Homeowners, Redmond in dispute over slide damage
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The rains and snows of three winters have come and gone since a Redmond water main and the hillside that contained it gave way behind Lori Johnson’s townhouse in a 35-year-old community called Sammamish Forest Manors. It’s been a mess there ever since. And if anything, the mess has grown since homeowners got a bill for it. “I like to say I live on the edge,” Johnson said yesterday. And how. A vertical drop of dozens of feet looms barely 12 inches from a far corner of her back deck and no more than 10 feet from the edge of her home’s foundation. Sheets of plastic conceal the bare earth that drops into a greenbelt below, and at the brink there is only a construction fence of orange plastic to flap in the wind as a warning. The white-washed siding of Sammamish Forest Manors closely flanks the long sidewalk that corkscrews along 175th Avenue Northeast as it makes its way across Redmond’s western hills. At the far north end the street jogs briefly to become Northeast 27th Street before forming a “T” by running into 174th. The water main’s easement crosses there, leaving a gap of grass on both sides of the intersection. That’s where Johnson lives. “I’d been here just 20 days when it happened,” she said of the December 2001 incident. “All of a sudden there were news crews all over the place, and I was the top story. What a welcome to the neighborhood.” Welcome, indeed. “Back in 2001 city engineers were saying they didn’t know if it was even safe for me to stay,” she said. But she has, thanks to ground stabilization the city did as a temporary fix. To make it permanent, however, Johnson and the community’s 166 other homeowners — many of whom are retired or on fixed or limited incomes — face an assessment of nearly $3,000 apiece to meet a $500,000 repair bill the city won’t pay. There may be more to pay should the community continue to gamble on a lawsuit. Homeowners could face attorney’s fees of up to $70,000 should they decide to go through with the suit against the city. In December, Redmond rejected a claim for damages. The homeowners sued in February. But since that decision by the homeowners association board of directors, some residents have gotten cold feet and called for a communitywide vote on whether to go through with it. The vote, which is non-binding on the board, is to take place April 29. “Everyone has to make up their own mind, and there is a lot of turmoil right now, which is unfortunate,” Johnson said. The image all this conjures is the one of herding cats. Retired CPA Bob Bear, a member of the homeowners board and a critic of both the city and his board colleagues, is angry that community leaders were not more aggressive in reaching a decision sooner. “This should have been settled long ago,” Bear said. “People have been dragging their feet — and the city won’t talk to you until you sue ‘em. It’s ridiculous.” Former board member John Mauk, a 32-year resident, also is angry. He may have to sell his home to pay the assessments More : seattlepi.nwsource.com |