Laguna Beach OKs $46,000 Study of Possible Ancient Landslide : Geology: Residents worry that a finding of instability could lower values in fire-damaged Temple Hills area.

Before a room full of worried residents, the Laguna Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to spend $46,000 to determine if an ancient landslide lies beneath the fire-damaged community of Temple Hills.

The council vote came in the wake of a report from geologists that an ancient landslide may lie under about 65 lots.

A geologist told council members Tuesday that the slide area is “significantly deeper” than the one suspected to lie beneath a second fire-damaged community, Mystic Hills. The city also is expecting a geological report back this week on whether a similar condition exists there.

About 70 Temple Hills residents appeared at the special meeting Tuesday night, many of them saying they were more concerned about what the news of a possible ancient landslide would do to their property values than about the threat of landside itself.

“Why should one neighborhood be unfairly stigmatized as the site of an ancient landslide when you know full well there are suspected landslide areas in every nook and cranny of the city,” said Donn Tragnitz, who lives in Temple Hills. “Who will want to buy a house in a landslide area--even if it’s stabilized?”

Council members, however, said they felt strongly that the city was responsible for investigating the geology reports.

“The city is faced with a number of difficult choices,” Mayor Ann Christoph said. “I don’t think we really have any choice but to proceed to find out the information we need to find out.”

Councilman Robert F. Gentry, who lost his house in Mystic Hills, said, “I would like our city response to this to be as thorough as possible.”

Many Temple Hills residents have demanded that the city get a second opinion about the slide, and the council agreed to allocate $8,000 of the $46,000 to get that second opinion regarding Temple Hills.

“We want . . . honest answers to legitimate questions,” resident Peter J. French said.

French also said the city should study the hillsides if necessary but be cautious about saying the land is in danger of slipping. “Just because some dirt slid 10,000 years ago, who’s to say it’s ever going to slide again?” he said. “Maybe it slid into place and is never going to go anyplace.”

Meanwhile, residents anxiously awaited another City Council meeting concerning geologists’ evaluation of Mystic Hills.

The special meeting to discuss the study has been scheduled for 3 p.m. Saturday.

Geofirm, a Laguna Beach geotechnical consulting firm, proposed the extensive study of the earth under 65 lots in the Temple Hills area. The study area involves properties on portions of eight streets--Bayview Place, Canyon View Drive, Buena Vista Way, Temple Hills Drive, Wendt Terrace, Griffith Way, Glomsted Lane and Wilcox Way.

Officials have said 15 to 16 of the affected lots had homes that were lost or damaged in the Oct. 27 fire.

If Geofirm confirms that stabilization work in required in the Temple Hills area, French said, the city should get a second opinion.

“It’s easy to say there’s an ancient landslide and it’s a lot harder to prove it,” he said, adding that a geology report on his property three years ago showed his 55-year-old home is on bedrock.

The possibility of an ancient landslide under Buena Vista Way and the surrounding area was first noted by geologists more than a year ago, after a small slide suddenly buckled that street and caused several houses to slip down the hillside. Two houses later were condemned, while a third is still being repaired.

Officials from Geofirm, which was hired by the city to evaluate the slide, have said that while their own borings at the time did not locate a problem, other data, including old aerial photographs and information from other geologists, led the firm to suspect the existence of an ancient slide.

More recently, geologists hired to perform investigations for individual property owners who lost their homes in the fire have uncovered more evidence of an old slide. Geologists from several firms have said their test drilling has found fractured rock, thick layers of clay and other indications that a slide might exist 65 to 76 feet below the surface.

Several residents whose hopes of rebuilding homes destroyed in the fire are on hold until the studies are completed have expressed frustration at what they view as the slow pace of the investigations, as well as a measure of fear about what the results might mean to their rebuilding plans. They also worry about who would pay for any required stabilization.

“We have always described ourselves as fire survivors,” said Polly Sloan, who heads the ancient landslides committee for the Mystic Hills Homeowners Assn.

“But in the last two weeks, as things have become more and more on hold and we get the feeling that the city isn’t telling us anything, for the first time many of us have begun to think of ourselves as fire victims.”