LAKEPORT, Calif. – With the earth continuing to move at the landslide-damaged Lakeside Heights subdivision in north Lakeport, this week the Board of Supervisors got an update from staff on conditions and gave consensus to pursue a grant for a wall to stabilize the hillside above Hill Road.
The subdivision, which sits on a knoll above Hill Road East across from Sutter Lakeside Hospital, had 29 homes when, in March of 2013, the ground began to move and, in some areas, fall away, leading to the eventual red-tagging and demolition of several of the structures, with several more now needing to be removed.
Last year, more than 40 property owners in the subdivision filed suit against the county, alleging that it was a county water system that led to the hill movement.
Earlier this year, the county filed a cross-complaint which alleged that the landslide was the result of actions taken by property owners.
At Tuesday's board meeting, Supervisor Anthony Farrington – in whose district the subdivision is located – said he brought the matter back for discussion due to recent concerns.
Those concerns include the closure of a portion of Hill Road East on Dec. 2, due to the potential for the landslide to impact the road, which also is the only entry point to the hospital.
Farrington said Tuesday he wanted to look at other actions the county could take, noting that the closure on Hill Road East has a regional impact, going beyond just his district.
Before opening the discussion, Board Chair Denise Rushing said the scope of the agenda item was the slide only, not the overall issues of the subdivision.
Property owners who were in the audience chose not to say anything at all about the matter as a result of Rushing's admonition, according to Randall Fitzgerald, who owns a home in the subdivision.
Public Works Director Scott De Leon told the board that he – in concert with other county officials – made the decision to close the road on Dec. 2 due to movement in the upper part of the slide.
County staff subsequently implemented a closure plan that De Leon said had been created months in advance.
The Dec. 11 storm did cause the ground movement to continue, with De Leon explaining that some of the saturated soil did in fact move down the hillside, topping a k-rail and going across the center line of Hill Road East.
“It is slowly progressing out into the road,” De Leon said, noting that an emergency access has been put in place.
De Leon said Dec. 12 was the deadline to submit a notice of intent to apply to the state for a hazard elimination grant.
He said he submitted a notice to the state for a grant to construct a “gabion” wall along a portion of the right-of-way at the base of the hill at the landslide site in order to resist and contain the slide. A Eureka firm builds such walls and will help the county design it.
De Leon said the wall, as it's proposed, will cost $225,500. The state grant will require a 25-percent local match, which his road department will pay.
Rushing asked for examples of such walls locally. De Leon said there is one on 11th Street in Lakeport at the entrance to the Central Park area.
He said a gabion wall is essentially a series of baskets filled with stones. It's not a solid structure, and allows water to drain through it.
County Emergency Services Manager Marisa Chilafoe told the board during the discussion that the grant De Leon described is purely for the proposed wall on Hill Road East, with additional work at the site needing to be done under another grant.
Farrington asked Community Development Director Rick Coel about additional homes in the subdivision that have received abatement notices.
Coel said a fourplex unit on the northeastern portion of the slide area has two collapsing units, with a third uninhabited.
He said the soil there is too unstable and there is no practical way to get equipment to the site for demolition, so the structure is being left alone at this point.
“I don't want to put equipment in there with that added weight,” and have something worse happen, Coel said.
“It's just too unstable in that area,” he added, explaining that the road in front of the structure has dropped as much as 8 feet.
Farrington asked if conditions at the subdivision are worse now than before the county began abating damaged houses.
Coel said he couldn't say, noting that the landslide “keeps slowly creeping downhill and settling.”
De Leon said the county has, to date, spent almost $29,000 setting up detours, doing prep work and minor cleanup work last winter at the subdivision site.
The board gave staff consensus to move forward with seeking grants to address the subdivision's immediate issues.
Fitzgerald and fellow subdivision resident Garey Hurn told Lake County News that the county didn't discuss any of the issues about the hillside with property owners before the Tuesday discussion.
Nor did residents get any notice before the county closed the Hill Road East area – which Fitzgerald called “our daily lifeline” – just below the subdivision entrance.
The men are concerned about whether or not the gabion wall will help or hurt the situation.
When grading and tarping work occurred on the hillside late in 2013, Fitzgerald and Hurn said there was no soils compacting done.
“I do wonder about its usefulness in the absence of soil removal and soil compacting,” said Fitzgerald. “I would hope both removal and compacting would be part of the project.”
Hurn said he thinks the gabion-style wall can't hold back as much earth as it will need to at the site.
“Given the volume of mudflow moving downward towards Hill Road, since the recent storms, it is going to take a greater effort than wire baskets filled with rock,” Hurn said.
“Additionally, there is the weight and mass of four crumbling homes, from our subdivision, that are adding pressure to an already fragile hillside,” said Hurn, suggesting the demolition on those four damaged homes should already have taken place.
He also raised the question of whether the county's residents can wait for state grant funds to be approved while a part of Hill Road remains closed.
“This is a case of precious moments being lost because of detours to the hospital. In a situation of emergency medical transport to the hospital, lost time due to detours may translate into loss of life,” Hurn said.
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