Residents Warned of Slide Risks : La Conchita: Evacuation order will be lifted Sunday. But inspectors are posting warning signs on residences and businesses.

As sheriff’s deputies prepare to lift evacuation orders and shut down their office at La Conchita, Ventura County building officials are warning residents that they are living in the landslide-prone neighborhood at their own risk.

By Saturday, county building inspectors will have posted bright yellow warning signs on each of the approximately 200 residences and businesses in the beachfront community.

But access to most of the residences in La Conchita will not be regulated.

“The board (of supervisors) decided they were going to tag all the houses as being in a hazardous geologic area,” said Steve Ball, a supervisor in the county building and safety division.

“It’s just a notice that’s posted on the front of the structure to let anyone that’s looking at a place that it may be dangerous,” he said.

The evacuation order issued immediately after the mudslide will be lifted Sunday. Sheriff’s officials will remove the trailer that has served as a temporary office the same day.

“We’ll still be doing 24-hour patrols through May 7,” said Senior Deputy Al Calderon, who is staffing the temporary office. “But mostly we’re just here for security.”

Calderon and other officials are keeping track of who is living in the area and who has moved out. They have collected signatures from more than 200 people who signed a two-sentence waiver acknowledging the threat of another slide.

“As far as we know, everybody has signed them willingly,” Calderon said.

Nearly 90 residences are vacant and 83 are occupied, according to Sheriff’s Department records. Eighteen have been declared unfit to live in, Calderon said.

Despite the warnings from county officials that the area is unsafe, most of those remaining in La Conchita say they will not leave.

“I don’t take it too seriously,” said Roger Brown, an artist whose Ojai Avenue home is about half a block from the slide area. “It’s not logical to think the hill would fall all this way.”

Chris Holmstrom, a drugstore clerk who rents a one-bedroom house for $500 a month, said he was not worried about the enter-at-your-own-risk declaration.

“I guess I’ll just do that,” he said. “But if I start hearing more and more about how dangerous it is, I might consider moving.”

Many residents who refused to leave after a landslide destroyed nine houses last month say the warnings are an attempt to limit the county’s exposure to a lawsuit.

“The county is trying to remove itself from any liability,” said Scott Shapiro, who owns a home on Ojai Avenue. He said he and others are looking for an attorney to represent them.

“I’m willing to kick in funds to pay for a lawsuit,” he said.

Supervisor Maggie Kildee said the warning signs are not intended to shelter the county from litigation. Rather, officials just want to make sure people are aware that another landslide could occur at any time, she said.

“We are unable to find any geologist who will assure us that it’s safe to live in La Conchita,” Kildee said. “They all tell us there’s a very real danger from living there.”

Lifting the evacuation notice is not a signal to residents that the area is now safe, Kildee said.

“We cannot assure someone that it is safe to live there,” she said. “They need to make a decision for themselves about what they will do.”

Postal worker Joy Qualey has been delivering mail to La Conchita residents for years. But in the past six weeks, she said, her deliveries have dropped by more than one-third.

“My requests for forwards have really gone up,” she said. “People are gone.”

On Santa Barbara Avenue, just yards from where tons of dirt and gravel came to rest, John Morgan is trying to rent his two-bedroom home for $600 a month.

“It was rented right up until the slide, but then the people got scared and moved out,” he said. “Some people are just spooked.”