Sinkhole at La Habra complex raises a question: Who fills it?
The city points out that the collapsed channel is on private property
A collapsed drain channel opened Wednesday in the ground near a condominium complex in La Habra, roughly fours years after the terrain collapsed not too far away in a similar fashion.
The recent collapse that created a hole 40 feet wide complicates matters in an ongoing legal dispute between a homeowners association and the city of La Habra on whether the needed repairs are the responsibility of the property owner or the city.
Either way, residents are worried that expected rain in the next several days could worsen the situation.
“Our concern is the incoming storm. Is is it going to cause more damage? Are we in more danger?” resident Raymond Carillo said. “When is that going to be cleaned out? There’s a lot of questions and very little answers.”
In January 2019, the ground collapsed at the Coyote Village complex, creating a 120-by-40-foot hole. Residents were evacuated as emergency repairs were done by Orange County Public Works crews.
Carillo has lived at the property since 1999 and said it felt like a small earthquake when the ground gave way over four years ago. He saw toppled trees and slabs of concrete lifted off the ground.
He felt the same type of heavy bump Wednesday evening when the second collapse took place.
On Thursday night, he and his wife listened to chunks of earth fall into the damaged drainage channel, unsure if they should leave their home. The new hole is about seven feet away from his front door.
“Hopefully this new situation is going to light a fire under some public officials to get the ball rolling. What’s it going to take? Property damage? Personal damage? It needs to get taken care of ASAP,” Carillo said.
Torrential rain has saturated large swaths of California, reducing drought conditions but increasing the risk of flooding.
In Porter Ranch, road crews working to repair a sinkhole caused by a broken drainage pipe noticed a depression forming in the ground two months into their project, according to Caltrans.
The recent rains created a new sinkhole, and Caltrans crews are now working to install a temporary support structure on Rinaldi Street, which will affect traffic for the next three months, according to a spokesperson.
In La Habra, the city and the homeowners association have yet to agree on who is responsible for permanently fixing the hole that opened in 2019.
Gary Kranker, deputy city attorney for La Habra, said repairs for the private storm drain that collapsed in 2019 are the homeowners association’s responsibility. The city claims the site was not properly maintained and had excessive soil and pine trees on top of the drain channel.
La Habra offered to hire contractors to clean out the channel this week so that any incoming storm water could flow through unobstructed, said Kranker, adding that the homeowners association would be responsible for the cost.
The homeowners association is suing La Habra, claiming the city is responsible for fixing the 2019 collapse.
An email and phone call to the Coyote Village property manager, Diversified Assn. Management based in Tustin, and the homeowners association’s attorney, were not immediately answered.
Sen. Josh Newman, whose district includes La Habra, secured $8.5 million in state funding to repair and reinforce the damage, according to his office.
His office announced the funding in July, but none of the repair work has begun, according to Kranker.
But state law prohibits the use of public funds to fix a private drain channel, Kranker said. He added the city was currently trying to verify with the California attorney general’s office and the California Department of Water Resources if the city could use those state funds for the project.
He reiterated that the city was not taking over the project, because it is private land.
“We’re not repairing the channel, other than making sure that it’s functional,” Kranker said. “We’re not putting back a cement top on it.”
The city has a contractor lined up to start cleaning out the channel, according to Kranker, but they have not received approval from the homeowners association.
Newman said his office worked for two budget cycles to secure the funding, because the alternative would have bankrupt the homeowners association.
He said it was now up to Orange County, the city and the homeowners association to reach some type of solution.
“I think it’s less important to assign blame than to figure out how to finally and properly solve this problem,” Newman said in an interview.