SAN CLEMENTE : City Acts to Shore Up Colony Cove Cliff Area

A $2.25-million effort to shore up unstable slopes near the devastating La Ventana landslide was helped along by a pair of City Council votes this week.

Council members agreed to support an application for $2 million in federal and state assistance, and then passed an ordinance allowing work crews to cut into slopes along Pacific Coast Highway at a steeper angle than allowed by city law.

City Engineer William Cameron said the steps were necessary if stabilization work is to begin by next spring on the area known as Colony Cove.

“We’re trying to keep this from becoming another La Ventana,” he said. “We haven’t had any failures (landslides), but it’s a similar type of soil composition.”

The 1993 landslide on La Ventana devastated five homes and poured more than 40,000 tons of rubble onto Pacific Coast Highway, which is still closed.

The Colony Cove work is designed to prevent a similar disaster for a condominium complex on the cliffs, which are a few hundred yards from the La Ventana site.

However, Cameron said the Colony Cove slopes are not in imminent danger of slipping.

“It’s not as severe a situation as La Ventana,” he said.

In a manner similar to the methods being used to shore up the La Ventana slide, construction workers will drill large metal rods deep into the ground and encase them in concrete. A wall will be built above the rods.