DANA POINT : Residents Say Project Is Ruining Homes

Three residents of Waterford Pointe, an upscale hilltop housing tract, charged this week that their homes are being destroyed by a city-sponsored street-widening project beneath them.

One of the homeowners, Stanley Borgenight, a real estate broker, said his $320,000 home has begun to crack and separate from its foundation since early March. Coincidentally, the city discovered a “seam” in the hillside during the grading from the road project about that time, he said.

The city is in the midst of a $1.2-million widening of Stonehill Drive from two to four lanes. To make room for the extra roadway, tractors had to cut deep into the hillside about 40 feet below the Waterford Pointe homes. City officials acknowledge that a thin clay seam was found in the hillside soil after the work started, and residents complained of damage to their homes shortly thereafter.

The problem has gotten so bad that Borgenight said he wants to leave, but may not be able to because of the damage to the house.

“The home is now damaged goods,” said Borgenight, who has lived in the house for nearly three years. “It would be very difficult to sell now. The property value would be ruined.”

Sandra Shaw, his next-door neighbor on Seagate Drive, agrees.

“I first noticed my front door wouldn’t shut right,” Shaw said. “Then the cracks started showing up.”

The road work was ordered halted as soon as the seam was found in the hillside, said City Manager William O. Talley. Test borings have been done there and the city is now waiting for a preliminary report from a geologist due next week, Talley said. He said that the city has monitored the area for ground movement since early March but has found “no recorded movement.”

Borgenight said the city has told him that it has a new plan to install pilings in the hillside below the homes.

“I asked why didn’t they do that in the first place,” he said.