Caltrans Working to Save Threatened Homes

Perched atop an unstable Malibu hillside, Caltrans crews worked steadily Sunday to shore up an area that is threatening nearby homes.

Pacific Coast Highway between Las Flores Canyon and Topanga Canyon roads remained closed late Sunday. Caltrans officials said they hoped to reopen two lanes of the shoreline highway in time for this morning’s commute.

“The hillside is falling in little waterfalls, and it keeps dribbling down, undermining sections of the hill,” said Dave Servaes, Caltrans region manager.

Workers have been building a large earth berm with the falling slide material “to catch debris so it won’t fall on the road,” said Servaes.

Officials said they were also concerned about large “knobs of dirt” hanging over the side of the slope facing the highway. “As long as they’re hanging there, we can’t let anybody even walk over here,” Servaes said. If the hillside continues to erode, officials said “the potential is there” for two homes perched atop Las Flores Mesa to slide. Servaes added, however, that he believed that was “unlikely to happen.”

“I feel like my house is dying,” said Leslie Steinmetz, owner of one of the homes, in the 3900 block of Sierks Way. “I’m going through a mourning process.”

Steinmetz rebuilt his home after the 1993 Malibu fires. He said he had lived in it for just a year and a half before a 130-foot tile deck next to the house began to slide--courtesy of heavy El Nino rains.

Steinmetz said lawyers--his as well as attorneys for Caltrans--are discussing agency plans to buy the home.

If it is sold, he said, he plans to buy another home in Malibu. “I don’t know why,” he added, laughing.

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For Malibu business owners--who were expecting a crush of families and tourists and hoping Sunday for a rush of last-minute Father’s Day purchases--the road closure proved a downer.

“We must have lost 40% of our business today,” said Paul Spooner, manager of Duke’s Malibu restaurant, located at the intersection of PCH and Las Flores Canyon Road, within earshot of the construction.

But the closure won’t stop business, he said: “The locals will still come. This isn’t the first time this has happened. We’re used to it.”

At Cosentino’s flower shop a few steps away, business was similarly slow.

“Normally we’d have a store full of people stopping in off the street,” said Danielle Lackey, 26. “But because they can’t get through, it’s not happening.”

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For many motorists, meanwhile, the slide marred weekend plans. “It’s been really frustrating,” said Curt Harper, 33, who was returning from a day of surfing in Ventura when he was forced to make a detour off PCH at Las Flores Canyon Road. “I’ve had this happen to me so many times.”

But for some residents the closure marked blessed relief from the heavy weekend beach crowds.

“It’s better like this,” said Susan Adler, 31, who lives in a beachfront home directly across from the hill. “There’s less traffic, less people, less tourists. We’re used to so much, between the mudslides and fires, what are you going to do? It’s paradise.”