Change of Use

CHANGE OF USE Conversion of a building-- usually a commercial or industrial building-- to live/work constitutes a change of use, This means the building will be treated under the code as if it were a new structure, with a few exceptions found in the code, most notably that seismic retrofit will only need to meet 75% of today's code, roughly equivalent to the 1973 UBC or the Historic Building Code. There is an exception to this Change of Use provision, the so-called "10% rule"