City Agrees to Acquire Homes Ruined by Slide

Residents of uninhabitable houses on Laurie and Eureka drives are free to look for permanent homes because of a City Council decision Wednesday to acquire their ruined properties for $5.2 million.

The money, which includes attorney’s fees, will be divided among the families who sued the city alleging that a faulty public drainage system leaked water into the ground. The condition was aggravated by last year’s El Nino rains, causing a drenched hillside to collapse.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency allocated Los Angeles $2.4 million in disaster funds to help buy out mudslide victims in the wake of the devastating rains. The city will use $1.5 million of that to offset the settlement amount, said Pedro Echeverria, chief assistant city attorney.

“There’s a plan to clear the homes and stabilize the side of the road where there was slippage,” Echeverria said.

Meanwhile, the search can begin for those whose homes in the 11200 block of Laurie and 3800 block of Eureka washed away with the hill.

“All of them are anxious to get on with their lives,” said Richard Norton, the attorney who represented the families in their case against the city.