Homeowners frustrated with looks, cost of broken wall

$300,000 spent to fix wall that collapsed in three months



Most motorists zooming along Mountain Meadows Drive don’t give a second thought to the cinderblock wall that lines the horseshoe-shaped street just off Tierra Rejada Road.

Yet, for the 92 homeowners who live in the Buttercreek Estates housing tract just above Mountain Meadows, driving past the partially collapsed wall is a painful reminder of the hundreds of thousands of dollars it will likely cost to again fix the barrier that had just been restored.

Charlotte Schnieber doesn’t need to take a drive to see the wall that was completed in December 2010 and collapsed March 21—just three months later—when heavy spring rains were blamed for the wall’s failure. She can see it from the backyard of her Moorpark home.

“It’ s very upsetting,” Schnieber said. “It’s a liability, an eyesore, and it ruins the property value of our homes. If someone gets hurt, we’re sued.”

Nearly 300 feet of the 1,800- foot wall have fallen, while larger sections are leaning at extreme angles.

Moorpark City officials have made it clear that because the wall is on the homeowners association’s property, its upkeep and repair falls to the Buttercreek Estates Homeowners Association.

“The repair and scheduling of the reconstruction ( of the wall) are the responsibility of the HOA,” said Dave Klotzle, Moorpark’s city engineer.

The HOA has no recourse against the construction company that built the wall—the firm has gone bankrupt.

A costly wall

Besides being an eyesore, Schneiber said, the wall has become costly for the residents of the Buttercreek Estates HOA.

Schneiber and other members of the homeowners association are already charged $50 a month in additional homeowners’ dues to pay for the $300,000 it cost to finish repairing the wall in 2010. The loan will be met by 2012.

To fix the wall again, the homeowners association will have to take out another loan, which will undoubtedly add to the HOA’s monthly fees.

“ A new loan to pay for the March wall collapse is inevitable,” said Brian Poulton, secretary of the HOA’s board of directors.

The association hopes to salvage as much of the wall as possible to cut down on expenses, he added.

It’s unknown yet what it will cost to repair the wall that laid in disrepair for a decade after it first fell in 2000.

Soil and the city

Schnieber and other homeowners worry about the stability of the homes along Maple Crest Street that have backyards that slope down toward Mountain Meadows Drive.

But, according to Klotzle, the homes are safe from a landslide.

“A geotechnical analysis indicates that the wall failure does not affect the properties above it,” he said.

At the request of the city, the HOA hired Geo Soils Consultants Inc., an Orange County-based soils engineer, to look at the status of the wall and the slope in order to ensure the wall and the hill meet city building codes.

The soils report was completed June 14 and a copy was sent to city officials. The report will be used for the engineering of the wall.

A history of failure

The wall is a sore subject for many residents of the Buttercreek Estates who’ve have had to deal with its instability for over a decade.

Sections of the wall located beneath a slope between Chestnut Ridge Street and Walnut Creek Road first failed in February 2000.

“ The reason I joined the board was largely because I didn’t approve of the way the first wall failure was handled,” Poulton said. “We had to haggle with the city to get the wall reconstructed (the first time).”

Originally constructed in 1986, the wall was built to older codes, which would likely no longer meet today’s standards, according to the HOA’s website.

A combination of old age, heavy rains, and poor drainage caused the 2000 failure.

After nearly 10 years of planning, compliance with building codes and construction, the restoration of the wall was finally considered complete by the City of Moorpark in December 2010.

Just three months later, it fell again.

On Aug. 16 the board of directors signed a contract with the Ventura offices of the engineering firm VCE Services Inc. to plan the rebuilding of the wall, according to the HOA.



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