As part of a house tumbled over an ocean cliff on Pacifica’s Esplanade Drive early Tuesday, owners wrestled with the choice of moving their homes back from the eroding bluff or calling them a loss.
The city of Pacifica has offered to help property owners relocate their houses slightly to the east, by narrowing the street and creating more property, but the proposition is an expensive one.
And the alternatives are no more attractive. The owners may take advantage of a city offer to demolish their threatened homes, or they can let nature take its course.
“I’d like them to make the decision before nature does,” said City Manager David Carmany.
Erosion caused by high surf and heavy rain in recent weeks has been swift, and disaster threatens at every moment. Three feet of land crumbled away overnight, and in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, a sun room at 548 Esplanade Drive fell into the ocean.
For those who want to save their homes, help is available, Carmany said. But the owners must pay to move the structures and commit to a long-term property assessment for maintaining a new seawall that would be built to prevent future erosion. They could also choose to demolish the existing homes and rebuild.
Nine houses in the modest subdivision have been declared uninhabitable, and another three on the ocean side face an uncertain future. A total of 28 Pacifica residences have been red-tagged since the winter storms began, making the seaside suburb among the hardest hit communities on the Peninsula.
The storms have caused an estimated $3 million in private property damage, and $1.2 million in public property losses in Pacifica, according to San Mateo County officials.
The Federal Emergency Management Administration will announce today if it will pay for a new seawall below Esplanade at an estimated cost of $1.2 million. Under such an arrangement, the homeowners would be required to joinan assessment district that could cost them $150 a month for maintenance of the wall, Carmany said.
“It’s realistic that FEMA would help us get back on our feet, but we have to solve our own problems after that,” he said.
If enough homeowners decide to stay put, with rebuilt or relocated homes, the city will redraw the property lines and create new lots. The cost of rebuilding the street and moving the utility lines would be approximately $200,000, Carmany said.
San Jose Mercury News (California)March 4, 1998 Wednesday MORNING FINAL EDITION