Homeowners Association Struggling with Assessment

A La Jolla, Calif., homeowners association is charging its 597 members $2.4 million--$4,000 each--for emergency repairs to a canyon eroded by runoff. A court ruled in April, though, that the damage was the city's fault.

Many Alta La Jolla Homeowners Association members are angry with their board of directors, which passedd the emergency assessment July 31. Having failed to win a community vote for a significantly larger assessment of $8 million--the money would have gone toward more extensive repairs and pursuit of reimbursement from the city--the board imposed the current charges upon members. An $8 million assessment would have cost each home $13,400.

The association-owned 100-acre canyon runs along a community of duplexes and single-family homes near Mount Soledad. Runoff is severely eroding sections of the canyon, but only a few dozen Alta La Jolla homes are on the canyon rim, and none are near the most heavily impacted area. Association leaders said they cannot afford to wait for the final outcome of their lawsuit against the city, that the proceedings could take more than a year to finalize.

Board of directors members said that although the are is fenced off and signs are posted, someone could tumble from what are now sheer 40-ft cliffs. And more runoff could weaken the slopes south of Alta La Jolla Drive, atop which dozens of homes sit.

"We have no choice," board president Gary Roth said. "We stand to be sued by homeowners if there is in fact an event that causes significant damages to property, to life."

The lawsuit, filed by the association against the city in 2003, alleged that city storm drains funnel runoff into the canyon and that the city failed to require builders in the 1970s to take adequate erosion-control measures. Superior Court Judge Linda Quinn inspected the site herself--a rare step--and ruled that the city "unreasonably created and operates a storm water drainage system which utilizes the canyon as an integral part." The penalty phase of the case is scheduled to commence in October.

In the meantime, the homeowners association has hired a contracter to lay 500 ft of pipe to carry runoff from a culvert under Alta La Jolla Drive past the most severely eroded area. Crews will also bolster the sheered, undermined banks with 80,000 cu yd of dirt as part of the emergency fix.

The proposed $8 million job would involve replacing these temporary pipes with drop structures, essentially small waterfalls, throughout lower portions of the half-mile canyon. City development directors agree that the canyon damage classifies as an emergency and are fast-tracking repair permits, said city civil engineer and project manager Paul Buehler.

"We don't know how stable or unstable that slope is" south of Alta La Jolla Drive, he said. "Potentially there could be a failure there, a partial failure of the slope."

Still many residents who opposed the $8 million assessment are being forced to fund the work. "Why us?" asked retired architect Kendall Mower. "If we have this ruling, why are we taking responsibility?"

Other homeowners support the undertaking. "I am in favor of getting it all approved now instead of chopping off the tail an inch at a time," said retired executive Gary Sutton, one of 268 association members who voted for the larger assessment. "Without repairs, homes on the edge will plunge over the side someday."

And many more feel like retired real estate broker Ginny Lee-Huckabone. "Nobody's thrilled about [the assessment], but it is what it is," she said, noting that the homes at risk are not in the Alta La Jolla association. "That's the irony of the whole thing. We're paying to keep them from falling down the hill."

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune