Ventura County Inspectors Check Homes Near Blasting

Responding to complaints about explosives used for grading near Carlisle Canyon, Ventura County inspectors Wednesday visited three homes south of Lake Sherwood where residents say the blasting has caused damage.

Public works officials wanted to document cracks in cement, stucco and tile that homeowners say occurred after the first blast three weeks ago by Sherwood Development Co., which is clearing about 320 acres for an 18-hole golf course and 87 luxury homes south of Thousand Oaks. A second blast occurred July 1.

A contractor retained by the developer is drilling holes in granite outcroppings and using more than 20 tons of explosives to break the rock down so it can be cleared with heavy machinery. The third blast is scheduled for 3 p.m. today.

Geri Elfman, who runs a small landscaping firm from her West Carlisle Road property, said she was not home during the first blast and did not notice problems until after the second explosion.

A 1/8-inch crack now snakes across the red tile floor of an office in her two-bedroom home and a larger crack appears in the cement floor of her garage.

“This is pretty obvious,” Raymond Gutierrez Jr., manager of inspection services for the engineering services department, said as he knelt to measure the indoor fissure.

“Yeah, I would have noticed that before,” Elfman said of the damage to the 1950s-era bungalow more than a mile from the blast site. “The earth is moving anyway, but if you add dynamite it goes that much faster.”

After taking digital photos and removing a broken piece of tile to reveal mortar below the flooring, Gutierrez and an assistant finished assessing the crack’s length: 27 feet.

“This is the worst crack out of all them we’ve seen,” Gutierrez said after documenting dozens of hairline cracks in driveways, near pools, on chimneys, steps and on walls at two other residences. “But I can’t draw any conclusions. I don’t know what caused a crack or how old it is.”

Supervisor Linda Parks, whose 2nd District includes Carlisle Canyon, wants blasting halted until the extent of any damage to homes or water wells can be determined by independent surveys. Eight homeowners have accepted the county’s offer to arrange the surveys, officials said.

Parks persuaded the Board of Supervisors this week to change the regulations for future blasting projects to require that contractors notify homeowners up to 2,000 feet away through a public meeting at least a week before blasting is scheduled to begin.

Parks also asked the public works department to compare the intensity of the developer’s planned blasts with explosions set off by a crew filming a 1998 military movie. Those explosions damaged several homes in the canyon, including the 3,000-square-foot residence of Robert and Debby Miller, who live below the Sherwood blast site.

The Millers told Gutierrez that settlements with their insurance company and the movie company led to a virtual rebuilding of their home over several years, with the project finished seven weeks ago. Already, web-like cracks have appeared in stucco near several windows and a 39-foot-long crack is visible in the driveway, which was restored about three years ago for $40,000.

“If we’ve had this much problem from two blasts, can you imagine what we’ve got to look forward to?” asked Debby Miller, who videotaped her home’s condition after the first blast and plans to film during today’s grading explosion.

Robert Parmele, executive vice president of Sherwood Development, said today’s blast would be slightly farther from homes on Carlisle Road and that the firm intended to delay future blasting until after independent surveys had been completed, provided they were done in a timely manner. The company’s permit calls for blasts over the next several months in two other areas of the canyon.

Although the July 1 blast used about 20% more explosives than the first, Parmele said motion monitors set up within 500 feet and 3,000 feet from the site showed it produced less ground movement, about a fifth of what would be expected to damage property.

The company earlier pledged to repair any damage caused by its construction of homes on half-acre lots, where prices are expected to start at $2.5 million.

Public Works Director Ronald Coons, who received a briefing from Gutierrez after the inspections, said the company would probably complete today’s scheduled blast. “It appears there’s no cause to withdraw the permit,” he said.