Southern California is seeing its most seismically active year in decades, but some cities near the epicenter of recent temblors have yet to require retrofits of many apartment buildings deemed most at risk of collapse, a Times investigation has found.
Several suburbs closest to the widely felt earthquakes that struck Los Angeles County this summer and fall — including Alhambra, Monterey Park and South Pasadena — have no active plans to require retrofits for seismically flimsy “soft-story” apartment buildings, according to interviews with local officials and a review of existing seismic policies.
In Malibu, which was hit by modest earthquakes in February and September, city officials recently completed an inventory of 37 potential soft-story buildings…