The Rules Nobody's Enforcing: Unreinforced Masonry in Everett
Walk down Colby Avenue, Hewitt, or Rucker in downtown Everett and you're surrounded by the city's most character-rich buildings century-old brick storefronts and mixed-use blocks that give the core its identity. Many of those same buildings are also classified as unreinforced masonry (URM): load-bearing brick or block walls built without the steel reinforcement and wall-to-floor/roof connections that modern code requires to keep a building standing in an earthquake.
Here's the part most owners don't realize: in Everett, and across most of Washington outside Seattle, retrofitting those buildings is not mandatory. The rules exist on paper. They're rarely triggered in practice.
What counts as a URM building
A typical URM is a brick, hollow clay tile, or unreinforced concrete-block building, generally constructed before the 1940s, with at least one load-bearing wall that lacks steel reinforcement. Without retrofitting, these walls, and especially unbraced parapets, are prone to cracking, partial collapse, or falling debris during ground shaking. Given the Pacific Northwest's Cascadia earthquake exposure, that's not a theoretical risk.
Everett has already counted the buildings
This isn't a guess. In 2023, the Washington Emergency Management Division, the Department of Archaeology & Historic Preservation (DAHP), and the Downtown Everett Association trained volunteers to conduct a sidewalk survey of the city's building stock. The pilot project identified more than 120 buildings in Everett showing URM characteristics, a notable inventory for a single pilot effort. The intent behind the survey was to eventually prioritize retrofit funding and risk mitigation, and DAHP has since received federal disaster-mitigation grant funding to build out a statewide URM data portal.
In other words: the city and state know where the risk sits. Knowing isn't the same as requiring anything be done about it.
Why the requirements go unenforced
Washington's Existing Building Code includes an appendix (Appendix A) with detailed seismic retrofit standards specifically for unreinforced masonry bearing-wall buildings, bracing parapets, strengthening roof and floor connections to walls, and repairing deteriorated mortar joints. It's a real, detailed technical standard. The catch is how it gets applied:
- It's largely permit-triggered, not proactive. A URM retrofit typically only becomes a requirement when an owner pulls a permit for a "substantial alteration" — a major remodel, change of occupancy, or similar. Left alone, a building can sit unretrofitted indefinitely.
- There's no Everett-specific mandatory ordinance. Seattle is the notable exception in the state, it has spent several years building toward a mandatory URM retrofit ordinance (with compliance currently voluntary while the city develops supportive funding and code recognition for completed retrofits). No comparable mandatory ordinance exists in Everett.
- Local code enforcement is complaint-driven. Everett's Code Enforcement Unit responds to reported violations, nuisance, zoning, dangerous-building complaints, rather than conducting proactive structural sweeps of older masonry stock. Absent a complaint or a permit application, a URM building's status simply doesn't come up.
Why this matters for owners and investors
For anyone holding, buying, or lending against older brick buildings in Everett's core (commercial or multifamily), this gap cuts both ways:
- No immediate compliance deadline means no forced capital expense today, which keeps basis and returns intact for buildings that would otherwise carry heavy retrofit costs.
- But the risk doesn't disappear: it shifts to insurance underwriting, tenant safety liability, and disclosure obligations at sale. Lenders and insurers are increasingly asking about seismic risk directly, URM ordinance or not.
- Seattle's trajectory is a preview. Cities that survey their URM stock tend to eventually regulate it. If Everett follows that same path, buildings identified today become tomorrow's mandatory retrofit list and early movers who retrofit voluntarily may have more flexibility on cost, timeline, and financing than owners who wait for a deadline.
- Due diligence should assume the code is silent. Don't rely on the absence of a violation notice as evidence a masonry building is structurally sound. A pre-purchase structural assessment from a licensed engineer is the only way to actually know what you're buying.
Scott's take
We're seeing more capital interested in downtown Everett's older brick buildings — adaptive reuse is one of the categories we flagged as improving in this month's Opportunity Index. That's a good thing for the core. But "no mandatory retrofit ordinance" isn't the same as "no risk." Owners of URM buildings should treat a structural evaluation the same way they'd treat a Phase I environmental report: a standard piece of diligence, not an optional one. The regulatory gap will close eventually. Buildings that get ahead of it will be worth more when it does. For more information on Snohomish County Commercial Real Estate, please email us at Scott@Weitzcommercial or Nathan@weitzcommercial.com.
This post is for general informational purposes and is not legal, engineering, or compliance advice. Building code requirements change and can vary by permit type and project scope. Before making decisions about a specific property, confirm current requirements with the City of Everett Permit Services and consult a licensed structural engineer.
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Scott Weitz President | Broker Weitz Commercial 206.306.4034 scott@weitzcommercial.com |
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