L.A. Earthquake Retrofit Bill

[Lee L.]

The L.A. City Council may soon pass major legislation to force owners of certain apartment buildings to retrofit their properties for earthquakes. According to the L.A. Times, the legislation may affect 13,500 wooden buildings and 1,500 "brittle apartment buildings." The cost of such retrofits would be "$60,000 to $130,000 for wooden apartment buildings and millions of dollars for taller concrete buildings." (LA Times, October 7, 2015). 

As for the wooden buildings, the legislation aims to target "soft story" buildings, commonly those with garages or commercial buildings on the first floor. 

 I'm curious if there is a database that lists the soft-story buildings that would be affected by the legislation.  

Also, I'm a bit puzzled by how soft-story buildings are defined especially when it comes to smaller buildings (2-4 units). Does "soft-story" mainly pertain to larger buildings? I see plenty of duplexes and triplexes where the living space is on top of the garage. There are also split-level type buildings where part but not all of the living space sits on top of the garage. Would you consider these to be soft-story and more prone to failure during quakes?  How have these smaller buildings performed during earthquakes in recent memory?