CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

City To Make Final Appeal To Buck Gully Homeowners

The City of Newport Beach wants to help residents who live along Lower Buck Gully avoid catastrophe from hillside failure — but most of the residents refuse to help themselves by granting easements for an erosion control project, city officials said during a City Council study session held Tuesday afternoon.

“This is a gift to the residents,” said Councilman Steven Rosansky. “They should be contributing,” he added, not just granting easements.

However, just 10 of 26 easements have been given by Corona del Mar residents in spite of meetings, letters and phone calls from city staff. CIty officials decided at the Tuesday meeting to make one more attempt to get cooperation before they turn down $700,000 in state grants and redistribute $1.2 million from the city’s general fund.

Eminent domain could be used to seize the flood plain areas needed for the project, but that could take money and years of litigation, the city attorney advised.

A few residents attended the meeting. Outside Council Chambers, one neighbor said that she had refused to grant the easement because she worried about losing the foliage that currently fills Buck Gully. She said the meeting did not make her feel bad for not signing, but actually made her realize she was not the only one with serious doubts.

The project would use wire cages filled with river rocks to divert water flow as it heads toward the beach. A similar project a few years ago in Morning Canyon has been successful and quickly was covered with vegetation, making it blend into the habitat.

The scope of the easements would be narrow, allowing city workers to install the project and maintain it, probably no more than once a year, a city engineer told the Council.

The city attorney told the Council that if the project is shelved, the city would not be liable for any slope failure that causes homes to slide down the hillsides of Evening Canyon Road and Hazel Drive.

City Councilwoman Nancy Gardner, who represents Corona del Mar, said she thinks some residents have been misinformed about the scope of the easements. She urged one more outreach letter before making a decision.

“It’s frustrating,” she said.

Read our earlier coverage here.