Advertisement

‘Settling’ delays Bluebird Canyon restoration

Movement of earth in the Bluebird Canyon landslide zone has delayed the restoration of the hillside that fell into the canyon almost a year ago, affected property owners were recently told.

Community Recovery Coordinator Bob Burnham briefed slide-affected families May 10 on the movement. A wall designed to shore up the hillside has been moving, but city officials claim the slippage is merely the result of the soil settling.

The news alarmed some families, who were quickly assured that the movement does not represent a new landslide.

Advertisement

“We have had slight movement in the wall for the past few months,” City Manager Ken Frank said. “That’s why it is taking so long to complete the drainage project. However, it doesn’t require any change in the plans.”

Frank said he had conferred with city consulting geologist Hannes Richter, who assured him the movement was not a problem.

Bluebird Canyon Road property owner Todd McCallum said he had been told that his project could not be continued until the soil is “compacted.”

The May 10 meeting was the first time displaced families had met with Burnham as a group in about three months, said Steve Howard, one of the canyon property owners who is housed in a group of mobile homes for evacuees in Laguna Canyon.

“He said they needed to do a little excavating and re-compacting down by the road and that has slowed the project by a month or two,” Howard said. “We also discussed going back to monthly progress meetings.”

Burnham did not appear alarmed to Howard or to canyon property owner Liza Stewart.

“It seemed to me that he was more frustrated than alarmed,” Stewart said. “He had promised people [specific] deadlines and less noise and less dust, and it is taking longer than he had projected.”

Stewart said she panicked when he said there had been movement, but was reassured by Burnham that the movement was not a second slide.

“Bob said it was settling that had been expected and it was better to find it now than later,” Stewart said.

Burnham is out of town and not available for comment.

Preliminary discussions of an appropriate way to mark the first anniversary of the June 1 slide are underway.

Advertisement