ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : The Earth Moved Under Their Feet

Anaheim Hills is one of Orange County’s prestigious addresses, but the attention it has been attracting in recent days does not focus on fine living: It is the center of a nightmare for homeowners and the city of Anaheim.

The problem--sliding houses--results from construction on a hillside that may have been an ancient landslide area.

Forty-six families in a neighborhood of expensive dwellings have been ordered out of their residences, with little prospect of financial relief, because of rain-induced shifting of foundations, breaking of walls and cracking of swimming pools.

The story is not unlike that heard in recent days in fashionable Laguna Beach and San Clemente. The irresistible attraction of an upscale neighborhood, or perhaps the special lure of sweeping mountain or sea views that hillside homes can offer, may overtake appropriate caution about building in areas prone to landslides. That is especially so when the cost of securing foundations to bedrock can be prohibitive.

One very painful lesson from the last two weeks is that there is no substitute for doing what some home builders within a mile of sliding houses in Laguna are doing right now. They are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars more for secure footings that bypass fissures that might lurk beneath attractive hilltop lots. Even then, the experts say, there aren’t any guarantees.

In the case of the Anaheim Hills disaster, especially, there are lingering questions about the role of cities in permitting such construction without sufficient knowledge or review of the terrain.

Only last April, Anaheim city officials discovered cracks in the sidewalks that foreshadowed this month’s disaster. The city Public Works Department asserts that appropriate soil tests were done before the area was developed 10 to 15 years ago and that no evidence of a landslide threat was found.

However, a report on file with the city indicated that officials were told of potential problems in the area as early as 1979, after a minor landslide during some construction. The public works director’s explanation that the current problems and the 1979 slide likely weren’t related doesn’t wash.

To its credit, the city has put public safety first in asserting that it will spend what is necessary to drain the hillside and restore infrastructure. But only thorough investigation before building on such hills can save everybody emotional and financial woes later on.