11/1/24 COMMUNITY NOTICE From SRA Board

COMMUNITY NOTICE

(11/1/2024)

COMMUNITY NOTICE From SRA Board

KCLAD Board Meeting – 10/28/2024 – Brief Summary.

Filling of fissures progressing along with drainage pipes in conjunction with the City.  The City is working to fill fissures above Altamira Canyon.  The City will be taking over the fissures above Dauntless.  Discussion with the City indicates they are almost ready to start.  KCLAD will be observing the process.  City has set aside $4.1M for projects related to fissure filling roads, etc. in the 3 slide areas.

  • Drills and Wells.
    • Well 6 is at 300 gallons/minute. Water level at 68 feet.
    • Well 5 is down and awaiting repairs.
    • Other two wells not working.
    • Surface slide movement has stopped.
    • SeaView Area.  KCLAD has installed a catch basin into the area and working to get pumps installed to drain to the sewer lines.
  • Nic Grillo has created social media portals for KCLAD.  Working on getting the website updated.
  • Klondike ancient slide area was graded during the sewer line project.
  • Dirt movement at the beach is ongoing and constant.
  • Help is needed for management of the FEMA loans. An advisor has been hired, but for the FEMA grants and the City Loans, help with managing these loans is needed.
  • Water testing.  KCLAD and ACLAD have adopted the policy of not doing sampling of water for sourcing.  The feeling is that water testing will not be helpful in stopping the slide.  The water was tested once with ACLAD and was inconclusive.
  • Board members.  They are inviting applications and statements for qualified people who have interest.  With this, they can then move forward to interview and invite them for appointment.
  • Warrants.  Expenditures for fuel.  Total of the register was shared, and board approved the warrants.
  • A question was raised about City Contributions to KCLAD.  From tax assessments they are about 57% of KCLAD.
  • There are currently 28 active lawsuits against KCLAD.  The fees to defend these are being paid by the District.  Funds from the City Loan are not available for legal fees.  Any settlements are expected to be paid also by the District.

14 homes in PBCA have had power turned back on.  In speaking to members of that community, these were homes that did not have movement, but were shut off along with the rest of PBCA.

City Land Movement Town Hall Meeting – 10/282024

Scroll down to page bottom to access a PDF of Town Hall Meeting PowerPoint Presentation.

  • In attendance CAL OES, FEMA, State and US house officials.  Council Woman Hahn
  • Deep de-watering well update
    • 10 wells currently extracting water from both deep and shallower slip planes
      • Initial wells started mid to late September.  500 gallons per minute combined.
      • New wells extracting 350 gallons per minute
      • There has been reduction across all slides related to being late in the dry season, but there has been 30-40% more reduction where the wells are located.
      • 4 points in the Beach Club and SeaView have shown no movement in the last 2 weeks.
    • Winterization.
      • Last few weeks have been in Altamira and Kelvin Canyon
      • Will be starting fissure filling in Portuguese Bend Canyons and Klondike Canyon.
      • There is ongoing work to fill the Grabens in SeaView.
  • To date, the funding of all these efforts has been by the City.  FEMA cost recovery by City:
    • $61.4M request to FEMA by the City.
      • $1M for de-energization
      • $38.4M for winter storms
      • $22M for individual assistance
    • As of last Wednesday, most of this is being denied.  The City will have 60 days to appeal to District 9 and following that can appeal to FEMA HQ in Washington
  • City to date over the past 3 years. $43.6M. Of this $32M is for this fiscal year.  Majority of this is on the wells.  $6.2M is routine expenditures towards the Districts
  • Two weeks ago, a request was put into Congressman Lieu’s Office for $20M for emergency stabilization.  This will likely be adjusted to cover fissure filling, constructing drainage, and getting water out of the ground.
  • Utilities.
    • 10/7 CPUC came out and met with the City and utilities.
    • 10/17 Mayor’s letter to the utilities requesting to turn back on the utilities
    • Response was that the utility companies wanted to get confirmation of the data
    • 16 properties in PBCA and Rolling Hills were being re-energized.  Notable in these re-energizations, is that if residents pulled their meter boxes or did work that was not permitted, re-connection with Edison may be compromised. 
  • Property Buy Out Program
    •  Introduced by Cal OES and FEMA.  This is an adaptation of programs used in floods towards land movement.  There is funding coming to RPV from FEMA to buyout residents who wish to sell their properties.  Hazard Mitigation Grant Program from FEMA.  These grants are available if there is a federally declared disaster.  In CA, this program opened a few months ago.  A few weeks ago, $42M is being provided to RPV to fund this program.  There may be some additional funds available in the future.
    • Applications will be due to the City by November 8th, 2024, by 4:30 PM.  This is a voluntary program. This is not an eminent domain issue.
    • There will be a screening process with CAL OES and FEMA to confirm eligibility.  If a homeowner meets the requirements to qualify, there will then be a prioritization process to assign the funds while they last.
    • Owner notification will then occur.  Owners can withdraw without penalty.  If you opt to continue, then escrow would be opened between the City and the property owner.
    • Appraisal will be based upon value at 12/1/2022 by the City Appraiser.  An owner could ask for their own appraiser at their expense.
    • FEMA will review the appraisal.  If approved, a waiver of any liability and indemnification towards the City must be signed. I.E. anyone involved in litigation against the City would need to withdraw from that to have a buyout.
    • Upon closing and property transfer, the City must demolish the property and convert it to open space.
    • Minimum eligibility requirements (estimate 20 properties)
      • Property is NOT bank owned.  (cannot be foreclosed – mortgage okay)
      • Property has not been sold since 12/1/2022.
      • Property must be improved with a legally permitted structure. (For homes that are no longer on the legal lot, they will not be eligible)
      • Applicants must be legal owners of the improved structures.
    • Prioritization:
      • Homes that have been red tagged
      • Properties that have been yellow tagged.
      • Properties with structural damage that are in imminent danger of being red or yellow tagged.
      • Properties that have been de-energized indefinitely
      • Properties that may benefit the City’s landslide and stabilization efforts.
      • Properties that add to the value of the open space areas that are in the preserve.
    • FEMA grants will cover 75% of the cost of the sale.  The seller will give up 25% of the appraisal purchase price. There was a clarification on the costs of demolition.  It was not entirely clear, but one of the panelists said that the property owner might be responsible for 25% of the demolition.  This would be a point to explore with the program.
    • The overall process of review must clear environmental and hazardous material reviews.  It may be delayed based on congressional funding. Best estimate is it may take 4-8 months to go through the entire process.
      • The City to date has 2 red-tagged (now 3) and 6 yellow tagged homes.  The City is offering voluntary inspections related to this program by Monday November 4th by 5:30 to do the inspection before the November 8th deadline.  The City notes that IF YOU HAVE YOUR HOME RED-TAGGED, YOU WILL NEED TO VACATE THE PROPERTY.  If it becomes yellow tagged, you will have some options to stay in your home.
      • This program will not impact any of their existing winterization and stabilization efforts.

Click to view PDF version of Town Hall Meeting PowerPoint PDF:

https://rpv.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=5&clip_id=4661&meta_id=12321