Erosion Repair Settlement Goes to Vote

Owners of Liberty Canyon townhouses, which for six years have stood beneath a slumping hillside protected from erosion by a football field-sized swath of black plastic, are to vote today on a proposed $4.9-million settlement of a lawsuit that will pay for repairs.

The membership of the Rondell Condominium Homeowners Assn. is expected to approve the proposed settlement, which was worked out among six defendants and at least five insurance companies in court-supervised settlement conferences over the past 18 months, attorneys said.

The steep hillside in Agoura Hills slumped March 15, 1983, during a heavy rainy season to within a few feet of the two- and three-bedroom townhouses. The settlement guarantees the hillside repair, even if the cost exceeds the agreed-upon $4.9-million amount, attorney Leigh A. Datzker said.

Datzker represented the Liberty Canyon Townhome Owners Assn., which was both a plaintiff and a defendant in the tangled skein of lawsuits that arose from the slide. He said repairs should be under way by February or March if a majority of the Rondell owners agree to the settlement. The membership of the Liberty Canyon group approved the settlement Wednesday.

The Rondell Condominium Homeowners Assn. was also a plaintiff and a defendant in the litigation. The two associations filed claims of liability against one another and against the developers of the condominiums and the companies that attempted to repair the hillside after a slide in 1978.

Attorney Stephen D. Roberson, who represented the Rondell group, said he expected his clients to approve the settlement.

The key defendant in the case was the Sears Savings Bank, which agreed to pay for any repair costs that exceed the settlement amount, Datzker said. Sears assumed liability in the case when it took over the now-defunct Van Nuys Savings and Loan, the original developer of the two townhouse projects. Insurance companies for the homeowners groups will pay about a tenth of the repair costs.

The settlement was worked out in Los Angeles Superior Court under the guidance of Judge Marvin D. Rowen. Datzker said the settlement avoids a trial that probably would have lasted at least nine months.

Donald Wiechec, a member of the Rondell association who has monitored the progress of the lawsuit since it was filed five years ago, said the repairs will increase the value of the townhouses and will allow the residents to rest more easily on rainy nights. He said the repairs will mean an end to “getting up at 4 a.m. in a driving rain and checking that hill.”

He said the litigation shows the need for the county to be “more vigilant in the planning process and in supervising . . . hillside construction.”

Jean Bunch, a real estate agent who lives in the Rondell condominiums, estimated that the settlement would raise the value of the properties by at least $10,000. She said numerous agreements to sell condos in the 245-unit Liberty Canyon project, which is mostly on top of the slide, and the 97-unit Rondell project, which is at its base, had been canceled because banks refused to make loans while the litigation was pending.

Bunch said the three-bedroom units are selling for about $195,000, while two-bedroom townhouses are selling for about $165,000.