Laguna Looks for Sure End to Slump : The City Moves Ahead With Stabilization of Problem Hillside

As the city hurries forward with plans to secure a hill where landslides destroyed two Rimrock Canyon homes last spring, an emergency project has been launched to stabilize an adjacent roadway where stress fractures were discovered recently.

The cluster of cracks, which extend about 75 feet along Dunning Drive, indicate that part of the road could begin to slide or collapse, putting other homes in danger, municipal services director Terry Brandt said.

“There is movement in the street,” Brandt said. “We’re concerned about that. We don’t want to lose the street.”

Workers have been installing 13 pilings about nine feet apart along a section of Dunning Drive. The cost: $48,000.

In addition, the City Council will be asked Tuesday to approve a contract for the larger $800,000 hillside stabilization project, which geologists say is necessary to prevent additional public and private property from being imperiled by rain.

As workers drilled deeply into the earth Thursday morning, Dunning Drive resident Beth Wood shrugged off the noise, saying she is glad the city is moving quickly to avert further losses.

“The only thing we were really worried about was getting our cars trapped in here if the street went. So, some of us were parking on the other side” of the cracks, Wood said. She said residents have tried to be “practical rather than being frantic” about the instability of the ground.

Laguna Beach has been plagued by landslides in recent years, including one that destroyed three homes in the Mystic Hills community in 1993. Rain earlier this year set off smaller landslides throughout the city, most on private property.

The Rimrock Canyon slide occurred March 25, causing the home of Richard L. Dixon and Analee Philippi-Dixon--Wood’s next-door neighbors--to begin to sink. The rear section of a house owned by Mel and Liz Erger, on the other side of the Dixons, also began collapsing.

A month later, a second slide ripped open the yard of Delores Petricevich, who lives next to the Ergers, and extended into an adjacent undeveloped lot.

In August, after a geological study of the area, the City Council endorsed a plan to steady the slope. The proposal calls for about 34,000 cubic yards of dirt to be hauled into the canyon to create an earthen wedge up to 35 feet deep and 120 feet wide to buttress the hillside.

In the meantime, cracks began spreading like veins on the roadway, prompting the emergency work that began Thursday.

On Tuesday, the City Council will be asked to approve a contract and a coastal development permit for the larger project.

Richard Dixon has complained that the hillside stabilization plan will transform the scenic canyon into a “flat dust bowl.” Dixon said his home is already lost and now he may lose the canyon view.

“I find it to be almost a double punch,” he said. “The buttress will stabilize the area, but for the people living right on top of it, it’s a bit of an unattractive concept.”

Wood, whose property and view also will be affected, said she can understand Dixon’s frustration.

Wood said she and her husband, Steve, are contemplating approving the project and said it is probably the most effective solution for the money. And it may give them more peace of mind.

“We’ve been living here for a long time going, ‘Gee, I wonder if this will slide,’ ” she said. “We’ll just have to make the best of the changes that have to be done to protect what we have.”

Mixed feelings abound in Rimrock Canyon, where residents praise the city for its quick action. But they are concerned about the aesthetic impact the stabilization plan will have on the canyon.

“I think it’s unfortunate they have to destroy the canyon in order to shore this up,” said Mike Bower, who lives on Temple Hills Drive, near Dunning Drive.

The city’s Brandt has said that steadying the canyon wall will have a “significant impact on the aesthetics of the area.” He said the canyon will look pretty again after being replanted.

“It’s not going to turn into a dust bowl,” he said. “We’re going to hydro-seed it and over time it will grow back and we’ll have the same type of growth in the area that we currently have.”

Racing against the approaching rainy season, city officials are hoping to quickly gain approval from about seven affected property owners so they can begin stabilizing the hillside, a project they hope to complete by late December. Although all have been notified, Brandt said the city has received approval from one property owner.

Still, he is confident all will eventually agree to the plan.

“I’m assuming everybody wants us to do it; it’s what we’ve talked about all along,” Brandt said. “I don’t know why anybody would not want us to do the work.”

Brandt said he is not sure what will happen if residents resist the plan.

“We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it,” he said.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Digging In

Thirteen steel cages will be installed along a 75-foot section of Dunning Drive to reinforce the street. How the $48,000 project is accomplished:

1) Holes drilled to bedrock, 25 to 35 feet

2) Steel cage constructed, inserted

3) Concrete poured into cage

Note: Drawings not to scale

Source: City of Laguna Beach