BERNSON PLAN IRKS REALTORS : AUTOMATIC SHUTOFF VALVES URGED ON ALL HOME SALES.

Byline: Patrick McGreevy Daily News Staff Writer

Despite opposition from the San Fernando Valley Association of Realtors, a City Council panel recommended Tuesday that anyone who buys a home or commercial building be required to install automatic gas shutoff valves within six months of the purchase.

In addition, the council's Ad Hoc Committee on Earthquake Recovery recommended that all apartment buildings with a single master meter be retroactively required to install the automatic shutoff values within one year of the ordinance's adoption.

The shutoff valves are designed to reduce the risk of fires fueled by broken gas lines in a major quake.

Councilman Hal Bernson, the committee chairman, proposed the six-month deadline for homes and commercial buildings as a compromise to proposals by Councilman Richard Alarcon and the San Fernando Valley Association of Realtors that buyers be given a year to comply.

Bernson, who had originally proposed compliance within 90 days of closing escrow, said the city needs to get property owners to install the valves as soon as possible to prevent gas fires such as those touched off by the 1994 Northridge Earthquake.

``We are sitting on a powder keg here,'' Bernson said. ``We live in an area where we're going to have major earthquakes. This will significantly decrease the potential for damage that will occur in the city through fires.''

The council voted after the Northridge Quake to require automatic shutoff valves to be installed in all newly constructed buildings, and commercial buildings that undergo more than $10,000 in renovation.

However, Bernson proposed to expand the ordinance after the 1995 Kobe, Japan earthquake caused massive fires touched off by broken gas lines.

The proposal to require installation when properties change hands was opposed by Mel Wilson, president-elect of the San Fernando Valley Association of Realtors, who said it would hurt home sales already suffering because of the economy.

``We think it's patently unfair to mandate it. There's an economic issue,'' Wilson said, adding that if the proposal is for public safety it should be required of everyone, regardless of whether they are purchasers of new homes.

Wilson also argued that the ordinance has major loopholes, excluding public schools and hospitals, and that there were not that many homes damaged by gas fires in the Northridge temblor.

Alarcon said the $250 cost to install an automatic shutoff valve could discourage some people in his Northeast Valley district from buying a home.

``Two hundred and fifty dollars in my district makes a difference between whether you are able to buy a house or not,'' he said.

Although he agreed to vote to support the six-month proposal, Alarcon said he reserved the right to push for a longer grace period depending on input he gets before the ordinance goes before the council.

Under the compromise proposal, the installation would not be a condition of closing escrow. Instead, once the city gets notice that a property has changed hands, it would send the notice to the owner allowing six months to do the work.