Land Still Moving After Slides in Laguna Beach : Hazard: Report says effort is needed to secure shifting Rimrock Canyon slopes, where three families have been forced from homes.

A pair of landslides that forced three families from their homes over the past seven weeks could pose additional problems in the Rimrock Canyon community unless the slope is secured, a report released Tuesday says.

The report from Geofirm says the earth is continuing to shift about an inch or two per day along one of the landslides and “could possibly result in instability of Dunning Drive and up-slope properties.”

“Stabilization of the landslide is considered necessary to provide long-term protection for Dunning Drive,” the report says.

The current problem began March 25 when the home of Richard Dixon and Analee Philippi-Dixon began to sink and the rear portion of neighbors Mel and Liz Erger’s house began collapsing.

On April 25, a second slide along that southeasterly-facing slope created a fissure 10 to 12 feet wide in the yard of Delores Petricevich, the Ergers’ next-door neighbor, and extended to an undeveloped lot.

The report said the recent slides are ancient landslides that began moving again in part because of unusually high levels of ground water caused by this winter’s rains.

Laguna Beach has been plagued by landslides in recent years. Aside from the October, 1993, firestorm, the largest disaster to hit this city was a 1978 landslide that wrecked 22 homes in Bluebird Canyon, just north of Rimrock Canyon.

The report recommends protecting Dunning Drive by packing the lower canyon with dirt fill to buttress the canyon wall. The report says holes must be drilled lower in the canyon and in uphill areas to gather more information on the slides.

What remains to be seen is who will take responsibility for repairing the slippage and stabilizing the hillside.

City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said Tuesday afternoon that he will meet with residents Monday night to discuss the possibility of creating an assessment district to help pay for the repairs.

While city officials maintain that property owners are responsible for their own lots, Frank said the city must tend to the street.

“To the extent the street is threatened, we would have to do something, whether it’s caissons in the street or a buttress, I don’t know,” he said.

Mary Ann Hamilton, who lives on the uphill side of Dunning Drive, across from the damaged homes, said she believes her home could be in danger if the problem is not resolved.

“I can’t say there’s any major panic in our house about it,” she said. “Of course people are concerned, but you can’t just rush into panic.”

The Rimrock Canyon slides have turned the lives of the three evacuated families upside down.

Dixon and Philippi-Dixon now live in a rental home in Laguna Beach, the Ergers are staying in a motel and Petricevich is with her daughter and son-in-law in Temecula.

Residents of the area filed into City Hall on Tuesday morning to pick up the report, which they were hoping would give them a clue about what to do next.

“I lost my house,” Philippi-Dixon said as she accepted the report from the municipal services department secretary on the second floor of City Hall. Downstairs, Liz Erger clutched her own copy. The Ergers said they planned to study it, but they could not be reached for comment later in the day.