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Hill Threatens Homes, Judge Says

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

A judge ordered Wednesday that a reservoir be drained as part of an emergency plan to protect homeowners in Orange who live on a slope the judge said is subject to “imminent and catastrophic failure.”

The reservoir, in the neighboring city of Anaheim, has been a source of concern to many homeowners in the Vista Royale neighborhood because experts have predicted the likelihood of a landslide, possibly in four to six months.

Judge Robert E. Thomas issued the ruling less than a month after ordering parties in more than a dozen lawsuits to agree to closed-door emergency sessions to try to head off what officials in Orange have contended is a life-threatening situation.

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However, the reservoir is not the only worry in the area.

Many residents have filed individual lawsuits against Vista Royale’s developer, the 396 Investment Co. of Newport Beach. The community’s homeowners association is seeking up to $16 million to stabilize the hillside that rises from the neighborhood into a small community of million-dollar homes.

They contend the developer failed to account for unpredictable geologic conditions and didn’t properly solidify the slope with compacted earth.

Although all residents are still in their houses, many are in anguish over the threat and uncertainty that has hung over their heads for at least two years.

None have evacuated, but they have been advised to take earthquake preparedness precautions, such as leaving shoes by the sides of their beds, removing valuables from their house and choosing a post-evacuation staging area to account for survivors.

“This really is very upsetting to all of us,” said Gretchen Bereiter, a resident of Vista Crest Road, the street that potentially would sustain some of the greatest damage. “It is just so frightening.”

The Vista Royale neighborhood, developed in the late 1980s in the foothills east of the Costa Mesa Freeway, includes well-to-do young families drawn to the hillside houses costing up to $300,000.

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Houses with spacious lots line the drives leading to a separate development, the gated community of Peralta Pointe, next to the Olive Hills Reservoir, which the judge ordered drained.

t At the entrance to Peralta Pointe, brick columns anchoring the black iron gates stand askew, and bricks are coming loose. Thick fissures run through the ground and driveways, and sidewalks are cracked and buckling. Cracks in the stucco follow the joints between floors of two of the houses, and elegant lampposts and masonry fences are leaning.

Tests have shown the hill has moved up to nine inches in a year. Experts believe a series of deep concrete caissons could be used to pin the hill to the bedrock, but it could cost up to $16 million, attorneys said.

That could mean trouble for the less-affluent residents living below in Vista Royale, where the projected landslide would end up. Attorneys said the homeowners association can’t afford the repairs and is not responsible for the damage.

“This is not ‘slope creep,’ ” said Stephen McNamara, the association’s attorney, referring to a common characteristic of Southern California hills. “It would be a major area of slide that would take out 20 to 30 homes.”

Officials with 396 Investment Co. could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Some residents not in the path of the potential landslide worry that any disturbance in the neighborhood will destroy their property values--at the least.

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“People here are sick about it. What the hell do you do?” said Michael Clairmont, an original buyer of a house on Vista Ridge Drive who spent last weekend moving valuables to a storage shed.

“I didn’t want to wait until something started happening,” he said. “I wanted to start moving something.”

Clairmont and other residents said the lack of hard information about their investments has infuriated many homeowners.

Clairmont’s next-door neighbor, Carol Trujillo, said she was never told about the looming slope problems before closing on her house and moving in just three weeks ago.

“We were really hoping for a new start, and we were so excited to get a home here,” said Trujillo, who was widowed last year and lives with her 15-year-old son. “Now we have this.

“I’ve put down a hefty down payment and have a big mortgage, and I don’t know what’s going to happen to the value of my property, which I’ve owned for about 10 days.”

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Slope Slipping Underneath Homes

City of Orange geologists continue to monitor slipping slope that threatens to destroy two dozen homes in the Vista Royale and Peralta Pointe neighborhoods. Experts predict the hillside could fail within four to six months.

Sixty-million-gallon Olive Hills Reservoir to be drained

Source: Orange City Attorney Wayne Winthers

Graphics reporting by BRADY MacDONALD / Los Angeles Times

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