Slumping slope above South Bay reservoir will send homeowners packing
MORGAN HILL (KPIX) -- In the Santa Clara County town of Morgan Hill, some residents living beside Anderson Reservoir are being told their homes must be demolished. The local water agency is offering to buy them out but, so far, no one thinks the prices are fair.
Trevor Holler is well aware that the ground is moving under the home he shares with his father. One look at his driveway will tell you that. It is fractured into six-foot-wide slabs; some have been tilted up about six inches.
"When you start noticing half-inch cracks turn into two-inch cracks turn into six-inch cracks over a couple-year span, you're like, 'OK, it's a little alarming,'" Holler said.
His house has slid about eight inches off its foundation and Holler said the main water supply, which is now fully exposed, has to be repaired about every six months.
The home directly overlooks Anderson Reservoir, which has been completely drained for a federally-mandated seismic retrofit.
This and other homes on Hoot Owl Way were built back in the 1950s on an ancient landslide and the belief is that the draining of the lake has accelerated the earth movement here.
Holler thinks it really dates back to 2017 when winter storm water poured over the top of the dam, flooding hundreds of houses along Coyote Creek. He said that, after that event, the lake managers began rapidly drawing the water level down after any significant rain and that's when things really began slipping.
"They'd draw it down really quickly and, every single time, we'd see more cracks, we'd have a broken water pipe," Holler said. "The whole idea that this is just an act of God and nature is not true. This is a man-made catastrophe of their mismanagement."
Chris Hakes, Valley Water's deputy operating officer for dam safety, doesn't dispute that changes in the reservoir are contributing to the slippage.
"Draining of the lake, operating the reservoir in general, those things do have an impact on some of the movement," he said.
Hakes says that's exactly why the homes have to go. Part of the seismic project is to stabilize the banks of the lake but there is no practical way to do that under the existing houses on Hoot Owl Way.
"Unfortunately, we can't let these homeowners stay," Hakes said. "That would be an implied warranty that says that the area is safe for occupancy, which we just can't do. They will have to all evacuate. They will have to sell their properties."
To whom do you sell a house if it must be demolished? The water district says it will buy them all at fair market value but that's where the real dispute lies. Holler said an appraiser valued his home at only $900,000, comparing it to similar-size houses in residential subdivisions.
"We live in a lakefront home so, if you're going to compensate us for a lakefront home, you should be comparing it to another lakefront home," Holler said.
Holler said there is no chance of replacing a lakeside, 3-bedroom home in the Bay Area for that amount. He said it's not just a home, it's a lifestyle and, so far, the other neighbors agree. None of them has taken a district offer. They're in negotiations but, if an agreement can't be reached, the water district could force a sale under eminent domain.
"We don't like to use the eminent domain process," Hakes said. "It is afforded to us under law but, you know, that tends to bring up some hard feelings."
Still, Hakes said, one way or another the homes will need to be removed by sometime in 2024.
So far, the overall cost of the retrofit project has ballooned $588 million and now stands at $1.2 billion. The neighbors on Hoot Owl Way are wondering why the district is only driving a hard bargain when it comes to their homes.
