Patience Will Pay Off in the Long Run : * Lagunans Are Understandably Impatient to Rebuild, but the City’s Caution Is Wise

Residents of fire-damaged neighborhoods of Laguna Beach have had little to cheer about. One thing that did give them encouragement was the city’s pledge to make rebuilding as painless as possible by expediting the process of approving building permits. The city had even talked about waiving for fire victims the requirement that hillside residents obtain second opinions from city-hired geologists before getting permits.

But then last month the rebuilding effort was threatened by the disclosure that geologists had discovered what they thought might be an ancient landslide under 50 or so lots in the Mystic Hills area. And with that disclosure came the news that it could take up to a year to stabilize the area before some of the lost homes could be rebuilt. As happens in geologically sensitive areas of Southern California, the scenic appeal of the setting as a place to live came with a qualifier. It was the dicey nature of a landscape that lives by its own rhythms over geological time.

It might have been politically expedient to respond to the demands of the moment on behalf of those who have suffered greatly by simply overlooking the new concerns about the safety of the land. The city, to its great credit, did not do that. After being told by the experts that the hillsides must be stabilized, the City Council voted 4 to 0 on March 22 to spend $35,000 on further geologic study to determine whether the ancient landslide actually existed. They made this decision in the face of considerable pressure from 150 frustrated residents who packed the chambers to urge the city to let them go ahead with rebuilding.

There may of course be a measure of self-protection in the council’s action. City Manager Kenneth C. Frank correctly pointed out that the city has faced landslide-related litigation in the past, and that it needed to guard the city’s financial interests against potential liability. The testing could delay by eight to 10 months some of the permits, but the city’s caution is wise. It may be, as Frank has suggested, that it will be necessary to create a special assessment district to pay for retrofitting on an entire section of hillside.

For a city used to coping with disaster, the threat of new trouble must be taken seriously. Those who have chosen to live on the slippery slope of paradise need to accept that reasonable delays may be part of the price. Any delay in getting the hoped-for rebuilding accomplished would quickly be forgotten if prudent measures are taken now to avoid possible disaster later.