06/07/24 COMMUNITY NOTICE From SRA Board: Town Hall, Cal Water, City Council & Stakeholder Meeting Notes

COMMUNITY NOTICE

(06/07/2024)

COMMUNITY NOTICE From SRA Board:
6-01-24 Town Hall, 6-03-24 Cal Water, 6-04-24 City Council and 6-05-24 Stakeholders Meetings

Saturday, June 1, 2024 – Town Hall Meeting

A Meeting was organized by community members and held at the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.  Topics covered included: Structural engineering possibilities for home stabilization, Insurance claims approaches for land movement related claims, Property tax relief ideas and experiences with the SBA loan process.  A link to video tape of the discussions held and ideas exchanged is being developed by the meeting organizers and we will post it once it becomes available.

Monday, June 3, 2024 – Cal Water Meeting

Cal Water has submitted plans to the City for bringing more pipes above ground in the active land movement area. A permit application has been made to and approved by the city.  This will be a priority project and expected to be underway very soon.  Cal Water will be presenting the plans to the community in the next few weeks.  Cal Water anticipates contacting homeowners soon. They will be presenting both the above ground piping and the plans to replace all piping in Seaview West of Schooner. The larger underground pipe replacement project will not be starting for a few months.

Tuesday, June 4, 2024 – City Council Meeting

For details, please see the City Website.  Highlights for SeaView are noted below.

1. Property taxes.  County representative Jeff Prang LA County Assessor presented on some options for homeowners who have sustained damage from the land movement.

• His office is in Signal Hill.
• The assessor’s office faces challenges on how to assess taxes on properties where buildings have moved beyond the property values.  They are actively monitoring what is going on in Seaview and Portuguese Bend.
• Misfortune and Calamity Tax relief.  Temporarily reduces the assessed value of a property that was damaged by misfortune or calamity. Claims can be made for this by homeowners.
  • Damage must exceed $10,000 to property, not sidewalks, pools, etc.
  • Decline in value – Prop 8.
    • Temporary tax relief where current market value is less than current assessed valued.
    • Filing period July-November of each year.  Need to apply for reduction in taxes.  Cycle is at the start of each year.
    • Example of Rolling Hills landslide homes.  5 yellow tagged, 12 red tagged.
• Assessors E-service account.  Can now file and change status online.  Needs to have current mailing address.  Has Homeowner alert in case something is recorded on your property that may be fraudulent. Assessor.lacounty.gov
• Homeowners exemption program.  1/3 of home in RPV do not take advantage. Encouraged to get onto the website to apply.

2. Rayne Sherman and Nic Grillo from Seaview were recognized and acknowledged as two of 19 graduates of the RPV Leadership Academy for 2024.

3. City managers report.

1. Report on the SBA disaster assistance is now available.  Links to the in-person outreach center and the one-line applications was reviewed. In person center closes on June 5^thso any efforts after that will have to be done on line.
2. Deadline for application for an SBA loan is 7/15/24.  Covers damages from the storms that happened in January.

4. Public hearing on the Public Housing Elements.  Specifically Zoning recommendations

1. Current status is that the zoning recommendations do fulfill the HCD requirements.  They have been modified from the April 16^thzoning elements from input from the HCD.
2. On 5/20 HCD had final input on the housing elements that were incorporated by staff to lead to the final recommendations being voted on by the City Council today.  Public correspondence was also addressed in the City report.
3. City Staff recommendation was to adopt the urgency ordinance that includes HCD recommendations.   This was passed by the city council.
4. While there were impassioned testimonials about why not to implement the portion of the housing element plan that involved a vacant lot near Abalone Cove, the City Council and staff felt that the urgency to avoid builders remedy was an imperative that required passage of the currently HCD approved plan.  Without an approved plan, the City would lose all control over any construction of housing in the City.  The City Council adopted the revised plan as presented to the City Council. They encouraged the public to lobby Sacramento about changes to the state laws as compliance with the state laws is a necessity for the City and changing the law is the only viable remedy.

5. Review of the proposed assessments increase for ACLAD and KCLAD.  City staff reviewed the assessment formulas to calculate shares within each of the GHAD’s.  They also reviewed the budgets and expenditures for the two GHAD’s.

1. For KCLAD, the City has 59% of the total units.  Estimated City cost would be $335,000 for the upcoming year.
2. For ACLAD, the City has 58% of the total units within ACLAD.  The proposed increase would cost the city $373,400 for the upcoming year.  This is an increase from approximately $175,000 in the prior year.
3. Proposed financial assistance.  Loan amounts were $1.9 M KCLAD and $1.0M for ACLAD.  Projects proposed for the funding for each district were reviewed.  KCLAD total for the 5-step plan would be $5M so only fundings 1^st3 steps.
4. Proposed for the city is 12-year loan with interest 2.5%.  Funds would come from CIP fund of the city.  City Staff is recommending holding on loans pending approval by KCLAD and ACLAD boards for the loan terms.  Part of the plan would call for regular audits of the GHAD’s and information on the longer term financial and project planning of the GHAD’s.
5. City Council passed the assessment increase and approved for Mayor to sign for loans once the GHAD’s approve the terms among the community members.  Both districts are planning to have votes within the next 2 weeks. 

Wednesday, June 5, 2024 – Stakeholders Meeting – 5-29-24

• LA County Sanitation District.  Inspecting lines near PB and PVDS, doing inspections daily.  No current leaks.
• LA County Public Works.  Met with the city on site in SeaView.  Rerouting lines to not cross fissures appears to be very difficult to do.  Second option would be for easier access to sewer lines.  One option to leave trenches open for easier access.  Anticipating solutions in the next few weeks.  They have already tried different types of joints and materials, but unable to tolerate the degree of land movement.  These are 8-inch lines.  There is very low volume of fluid in the pipes.
• Power poles.  SCE.  Have prepared work orders for leaning poles on Exultant.  Anticipated replacements in the next 90 days.
• Gas Lines. They were not on the call today.
• Cal Water.  PB. Work on Vanderlip and Narcissa.  SeaView design for above ground piping has been progressing along with the replacement of the pipes in SeaView West of Schooner. Anticipated to have above ground designs presented to the community within a few weeks with notifications to affected residents to occur also in that time frame. Permits are already in place for this work.  Construction likely to be several months away for the replacement of overall lines in the neighborhood, but the above ground piping will occur much sooner.
• City projects
  •  Emergency Hydraugers.  Staging is in place for the initial drilling.  Drilling will start on Monday.  Instrumentation likely to be placed sometime next week to start getting readings to support final location of the hydraugers.  Collection of data expected to take several weeks.  Expecting is for 5 borings for each hydrauger at present time.  Final number may change as progress is made.  
  • Main project EIR is also progressing towards a planned public hearing for the main project.
  • Work is continuing on the FEMA grant.
  • PVDS Peppertree drainage.  No new updates or reports
  • Latest geology report data.  Preliminary report is that the rate of movement is continuing to increase, but not quite as rapidly as in the past.  Report should be available next week.
  • A query was made about the creation of a separation trench to isolate homes from the slide area.  The geologist’s opinion is the depth and size of the slide is such that a separation trench would not work.
  • PVDS repairs.  Preliminary plan for the extensive repairs is undergoing final review.  Plan to have that available in another few weeks.
  • SeaView road repairs.  Ongoing crack and Graben filling.  The city continues to ask that residents report any new cracks/defects.
• Portuguese Bend Community Association.  Ongoing road repair schedule was provided.  Replacement of road with grindings is being done.  Plan is to close the Narcissa curve.
• KCLAD
  • Assessment increases were accepted by the City Council.  Next step is for KCLAD to vote to accept the loan conditions from the city.
  • Ted Lieu has moved ACLAD and KCLAD proposals forward in the FEMA priority list for his district for congressionally directed spending which increases the likelihood of obtaining funding for the 5-step plan in the next appropriations cycle.  There is also an application for disaster funding to reimburse for expenses incurred by the disaster.
  • Contract is underway for drilling of the first of the new wells to be supported by the city loan.
  • First item on the list for projects is to grade fissures at the top of the canyon with diversions above the SeaView area to redirect flow into the canyon and provide drainage down to the beach.
  • Will try to divert water coming out of the rocks at the top of the canyon to divert water using sandbags and plastic.
  • Regrading at the bottom of the slide and repairs of the large 48-inch drainage pipe will also be part of the initial plan.
  • Water tables are fluctuating.  Approximately 17 feet down.  Had been as low as 38 feet down initially after new well was placed.

• ACLAD
  • Ongoing drain line fixes have been underway.
  • Olmstead Road is becoming more damaged.  Ask of the City to inspect it.
  • One of the new wells has sheared about 120 feet deep.
  • Plan to present loan terms at next ACLAD meeting.

• Geotechnical updates.
  • Land movement acceleration is up about 50% over the past month in the Seaview area.  In PB and Abalone Cove about a 30% increase.  In the prior two rounds of measurements, the rate of acceleration was about 170% in Klondike Canyon.  In March it was 300%.  So overall, the rate of movement is still accelerating, but the rate of acceleration is slowing down.
  • There is new movement has been seen East of prior mapping of the land movement.  This is notable along Admirable Drive where there have been new water and gas line breaks and along Exultant.  In the opinion of the geologists, this new movement is within the previously known borders of the ancient landslide, and they do not believe this represents an expansion of the ancient landslide boundaries
  • Per Mike Phipps (geologist) recent land movement along Sea Cove Drive at Abalone Cove is not related to the ancient landslide.  It appears to be in isolation.  This has been of concern to residents near Abalone Cove.