La Costa slope repairs will move forward, says official

By Michael Burge
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER July 22, 2005

CARLSBAD – A city plan to stabilize a La Costa slope where a slow-moving slide has destroyed eight condominiums is on again after a disputed agreement went back into effect, a city attorney said yesterday.

City-hired crews were prepared to begin slope repairs June 10 but were halted by a newly hired attorney for La Costa de Marbella homeowners association, who said the city broke an agreement the two sides signed in May by which the city agreed to repair the slope.

The agreement allows the city to enter the condominium complex's property to sink pilings into the ground and tie back the slope to protect La Costa Avenue, which sits at the base of the hill and is threatened by the slide.

The council has approved $1.2 million for the project.

In the agreement, the city does not promise to repair the slope for the benefit of private homeowners or the association, but city officials have said the 58-unit complex may benefit as a result.

Carlsbad Deputy Public Works Director Glenn Pruim said yesterday that his department was in contact with shoring contractor Zamborelli Enterprises Inc., which is working on a slide at Agua Dulce Court near Rancho Santa Fe Road and has work crews near La Costa. "My guess is the contractor can begin to move next week," Pruim said. He said boring for the caissons may take longer to begin, but the contractor will move equipment and workers to the site and begin drilling as soon as possible.

Bradley Bartlett, the city's attorney, said yesterday that the homeowners association signed an agreement Wednesday that reinstated the original agreement, and the city was preparing to sign it yesterday.

"We have now reached an agreement with the HOA to reinstate (the agreement), and for them to withdraw their claim that the city was in breach of agreements previously made," Bartlett said.

"The city has now re-established the permission it needed to go forward with the project involving construction of a retaining wall at the base of the slope along La Costa Avenue," Bartlett said.

He said nothing in the original agreement changed, including a clause that said the city does not take responsibility for the slope collapse, which began March 11.

The homeowners association and residents blame the city for the slide in two separate lawsuits, saying city water lines buried beneath the condo complex's private road broke, saturating the slope and causing it to cave in.

The city says the winter's near-record rains soaked an already unstable slope, causing it to collapse and breaking the city's pipes. The slope has a history of slides dating to before the condo complex was built in the mid-1970s, according to a lawsuit filed in 1980.

The agreement reinstated yesterday says blame for this year's slide may be determined later.

The reinstated agreement was negotiated for the homeowners association by the law firm Naumann and Levine, which is representing the La Costa de Marbella homeowners association in a separate lawsuit against the city involving a slope collapse in another location on the condo complex's grounds.

When the association hired a new attorney, Patrick Catalano, to represent it in this year's slide, Catalano declared the city in breach of the agreement on June 9 and demanded the two sides enter mediation.

He accused the city of taking too long to begin the work and not sharing its repair plans with the homeowners association.

Catalano declared the mediation efforts at an impasse on July 11 and sued the city, seeking to void the agreement.

Bartlett said yesterday he expected that action to be dismissed shortly.

Another cause of action in that lawsuit, which blames the city for the slide and seeks at least $12 million to compensate the association and its members for their losses, remains active.

Bartlett said yesterday nothing had changed from the original agreement, and that the city has not promised to pay to demolish the eight damaged condominiums and eight garages, which the homeowners association requested.

He said the city was prepared to begin its repairs June 9, despite Catalano's contention.

"In the last six to seven weeks the plans . . . have been shown to Mr. Catalano and his geotech engineer," Bartlett said. "They have approved everything the city was going to do in the first place and have allowed the city to do the project."

Retaining-wall work starts on landslide area at condos

By Michael Burge
STAFF WRITER October 21, 2005

CARLSBAD – Construction crews hired by the city have begun work on a retaining wall to stabilize a slow-moving landslide that has destroyed eight condominiums and threatens to undermine La Costa Avenue.

Laborers were preparing yesterday to sink steel beams 25 feet into the ground along the avenue, which is at the foot of a slope that caved beneath the La Costa de Marbella condominium complex, buckling eight units and their detached garages.

Skip Hammann, a Carlsbad deputy city engineer, said yesterday that wooden boards will be fitted horizontally between the vertically sunken beams to build the retaining wall. The dirt will be piled along the barrier, which will rise 10 feet above ground.

When completed, the wall will extend 250 feet along La Costa Avenue, and the sidewalk and gutter that were pushed up by the landslide will be rebuilt.

"The purpose of the wall is so the city can restore La Costa Avenue to its previous condition," Hammann said. "The wall is there to protect the city's improvements. This will keep the slide off the city's right of way."

La Costa Avenue, which is a five-lane road east of El Camino Real where the slide occurred, has been reduced to one lane in each direction during the construction.

The city has hired Zamborelli Enterprises of Laguna Beach to construct the wall.

The condominium complex is expected to demolish the damaged condos and garages after the wall is finished.

Hammann said the wall would provide only a temporary fix for the 58-unit complex, and the homeowners association must undertake significant repair work to permanently stabilize the slope.

The homeowners association and the owners of the damaged units have sued the city, blaming leaking underground water pipes for the landslide.

They point to units uphill from the landslide area as evidence that the pipes caused the slide. Those units have not shifted, while eight units downhill from the leaking pipes buckled.

The city, however, says last winter's rains saturated an unstable slope and caused it to cave, dislodging the water pipes in the process. The city unearthed a collapsed storm-drain pipe from the landslide area, which it says was owned by the condo association and was not maintained.

Construction of the retaining wall was delayed while the city and the homeowners association worked out an agreement to build it.

The City Council has approved $1.2 million for the project and will pay the homeowners association $250,000 to help demolish the damaged buildings.

2006

ZEI's involvment in the Laguna Beach Landslide repair is described in CalContractor Magazine. ZEI was contracted to install shoring walls with tiebacks for the reconstruction of the hillside.

http://www.calcontractor.com/Specialty06/Bubalo_06.html