Stucco falls from tagged downtown building
Gilroy – Stucco from a downtown building tagged as an earthquake hazard fell to the ground two weeks after a temblor shook Gilroy.
No one was injured by the debris discovered Monday morning in front of the shuttered storefront at 7453 Monterey Street, city officials said. The store is located on the west of Monterey Street between the now-closed Betty Boop store and the former office of the Pinnacle newspaper.
City officials ruled out major construction along the two-block stretch of Monterey Street as the source of the damage, which left unreinforced brick masonry behind the stucco exposed.
“It’s got nothing to do with any of the streetscape work,” City Transportation Engineer Don Dey said. “I checked … and the contractor hasn’t done anything in that area from a vibrational standpoint in quite a while. It’s one of those coincidences. It was going to come down at some time. It just so happened it came down now.”
The city has temporarily closed a portion of sidewalk in front of the building until owner Henry Gee repairs it. Gee was unavailable for comment. The damage is not expected to delay the city’s seven-month overhaul of the historic main drag between Fourth and Sixth streets.
The accident occurs as the city cracks down on owners of unreinforced masonry buildings that could crumble during earthquakes. Officials plan to give owners of about 40 downtown URM buildings three years to upgrade or demolish the structures. Otherwise, officials plan to condemn buildings and fine owners tens of thousands of dollars.
The city’s get-tough approach toward URMs emerged after falling debris during a 2003 earthquake in Paso Robles killed two people.
“It’s an exclamation point to our discussion,” Gartman said of the this week’s downtown accident. “Now if anyone says this really isn’t an issue, we can say ‘Yes, it is.’ It didn’t even take an earthquake. Who knows what building or what section of a building will come down next.”
