PLAN OF CONTROL
A proposal for a GHAD must be accompanied
by a "plan of control", prepared by a certified engineering geologist, "which
describes in detail a geologic hazard, its location and the area affected
thereby, and a plan for the prevention, mitigation, abatement, or control
thereof" (Section 26509). The land within a district need not be contiguous;
the only requirement is that lands within a GHAD be specially benefited by
the proposed construction and that formation of a district is required to
ensure the health, safety, and welfare of the residents.
LOCAL DISTRICT ORGANIZATION
The Act requires public hearings prior
to district formation. If owners of more than 50 percent of the assessed
valuation of the proposed district object to the formation, the legislative
body must abandon the proceedings. If there are few objections, the
legislative body may form the district, initially appointing five property
owners to the board of directors. Thereafter, the district becomes an
independent entity with an elected board of directors. A GHAD may issue
bonds, purchase and dispose of property, acquire property by eminent domain,
levy and collect assessments, sue and be sued, and construct and maintain
improvements.
First GHAD
The Beverly Act was originally drafted
to allow for the formation of the Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement District
in Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles County. The 600-acre Abalone Cove landslide,
which began moving in 1978, threatened over I 00 homes upon and adjacent to
it. It is located immediately west of the wellknown Portugese Bend landslide,
and probably has a similar mechanism (movement along seaward-dipping bentonitic
tuff beds) (Ehlig, 1979).
The district was formed in January
1981 and has financed continued geologic investigation of the slide and installation
of mine dewatering wells (Heffler, 198 1), which appear to have successfully
reduced lateral movement. The Beverly Act provided a mechanism for the
Abalone Cove home owners to jointly finance abatement measures. A significant
point is that it allowed them to treat the landslide as a single physical
entity, irrespective of property boundaries. A companion bill by Senator
Beverly provided for liability exemption of local district for actions taken
to abate gradual earth movements.
Other Districts
In the six years since enactment of
the Beverly Act, not many Geologic Hazard Abatement Districts have formed,
though a few have been proposed. A Plan of Control was prepared for
a proposed GHAD at Mount Washington (City of Los Angeles) in 1981 (Lung, 1981),
but the District was never formed because affected homeowners felt that they
could not afford the remedial measures.
In 1982 a second GHAD was formed in
Rancho Palos Verdes, encompassing the Klondike Canyon landslide, located immediately
to the east of the Portugese Bend slide (Ehlig, 1982). As with Abalone
Cove, this GHAD was formed in order to finance continued investigation, monitoring,
and dewatering measures.
Since 1984 the Blakemont Property Owners'
Association in Kensington (western Contra Costa County) has been working on
formation of a GHAD to include approximately 135 parcels covering 35 to 40
acres. This GHAD would cover an earthflow complex that has been periodically
active over the years. During the 1960s an attempt was made to form
a drainage improvement district, but this attempt failed. The present
effort is in response to damage from January 1982. An engineering geologist
is currently preparing a Plan of Control for the GHAD, jointly financed by
the Association, public agencies, and a utility district.
The most recent GHAD was formed in
June 1985 at Canyon Lakes, a subdivision of over 1000 acres near Danville
in Contra Costa County. This District is different because it was formed
prior to occupancy of the subdivision and there has not yet been active landsliding.
The purpose of the District is to establish a mechanism to pay for regular
maintenance of drainage systems, routine reconnaissance, and timely repairs
of any slope failures. The subdivision will have several thousand owners
when fully developed. The Plan of Control (Proctor, 1985) is a general
document, describing the types of activities that the District might perform.
The Canyon Lakes GHAD initially appears
to go beyond the original intent of the Beverly Act, which was designed to
abate an immediate, existing hazard. However, the Act is ambiguous on
this point. According to an informal opinion by the staff consultant
to the State Senate Committee on Local Government (Detwiler, 1985) it is indeed
possible, under the enabling legislation, to create a one landowner district
in which the "threatened landslide" is an event which has a small, but finite,
probability of occurring. Thus, it appears that a GHAD may serve a maintenance
and prevention function as well as an abatement function. The Act is
still unclear, however, regarding how detailed a Plan of Control for a maintenance-oriented
district needs to be, and what the legal responsibilities of the initial owner-developer
would be to future home owners. Clear guidance is still needed on how
to equitably and effectively operate a prevention-oriented GHAD.
SUMMARY
The Geologic Hazard Abatement District
is a potentially useful tool to effectively abate a landslide hazard that
crosses property boundaries. It is a mechanism that responds to the
physical realities of landslides, and allows property owners to cooperate
in solving a common problem. It removes much of the stigma of legal
liabilities among adjacent landowners and allows them to cooperate rather
than litigate. It also provides for a cost-effective solution, requiring
only one geotechnical engineering firm and one plan to solve the problems
of several landowners. In short, as local communities become aware of
the existence of this statute, it is likely that the GHAD, be it for repair
of an existing landslide or prevention of an impending one, will become
more commonly used throughout the state.
REFERENCES
Detwiler, P.M., 1985, Senate Committee
on Local Government, letter to author regarding Geologic Hozord Abatement
Districts (August, 1, 1985).
Ehlig, P.L., 1979, Final Report, Geotechnical
investigation of Abalone Cove landslide, Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles
County, California: Robert Stone & Associates, Canoga Park, California,
unpublished report, prepared for City of Rancho Palos Verdes, job no. 1372-00,
doted February 28, 1979, 3 plates, 4 appendices, 54 p.
Ehlig, P.L., 1982, Results of subsurface
geologic investigation-recommendations concerning Klondike Canyon landslide
and moratorium boundary: Robert Stone & Associates, Canoga Pork, California,
unpublished report prepared for City of Rancho Palos Verdes, job no. 1840-00,
dated January 21, 1982, 3 plates, 14 p.
Heffler, R., 1981, State's first slide
district forms: Los Angeles Times, January 8, 1981, p. IX-1.
Kockelmon, W.J., 1986, Some techniques
of reducing landslide hazards: Bulletin of the Association of Engineering
Geologists, v. 23, no. 1, p. 29-50.
Lung, Richard, 1981, Mount Washington
Geologic Hazard Abatement District, Geotechnical Investigation Report: Leighton
and Associates, Irvine, California, unpublished consulting report prepared
for the Department of Building and Safety of the City of Los Angeles, report
no. 1800632-01, dated July 15, 1981, 6 plates, 4 appendices, 36 p.
Proctor, R.J., 1985, Plan of control
for Canyon Lakes Geologic Hazard Abatement District, Contra Costa County,
May 2, 1985.
*
Appeared in California Geology, July 1986
Questions
or comments on this page?
E-mail Dr. J David Rogers at rogersda@umr.edu.
