ANAHEIM : Homes in Landslide to Be Reappraised

In an effort to help the victims of the Anaheim Hills landslide get a break on their property taxes, the county’s tax assessor’s office on Tuesday started reappraising the value of damaged homes.

“The property taxes will be adjusted to reflect the new value of the property,” said city spokesman Dennis Schmidt.

He said homeowners will be in line for lower taxes as a result of the decreased value of their homes. Schmidt did not know how much of a tax reduction the homeowners could expect to see on their taxes.

“It’s too early to tell,” he said.

Currently, the county tax assessor is only assessing homes that have sustained at least $5,000 damage in the landslide. Residences that have no damage, but may have been devalued because of their proximity to the slide, will be assessed later, Schmidt said.

The damage has been so bad on the underground utilities that city officials are considering installing aboveground utilities to service those who have not evacuated homes.

Meanwhile, city crews continue to drill and pump wells in an effort to remove an abundance of underground water.

Bret Colson, the city’s public information officer, said that the pumping operation appears to be working in some areas. He cautioned, however, that the slide is continuing to move and that the evacuation order will remain in effect “indefinitely” until the movement has slowed “significantly.”

In other developments Tuesday:

* The city announced that it will forgive all sanitation charges, including trash, street sweeping and sewer, incurred by the evacuees from the day they were evacuated.

* Because the situation has not changed dramatically since the city’s “Town Meeting” last week, another meeting tentatively scheduled for this week has been postponed. A meeting “for evacuees only” is being planned for next week.