismic strengthening plans can be used for the applications.

May 10th: 1 - 2 p.m.: Mike Doyle (Combination Inspector), Ket Le (Plans Examiner), and Sandy French (Deputy Fire Marshal) will offer a class at the Permit Center (1500 Warburton Ave.) on residential seismic retrofitting and preparing yourself for the next earthquake.


May 10th: 2 - 4 p.m.: Simpson Strong Tie, Hallmark Construction and Anderson-Janovich Construction will have a display at the Permit Center on common seismic retrofitting hardware and to answer question on cost and construction of residential seismic strengthening.

May 11th: 1 - 2 p.m.: Tim Owens (Senior Electrical Inspector), Bounmy Soumountha (Senior Plans Examiner), Prasad Nallamothu (Plans Examiner), and Sandy French (Deputy Fire Marshal) will offer a class at the Permit Center on residential seismic retrofitting and preparing yourself for the next earthquake.

May 11th: 2 – 4 p.m.: Simpson Strong Tie, TJ Construction, Fischer Construction, and Edwards Construction will have a display at the Permit Center on common seismic retrofitting hardware and to answer question on cost and construction of residential seismic strengthening.

To RSVP for a class or for additional information, please contact the Building Inspection office at (408) 615-2440.