LAGUNA BEACH : Emergency Repairs Advised in Slide Area

A report released Thursday on landslides that forced three families from their Rimrock Canyon homes last spring recommends emergency repairs in the area to avoid further damage to public and private property.

Based on the report compiled by a private company, Municipal Services Director Terry Brandt said he will recommend to the City Council on Tuesday that it move immediately to steady the hillside adjacent to Dunning Drive.

“Staff would recommend proceeding now on a fast-track basis,” Brandt’s memo to the council states.

The city’s goal is to protect Dunning Drive and other public facilities in the area that could be damaged during coming winter storms. Since the landslides reportedly branch up from the canyon, private property owners would benefit as well.

As proposed, work would begin Oct. 5 and conclude by Christmas at a cost of about $800,000.

The hillside first began shifting March 25, triggering a partial collapse of one house and causing another to begin to sink. A second slide April 25 created a crevice 10 feet to 12 feet wide running through two adjacent properties.

Geofirm, a geology company hired by the city, has determined that the earth movement was a reactivation of “much larger, ancient landslides” that extend up the slope from Rimrock Canyon and that last winter’s rains caused the current slippage, Brandt’s memo says.

The recommendation is to steady the hillside by packing 34,000 cubic yards of dirt into the canyon. The earthen wedge would be up to 35 feet deep and 120 feet wide, Brandt’s memo says, and would have a “significant impact on the aesthetics of the area.”

Half a dozen property owners who are directly affected by the shifting ground would receive “an enormous ancillary benefit” from the project, the memo states.