PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty put a temporary halt to a requirement that buildings needing seismic upgrades display signs they could collapse in an earthquake.

The new law enacted in December 2018 requires owners to upgrade their buildings to become more earthquake-ready. But owners of unreinforced masonry buildings in Portland threatened to sue the city over the requirement to post signs about their earthquake health.

That part of the law was set to take effect March 1.

The requirement affected dozens of music venues in the city, including the Crystal Ballroom, Dante’s, Keller Auditorium, Kells Irish Pub, the White Eagle Saloon.

In all, about 1500 buildings in Portland with unreinforced masonry are affected by the law.

A number of groups — MusicPortland, the NAACP, tenants rights organizations, Save Portland Buildings and the Council of Churches — protested outside Portland’s City Hall on January 5 to highlight what they said are flaws in the new law

This is the kind of sign buildings in Portland that are not earthquake-ready would be required to post under a new law, January 4, 2019 (KOIN)

In a release, Hardesty — who has Portland Fire & Rescue as one of the bureaus she oversees — said she’s been weighing the concerns of those involved and decided she needs to spend more time talking with community members about the issue.

People who want to take part in a work group on the issue can email: URMS@portlandoregon.gov

In the release Hardesty also said she may lobby state legislators for assistance.

Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, January 2, 2019 (KOIN)

Many of the building owners said this new sign-posting requirement would make it difficult to get a loan against the building in order to get funding to do the seismic retrofits. The end result would be the owners would have to sell the buildings to developers and would lead to gentrification in those neighborhoods.

“A placard is a band-aid for a much larger problem,” Hardesty said in a statement. “Until we have better support in place, especially in the form of funding assistance for these projects, I want placarding enforcement on hold for businesses and non-profit organizations.”