Christchurch's second earthquake has brought an increased focus on the Tauranga City Council's roll over of its earthquake prone building policy.

The February 22 earthquake, and the fact that Tauranga's older building owners are receiving their first high-risk building notices at this time, sparked a discussion on the council's policy on ‘Dangerous, Earthquake Prone and Insanitary Buildings' when it was re-adopted at the council's strategy and policy committee meeting this week.

The Monmouth Street police station is classed ‘earthquake prone'.

The Building Act 2004 requires councils to adopt polices on earthquake prone buildings in their districts, and review them every five years.

The Tauranga policy was originally adopted in 2006 with the first assessments of the pre-1976 central business district buildings completed by the end of December 2010.

There are 110 buildings in the Tauranga CBD directly affected by the policy because they were built before 1976, and have a third less strength than buildings after that date.

These buildings have 10 times the risk of incurring serious risk or serious damage or collapse in the event of a moderate earthquake.

The owners of the CBD buildings deemed high-risk have received the first notices that begin the process that intends to lead to the buildings' strengthening or eventual replacement.

The initial assessment is based on information contained in council files.

The owners of poorly scoring buildings are sent a notice advising them the structure is considered earthquake prone.

The owners have six months to protest the score via an engineer's report. If that doesn't sway city hall, the next notice from the council requires the building owner to strengthen the building – within 10 years on a moderate priority building.

A building's score is also influenced by its use and whether it has a post disaster function, like Tauranga's Monmouth Street police station, which is deemed earthquake prone, but is expected to be replaced sometime over the next three to four years.

The first notices are about to be sent out to the building owners in the outlying city suburbs says Tauranga City Council buildings manager Rob Wickman.

The policy doesn't affect residential buildings unless they are apartment buildings containing three or more units and have two or more storeys.