Walnut : Pools Over Fault Line OKd

Residents in this community of hillside tract homes may soon be building swimming pools over earthquake faults.

The City Council voted 3 to 2 last week to allow pools and other recreational structures to be built on top of the San Jose Hills Fault, amending the building code that prohibited building within 100 feet of the fault.

Councilmen Charles Richardson and Tom Sykes voted against the change, which will go before the council for a final time next week.

The amendment is good news to property owners in a 300-home community near Mt. San Antonio College. About 40 to 50 of them want swimming pools, but their property straddles the fault line. The William Lyon Co., a Newport Beach-based developer, is completing construction of the houses, which cost from $375,000 to $600,000 each and are on a hilly tract east of Grand Avenue.

“People up there wanted to build pools and patios, patio covers, gazebos and spas,” said Robert Morgenstern, Walnut’s director of municipal services.

The city won’t be liable for damage caused by a temblor because the residents must sign a waiver acknowledging the seismic danger before obtaining a permit to build, Morgenstern said.

The fault runs through another development site west of Grand Avenue, where the hills are being graded for 300 houses. Under the amendment, residents there would also be able to build pools.