Laguna Beach Frustrated as Slide Costs Keep Climbing

For the first time, a sense of deepening frustration crept into the voices of Laguna Beach officials, who learned Tuesday that stabilizing a fallen hillside in Bluebird Canyon before winter would cost $1.5 million more than expected.

“I’d come up with $5 million. Now we’re looking at $6.5 million, and I just don’t have a clue,” conceded Ken Frank, the town’s longtime city manager. “I’m kind of in a bad mood and I apologize, but every time I look at it, it just gets worse.”

The city agreed last month to squeeze $1 million from the budget for emergency repairs for the hillside, which collapsed June 1, destroying or seriously damaging 20 homes and threatening scores more.

At the time, city officials thought they were making a significant dent in the estimated $5-million cost for steadying canyon walls before winter.

But at a City Council meeting Tuesday they learned that stabilizing the slope would cost $6.5 million. Rebuilding the hillside is expected to cost an additional $9 million.

The repair bills are a test of the mayor’s promise in the days after the slide that the city would rebuild the hillsides so that residents could return, albeit at the expense of rebuilding their homes. And many of the displaced residents pledged to do just that.

On Tuesday, Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider renewed her pledge. “It is your city’s hope to rebuild the infrastructure, put back roads and utilities and give you buildable lots,” she said.