City Plans 2nd Appeal Over FEMA Action

The city will file a second appeal to the Federal Emergency Management Agency after being officially notified that its request for reimbursement of a hillside-stabilization project was denied.

City officials said they were notified this week of FEMA’s decision through a letter from Rep. Anthony Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills).

“It made official what we had heard FEMA was going to do,” City Manager Dave Adams said Monday. “But we’ll continue to fight it through whatever resources we have.”

The project stemmed from a landslide that occurred during heavy rain in 1993 when a portion of the hillside in the city’s Via Amistosa area failed, destroying one residence and badly damaging another. The city paid nearly $1 million to buy the second home, relocate several residents, shore up the hillside and fix the road damage. The project was completed last month.

Adams said FEMA had initially agreed to pay three-quarters of the total amount. But last September FEMA denied the city’s request for reimbursement. In October, the city appealed that decision.

After review of the city’s appeal, FEMA determined that the hillside, Calle Montecillo, is not eligible for funding because it was privately owned property, according to a letter written to Beilenson by Shirley Mattingly, a FEMA regional director. The federal agency is restricted from authorizing assistance to such property except under limited circumstances.

The area is also ineligible for funding because Agoura Hills had received nearly $134,000 in funds for debris removal and demolition and other protective work that “eliminated any immediate threat to lives, public health, safety and improved public property,” the letter stated.

But Adams said the city still considers the project a public emergency. “If we didn’t fix it permanently, we would lose public property,” he said. “It was dangerous and we had to do it.”