Condos Vacated as Soaked Hill Threatens Slide

Homeowners already faced with buckling walls and cracked foundations abandoned five condominium units Friday after a 50-foot slope weakened by last weekend’s fierce rains began sliding toward their homes, threatening to rupture a gas line.

“We don’t know where we’re going,” said Michael DeStefano, owner of one of the condos at Crown Valley Parkway and Club House Drive.

Vicki Shankling, another displaced resident, was still looking for a place to stay late Friday afternoon. “There are no places available,” she said. “It’s horrible.”

Residents say the problems with the slope behind the 41-unit condominium complex began several years ago when developers built several homes atop the hill, allegedly undermining its stability. In 1994, the condominium homeowners association sued the companies involved in the project.

Since then, said Thomas E. Miller, a lawyer representing the association, the slope’s condition has been carefully monitored by devices designed to detect even the slightest movement of earth.

Prior to last weekend’s rains, Miller said, the slope was sliding about five inches per year. Immediately after the rain, the slide increased to a rate of 13 to 17 inches per year. By Friday morning, he said, the slope was sliding at 24 inches per year.

“It’s to the point where the slope is in total failure,” Miller said. “We had to get them out immediately.”

John Walsh, a lawyer representing Hon Development Co., which supervised the grading of the hill, said that while the company is not to blame for the slide, it agreed that Friday’s evacuation was necessary. “Our primary concern is for the welfare of the people involved,” he said.

According to Miller, the five units could be uninhabitable for as long as a year while experts wrangle over who is responsible and what should be done. For the moment, he said, the seven displaced residents will be put up in nearby hotels. Eventually, he said, they will be housed in comparable units nearby at an estimated total cost of $15,000 to $17,000 per month.

“I’m sure that will put a hardship on people,” he said.

The homeowners association voted Thursday to assess each unit in the complex about $300 a month to help pay for the relocation. Hon Development has agreed to pay some money, although how much, according to Walsh, is still being negotiated. Miller said the association hopes to recover the cost of the relocation through the lawsuit, scheduled for trial in March.

As the weekend began, however, there were more immediate concerns.

“This is a little too much excitement at Christmas,” Shankling said.