With Landslide Threatening, Talks Are Held

In an 11th-hour effort to stave off a geological disaster, a judge on Wednesday conferred with lawyers representing an Orange developer and residents whose homes are threatened by an unstable hillside.

“If something is not done very soon,” Assistant City Atty. Wayne Winthers said, “I think it may be too late.”

At issue is the price to be paid by 396 Investment Co. to the owners of 15 homes built by the company.

Geotechnical experts have determined that the houses must be razed so that the 180-foot hill on which they sit can be leveled before it collapses, damaging other homes in the area.

Attorneys representing the developer recently signed a tentative agreement to pay 10 homeowners with properties at the bottom of the hill--called Vista Royale--a total of $4.2 million. But talks with the owners of the five hilltop homes--called Peralta Pointe--have stalled, prompting

Superior Court Judge Robert Thomas to call the last-minute meeting in hopes of reaching a resolution.

Residents of the two communities, who learned in February that their homes sit on an unstable slope, have been ordered to evacuate after the discovery of buckling streets and cracking pavement in the neighborhood.

“Everyone is working diligently in an attempt to resolve this matter,” Lloyd Charlton, an attorney representing some of the homeowners, said late Wednesday.

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City Orders Evacuation

Orange city officials, citing “extreme peril,” have ordered the evacuation of 10 homes in the Vista Royale neighborhood because of a landslide threat. Five $1-million homes in Peralta Pointe, perched on the ridge above Vista Royale, were evacuated earlier this month.