These Homes Have a View, but the Future Is All Downhill
For 30 years, developers have been reshaping our foothills and canyons to provide that most enviable amenity: the view-lot home. Armed with grading equipment capable of moving boxcars of dirt in a single pass, developers have demonstrated that there truly is no mountain high enough, no canyon deep enough to escape becoming yet another site. But as a result of this reshaping, natural watercourses are covered, springs are buried under megatons of fill dirt and entire hills are cut down just to fill up a canyon.
No wonder Mother Nature is angry. Annual rainfall, once absorbed by those natural hills and canyons, now becomes concentrated runoff, collected from rooftops, driveways and streets, and quickly converts into fast-flowing streams capable of moving tons of dirt in a very short time.
And while most of us have read or heard about some of the major landslides, few are aware of the potential trouble in the hills of Orange County. One engineering and geology firm estimates that there are thousands of homes, largely in southeast Orange County, resting uneasily on manufactured, or “filled” slopes, that are moving, gradually but inevitably, downhill. From Anaheim to Laguna Beach, Orange County homes, most between 20 and 30 years old, are slipping and sliding, their foundations cracking and breaking, as unstable hillsides, created from inadequately compacted fill dirt, give in to nature’s law and cleave away from the naturally compacted terrain, inflicting damage far beyond what can be rationalized as “normal settlement.”
The first clue might be a tilt in the backyard fence. Or perhaps doors that once shut with ease now stick or refuse to close at all. But when a golf ball rolls across the family room all by itself, most homeowners realize it’s just a matter of time before their house becomes uninhabitable as it slowly slides down that hill with the great view. One local firm that does work on failing hillsides reports that in the last year it has raised and stabilized the underlying land for more than a hundred buildings in Orange County.
Grading techniques have not yet been developed that achieve adequate and enduring compaction on fill slopes. As a result, sections start to move, and if enough water has seeped into the point where the fill slope meets the natural ground, the entire slope can slide out from under the home. Although developers do the best they can, it often is not enough to ensure that a hillside home will stay in place. The logical conclusion: Buying a hillside home is a risky venture.
Who pays when a disaster caused by ground movement occurs? Not the insurance companies; they stopped covering damage caused by ground movement years ago. The developers and builders are off the hook after the 10-year statute of limitations expires, and most hillside failures occur after 10 years. And the city and county need not accept responsibility because they are entitled to rely solely on reports generated by the developers’ soils engineers and geologists. However, those reports, which certify that the filled-in canyons and man-made fill slopes are safe for building, also contain legal language that relieves them of responsibility for land movement.
It is the homeowner who ends up paying for a repair that may run from $20,000 to well over $100,000. Yes, the poor homeowners, who most assuredly at the time of purchase expected the home to at least outlast them, end up paying a bill that in some cases can nearly equal the home’s purchase price. A bill cannot be added to the mortgage for a problem that, by law, must be fully disclosed, should the homeowner ever find a willing soul intrepid enough to buy a home doomed to slide downhill.
So take it from someone who learned the hard way. If you’ve decided you simply must have that house on the hill, make sure it’s built on natural ground. But if it is sitting on a manufactured slope, do your homework and check the soils/geology report. Review the grading plan. Find out exactly how your lot was prepared. Hire an independent expert to evaluate these plans and give you a professional assessment of your risks. And then be honest. Regardless of that fantastic view, if you can’t afford the expense and the worry of owning a hillside home, don’t buy one.
If you already own a hillside lot, start now to control the drainage. Rooftop rainwater must be channeled into gutters and downspouts that direct it to a storm drain system (usually under the streets). Don’t allow water to “pond” around the foundations of your home. And constantly check swimming pools for leaks.
Do these things and maybe--just maybe--Mother Nature will spare your house and your pocketbook.
