Lakeport >> Refuting recent claims made by Supervisor Anthony Farrington, attorney Michael Green says it’s the county that’s been the barrier preventing progress on constructing a retaining wall that would finally stop the Lakeside Heights landslide.
On Friday Farrington told the Record-Bee that while the county secured state funding to design and install the wall, it has been unable to receive right of entry permission necessary to access the north Lakeport neighborhood.
However, Green said the Lakeside Heights Homeowners Association (HOA) has “repeatedly asked” the county in multiple emails about beginning work on the wall yet has received no response.
HOA President Randall Fitzgerald was surprised by the statement, as well.
In an interview Monday he said he’s encouraged the HOA council to let the county know they have no problem with granting access as long as homeowners are given prior notification.
“We have seen no indication of initiative on the part of the county … to actually do any work related to stabilizing the hill,” Fitzgerald said.
The volleys may be part of an ongoing legal dispute. The homeowners association filed a lawsuit in 2013 claiming that a county operated water line about 6-feet deep is to blame. In its countersuit the county alleges it’s the association’s leaky irrigation line, buried about 8-inches deep, that caused a portion of the hill to begin sliding.
Negotiations have gone nowhere. Both Green and Farrington said it is the other party’s lack of cooperation that’s kept them from reaching a settlement.
Last summer, representatives from each side met and presented their points, Green said, but other than a few scheduled hearings, the last being in December, there’s been little to no talk since.
“(The county) has just been unwilling to negotiate,” he said.
The lawsuits are moving forward, and Green says the association’s case is “very strong.” Homeowners are hoping for a settlement that would compensate them for loss of property value and damages from the slide.
Green, of Santa Rosa-based Abbey, Weitzenberg, Warren & Emery, represents nearly 50 complainants affected by the landslide that began destroying houses in March 2013.
A number of Lakeside Heights residents were forced to move after their homes were red tagged and demolished, Green said.
Just in the last year several have relocated out of the county, to Sacramento, Humboldt and one as far as Florida, Fitzgerald said. “They just couldn’t take the stress.”
Those still living on the 29-lot subdivision are faced with constant reminders of the land slowly sinking beneath them.
Driving up the hill to their residential community they can see more homes crumbling; a sign as they enter greets drivers stating only residents and authorized vehicles are allowed past that point; and once at the top of the hill “No Trespassing” signs are seen in every direction posted on homes and fences.
Rain for the last two winters has worsened conditions, seeping into the soil and causing so much mud and debris to slide onto Hill Road that it has forced county crews to partially close it to traffic.
The next case management conference will be held on Feb. 22.
