Calabasas Homeowners, Builder Reach Settlement : Hillsides: Developer agrees to pay for repairs to rain-damaged slopes in the 440-house subdivision.

Residents of a hilly Calabasas neighborhood this week settled a multimillion-dollar dispute with the builder of their housing tract over 20 hillsides that collapsed during heavy rains last March.

Ending a 10-month battle with the Calabasas Hills Community Assn., The Lusk Co. agreed Tuesday to pay for repairs to the damaged slopes in the 440-house development and to check dozens of other hillsides for conditions that could cause more slides.

Although the settlement does not blame Lusk for the slides, the Irvine-based developer agreed to make repairs to the satisfaction of an independent geologist, as requested by the homeowners group. Lusk had wanted its own geologists to evaluate the slopes and supervise repairs.

Many houses in the tract south of Calabasas Golf Course are on sites carved from hillsides, with steep embankments extending up from yards.

Homeowner attorney Alexander Robertson said geologists hired by the homeowners have claimed the original grade work was unsafe because slopes were too steep and some dirt was not compacted enough. Don Steffensen, Lusk’s executive vice president, said his company will review the grading procedures and probably will seek compensation from subcontractors involved if mistakes were made. “We certainly would try to do the best we could to recover the costs we’ve incurred,” he said.

Repair work began Thursday and is expected to take several months. Tons of dirt must be removed from the slide areas and repacked on hillsides over a grid of plastic reinforcements and drainage pipes.

No cost estimate was available, but attorney Robertson said Lusk could end up spending $3 million just repairing the slopes that already failed.

“It was a nice Christmas present for all the homeowners out there,” said Robertson, who lives in the 5-year-old tract.

For nearly a year residents have dealt with piles of dirt in their back yards and have been unable to sell or refinance their homes because banks and potential buyers were afraid of more slides, said Harold Gidish, president of the homeowners association.

Ellen Schuster, for instance, said two offers to buy her house were withdrawn after the slides because she could not guarantee that the tons of dirt along her back fence would be removed. Also, Schuster said, she is afraid to let her two children play in the back yard because the hill might slide again.

“This has caused a tremendous amount of inconvenience and a lot of heartache,” Schuster said.