LAKEPORT, Calif. – Several red-tagged homes and continued hillside movement at a north Lakeport subdivision remain a focus of concern for county officials, with the Board of Supervisors approving additional expenditures to deal with what was termed a “catastrophic event” at the board’s Tuesday meeting.
The 29-home Lakeside Heights subdivision continues to show earth movement in areas along Lancaster Road, which runs around the edge of the hilltop cluster of mostly Tudor-style homes.
Last month, the subdivision began to show signs of a saturated, slipping hillside, which in turn damaged several homes.
While a leak report completed last week suggests that the source of the water in the saturated hillside could be coming from a homeowners association-owned 2-inch irrigation pipe, Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger told Lake County News on Tuesday, “We don’t know absolutely the source of the ground water that is influencing the landslide.”
Study of the site is continuing. The goal now, said Dellinger, is to remove the water in an effort to slow or stop the earth movement.
In order to do that, Special Districts – at the suggestion of its geotechnical firm – plans to have five horizontal bores drilled on the slope above Downing Drive, “And to get that done as soon as possible with the goal of dewatering that hillside,” Dellinger said.
The bores could be 50, 75 or 100 feet long, and would include pipes that will run into a nearby drain, he said.
Dellinger said he wasn’t sure of a timeline for completion of the bore drilling, but the goal was to complete the work as quickly as possible.
On Tuesday morning, Dellinger went to the Board of Supervisors to give an update on the situation and to request approval for covering additional costs in addressing the hillside slippage.
As of Tuesday, Dellinger said Special Districts had spent $18,330 on geotechnical work related to Lakeside Heights, out of $25,000 the board had approved late last month.
Altogether he asked for an additional $55,030 to cover the cost for drilling additional borings as well as the horizontal bores to drain the hillside.
While the board gave its unanimous approval, the supervisors also wanted the Lakeside Heights Homeowners Association to be brought into the discussion and for county staff to look at state and federal funding sources.
Board members voiced their concerns about people losing their homes to a landslide – the last thing many would expect, Supervisor Jim Comstock said – as well as safety, financial responsibility and potential construction defect issues at the subdivision, where building began in the early 1980s.
Supervisor Anthony Farrington said the ground saturation – along with the area’s soils and “interesting construction” in terms of the homes’ slab foundations – led to a “perfect storm.”
Referring to a large chunk of concrete and rebar that has popped out of the earth at the landslide area, Farrington wondered if it was placed in those lots to stabilize the hill.
“I know there’s a lot of finger pointing and there should be,” said Farrington. “The residents have a right to be concerned.”
Dellinger said that a monitoring bore drilled into the hillside snapped off at a depth of about 24 feet, and another also showed continued movement in the ground.
He said the geotechnical engineers have identified two slide areas, an older one down the hill from the subdivision under some oak trees, and another slide near 5396 and 5406 Lancaster Road, where two of the five red-tagged homes are located.
Most of the slide problems are on what Dellinger said are the “fill side,” which he said is in the area of Lancaster Road facing Hill Road.
There also is the matter of the red-tagged homes. Dellinger suggested that removing the damaged homes as quickly as possible – and thereby lessening the weight on the hillside – could help with stability.
However, Community Development Director Rick Coel said Tuesday that he’s not prepared to rush into summary abatements for a variety of reasons, including potential cost to the homeowners who already are faced with the hardship of losing the houses.
“It’s much better if they do it,” he said of removing the homes.
Otherwise, the county must hike a contractor at prevailing wage rates, which can significantly increase cost, Coel said.
“At the same time we want to get the weight of those structures off if we can,” he said.
Coel said Special Districts wants to get the hillside dewatered before equipment is brought in, and in the meantime he plans to meet with County Counsel Anita Grant, Dellinger and the geotechnical engineer to pin down a strategy.
He said it hasn’t yet been determined which of the structures are salvageable, but pointing to the separating foundations and most badly damaged of the homes, Coel said, “Those structures need to be demolished.”
Email Elizabeth Larson at
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