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Across the board, owners of unreinforced masonry (URM) buildings in Portland want financial help or other incentives to upgrade before new proposed deadlines.

The Unreinforced Masonry Policy Committee 鈥� the citizen advisory group studying the issue for the Portland City Council 鈥� last week held the second of two public hearings. Committee members heard from a diverse array of owners in Portland, which has more than 1,700 URM buildings.

The call to address Portland’s abundance of structures likely to fail in a seismic event has grown louder in recent years with publication of noteworthy articles and revised estimates of the likelihood of a major quake in our lifetimes.

So-called 鈥減assive鈥� measures haven’t worked to the satisfaction of the City Council, so it’s considering a mandatory approach using a tiered system. The passive system lets owners delay upgrades until they want to alter their building. But so far, only 13 percent of URM building owners have voluntarily upgraded since those rules were passed in the early 1990s.

Under the proposed changes, owners of buildings considered 鈥渃ritical,鈥� like schools and police stations, would be required to upgrade them within 10 years. For lower-risk buildings, owners would have up to 25 years.

At the Portland Development Commission‘s office in Old Town on Sept. 21, the committee heard from developers and concerned citizens, some who felt the proposed measures don’t go far enough and some who feel the threat has been overstated.

Retired city planner Jessica Richman said the concept was good, but had many concerns with the proposal.

鈥淭he cost of mandatory upgrades is so high and so onerous that the only options for building owners will be to demolish or raise the rents,鈥� she said.

Bill Welch of the Northwest District Association said many owners of historic buildings in his neighborhood are not wealthy developers.

鈥淥ur major concern is we don’t have adequate funding proposed,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f there’s no public money available for this, many buildings in our neighborhood will be torn down.鈥�

Michael Feves, a geophysicist and URM building owner, said a Cascadia-level earthquake would likely affect the coast more severely than the Portland-metro area.

鈥淚t’s more likely that Portland gets a small or medium-sized earthquake, than a large earthquake,鈥� he said.

Ron Walters, another Northwest District owner, took issue with Feves’ assessment.

鈥淭wenty percent 鈥� that’s still better odds than getting shot playing Russian roulette,鈥� he said.

Avi Ben-Zaken of Urban Development Group said incentives are a good idea, but Portland should move its proposed deadlines up even further, because it’s far behind other, similar cities.

鈥淭he way I see it is we are 20 years behind schedule,鈥� he said. 鈥淚 think we need to retrofit buildings to save people’s lives.鈥�

URM building owner Jim Atwood said he took part in a PDC-backed assessment of his building. His enthusiasm for the study started to wane when construction estimates came back 鈥� $1 million to upgrade his 7,500-square-foot building in a historic district. The building’s value is only $960,000, he said.

鈥淭he end result is it’s cheaper to tear down than do a seismic upgrade on the existing building,鈥� he said.