SAN CLEMENTE : City to Consider Bid to Demolish 5 Homes
More than 10 years after being condemned, demolition of five homes in Verde Canyon will start next week if the City Council tonight approves a contractor’s bid for the work.
The homes are among the 10 destroyed or condemned after a massive landslide in Verde Canyon in December, 1983.
The council will consider a low bid of $34,000, submitted by Fynok American Co. of Inglewood, to raze the five structures. The cost of demolition will be charged to the owners as a lien against the property.
“The houses were declared a nuisance because of the unstable soil conditions beneath them,” said city building official Trang Huynh. “We want to make sure this site is cleaned up. These houses can’t continue to just sit there.”
The condemned and boarded-up structures have occasionally been used by transients over the years.
Lawsuits over the disaster held up demolition for several years. City officials were ready to proceed with the work last year, but a housing development proposal for the canyon area halted the city’s plans.
However, when it became apparent that the proposal to build 30 homes at the bottom of Verde Canyon was moving slowly, the city pushed forward with the demolition plan.
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