'I'm not going to just walk away from my house'
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EVERETT, Wash. -- Some homeowners in Everett say they've given the city more time and patience than it deserves, as they blame the city for massive erosion that's already taken out three houses.
Now, they're ready to take the city to court. A handful of homeowners on Panaview Boulevard say there's nothing else they can do but file a lawsuit to get the city to take action.
One house is already over the edge, and a total of three homes are red-tagged, meaning they have to be abandoned.
Which house might be next?
"We have to get the city to take further action," said Chuck Kinman.
Kinman and his neighbors say it's all the city's fault. The city of Everett installed a drainage pipe eight years ago that dumps water into the ravine.
"The bed of the creek itself has dropped 12 feet," Kinman said.
When it rains, neighbors say the water just pours out of the pipe, carrying chunks of the hillside with it down into the Snohomish River valley below.
"Both of sides of the hill are collapsing into each other," Kinman said. "If the city would simply put a pipe down there and (drainage rock) on either side the two sides of the hill would push against each other and resolve the whole problem, but they won't do that."
The city engineer did not return calls for comment Wednesday, but in the past, the city has said it has done nothing wrong -- that this is simply Mother Nature's fault.
"There's no indication that our infrastructure is contributing to the failure of that hillside in any way," said Kate Reardon with the City of Everett.
But Kinman says he was out here at midnight Monday watching rainwater rush out of this pipe with great force.
"They will not respond or take responsibility for this," he said.
So now, they say they have no choice but to sue the city.
"I can't just sit back and do nothing," said homeowner Jay Himmelman. "I'm not just going to walk away from my house."
Now, they're ready to take the city to court. A handful of homeowners on Panaview Boulevard say there's nothing else they can do but file a lawsuit to get the city to take action.
One house is already over the edge, and a total of three homes are red-tagged, meaning they have to be abandoned.
Which house might be next?
"We have to get the city to take further action," said Chuck Kinman.
Kinman and his neighbors say it's all the city's fault. The city of Everett installed a drainage pipe eight years ago that dumps water into the ravine.
"The bed of the creek itself has dropped 12 feet," Kinman said.
When it rains, neighbors say the water just pours out of the pipe, carrying chunks of the hillside with it down into the Snohomish River valley below.
"Both of sides of the hill are collapsing into each other," Kinman said. "If the city would simply put a pipe down there and (drainage rock) on either side the two sides of the hill would push against each other and resolve the whole problem, but they won't do that."
The city engineer did not return calls for comment Wednesday, but in the past, the city has said it has done nothing wrong -- that this is simply Mother Nature's fault.
"There's no indication that our infrastructure is contributing to the failure of that hillside in any way," said Kate Reardon with the City of Everett.
But Kinman says he was out here at midnight Monday watching rainwater rush out of this pipe with great force.
"They will not respond or take responsibility for this," he said.
So now, they say they have no choice but to sue the city.
"I can't just sit back and do nothing," said homeowner Jay Himmelman. "I'm not just going to walk away from my house."
These homes have been there for 3 or more decades sitting the edge with no problem what-so-ever. Â
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It's now a problem because of what The City has done. Â
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Mother Nature has nothing to do with it.
Maybe, the drain pipe caused some accelerated erosion but you have to know that there's a risk in buying a house on the edge of a ravine or cliff. I have to question whether the soils for the structures were adequate in the first place. The houses weren't just built (25 years old apparently -http://www.heraldnet.com/article/20110315/NEWS01/703159885), according to a previous article, and it's possible that no soils investigation was done prior to construction to determine erosion and sluffing hazards. In addition, were home inspections done for newer residents/tenants to verify the sites didn't already have evidence of some erosion?
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I have sympathy for the those who live here, as I wouldn't want to see anyone lose their home, but it's important to do your research and possibly pay for other investigations when investing hundreds of thousands of dollars into a property, especially when it's on the edge of a cliff.
I'm sorry, but if you buy a home on a cliff or a hill you have to expect erosion. I feel no sympathy for the homeowners.
Let's split this 50/50 and get on with it. The city is at fault and the homeowner/insurance company needs to take some responsibility too... However I'd never think to question why the city was installing a drain pipe - it would seem like a good and reasonable thing to help with runoff. I'd never consider it may cause other problems. The average homeowner is not a civil engineer. Besides what homeowner is willing to spend 10-20K to have a geo/civil engineer investigate??!! Try building a house today on any piece of property near a ravine like this ans see how many thousand you will need to spend to get the city/county to approve your permits to build...
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Snohomish county wanted to charge me $750 more on my building permit for a 24 x 24 garage because I wanted to use French drains versus regular gutters which I'd have thought would be preferred - that was easy I switched the plans to gutters. They almost had me do an environmental study because they saw a tree line in a pic I had provide about the plot!! Until I explained the lay of the land, that I was not near a "green zone" and not near any embankments etc..they finally backed off.
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As usual we have enough guilt and stupidity on both sides of this one. Â
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I also know a person who lives in this area and their basement/lower level has flooded twice.... They never knew of this problem when the bought their "dream home" 12 years ago...who is at fault?
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Hey it's an opportunity for more regulations!! LOL
 @Truth Percolates "I also know a person who lives in this area and their basement/lower level has flooded twice.... They never knew of this problem when the bought their "dream home" 12 years ago...who is at fault?"
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Who do you think? The homeowner, realtor, and home inspector (which most, if not all banks require for loans). Did the homeowners, realtor or home inspector (if one was used) go to the city to see if the home was in a flood plain or floodway? I would have to assume not, and the city isn't expected to come to the potential homeowners and tell them anything and everything wrong with the place. Also there are regulations for building in floodplains, guess where you have to go to find them?
America's demise won't come from China, or terrorists. It will come from us suing ourselves. The last lawsuit will be a lawsuit over the inability to pay a lawsuit, then the final collapse.
Where I live, homeowners are notified in advance of any city projects that could affect them.Â
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Just wondering if the homeowners had prior knowledge that the city was planning to install the drain pipe, and if so, did any of them raise objections?Â
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Fighting city hall is rough but if there is any concrete record that the pipe was installed over the objections of the residents, they might have a leg to stand on. Even at that, it's going to be a costly uphill battle for the homeowners.
im just glad nobody was suing cities in Alabama because of hurricane Katrina destroying their homes
City to blame for Mother Nature.
A Nation
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Victims.
Brought to you by its lawyers.
You buy a house on the edge of a ravine, you *must* expect to have erosion. This is especially true in the PNW with our rainfall and a river valley below. The ground in such a location is inherently unstable and the homeowners took the risk in exchange for the view and increased property values.Â
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The tax dollars of Everett and Snohomish County should be spent for *public* good. Our tax dollars should not be spent on the *private* property values of those who refuse to admit that they alone are responsible for the fact that they have homes built on inherently unstable ground. The homeowners alone benefited from the homes locations. They alone should pay the costs of preserving their private property.Â
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The city isn't paying for landscaping my yard to decrease erosion. Why should my taxes pay to landscape theirs?
 @V. Murphy Very well said, I couldn't agree with you more.These people built/bought a
house on an unstable piece of ground.The government cannot be held responsible for stupid decisions that people make. it won't be long before government is telling us when to flush our toilets!
The first thing people do as soon as they realize they have a problem is they blame someone else!
"Face it homeowner, you screwed up, you mad a very BAD decision when you purchased this home, it's your fault, you signed the papers not the City of Everett!"
@gangdestroyer They wouldn't have had this problem had the city not placed the drain pipe into the ravine.
 @V. Murphy Very well said! I couldn't agree more! These people built/bought a house
on an unstable piece of ground. The government is not responsible for the stupid decisions people make!
 @gangdestroyer  @V. Murphy Unless the house was built with no permitting and inspections being done, those who approved the plans and signed off on the building are partly at fault. That is why we have building codes and permitting and inspection. It is not "buyer beware."
 @V. Murphy Yes, SOME erosion is to be expected.  However, the city came in and drastically changed the dynamics of the ravine, greatly speeding up the erosion process.  I don't have an engineering degree and I could have told them that forcing a bunch of water into a pipe and then into a creek bed was a bad idea.  The creek bed dropping 12 feet is a massive change.
 @stamperzann I disagree. Water finds the lowest point. It would have ended up in the ravine regardless of whether the pipe was installed or not. It all flows to the river and then the sea. You build above a river valley on what amounts to a cliff edge in a high rainfall area and you are going to lose. If anything, the city work has probably extended the life of those homes beyond what it would have been. Rivers move and creek beds grow. Just like roads wash out, so do ravines get deeper and wider. The property owners got the views and values. They can swallow the cost. They should have had insurance against such an event given where they build those homes.
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Homes are being lost to the sea on some of the islands in the Sound and those people have to accept the loss. Time for those living above other water ways to do the same.
 @V. Murphy But the same principle applies. A lot of rain water spread out over an a area has less impact than a focused stream coming from a pipe. These homes had no problems with erosion until the city came in and installed the drain pipe feeding into this ravine.
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You can be educated all you want, it still doesn't stop you from being an idiot. Use common sense.
 @SilverGryphon No. I'm a person with an education and the ability to apply that knowledge. These aren't sandcastles and it isn't a sprinkler. It is an unstable ravine edge in a high rainfall area with a waterway at the bottom. Basic geology and ecology say that it will expand the ravine over time through erosion. That erosion is increased by development on the top--such as these houses--by removing and preventing natural means of surface stabilization (trees, grasses, etc). The houses themselves increase runoff and add weight to the ravine edge, increasing the rate of erosion and potential for landslide. The home builders created the problem by building in an unsuitable location. From your response, sounds to me like you are one of them.
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V.Murphy, you're a freaking idiot. While yes, some of the water would have made its way into the ravine, it wouldn't be concentrated into on spot as it is by coming out of a pipe. Do this experiment to understand this. Take a sand box and build a sand castle. Now take a sprinkler, and aim it so it acts as rain falling down. While you'll have some erosion of your sand castle, you won't have much. Now take the sprinker off your hose and set it in one spot beside your sand castle, and watch it erode quicker and heavier than before.
Whoops. The city scr3wed up pretty big this time. I wonder how that project would have been approved to begin with. The real insult is that they let it get bad enough to wipe out multiple homes.
Like SO many other things........P-E-R-S-O-N-A-L  R-E-S-P-O-N-S-I-B-I-L-I-T-Y
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 Why would you even think about buying a house built so close to a steep ravine???
I wouldn't blame it all on the city of Everett. The City of Everett didn't force the greedy builder or
the ignorant home buyer to build or buy the house. The bottom line is there were several dumb asses
involved in ALL of the decision making. Stupid is as stupid does.
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 @gangdestroyer It appears the drainage pipe wasn't there when they bought their homes. The pipe which is causing the erosion was installed later by the city. Looks like the civil engineer (oximoron) didn't do his/her homework.
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 @Gino  @gangdestroyer Without the Colorado River, there would
be no Grand Canyon and without the drainage pipe the city installed the ravine
would not have deepened so rapidly. It is man made erosion that sped up
the natural condition.
In nature the basic two sources of erosion are water, and wind.
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In this case the city simply opted to supply water from a drain pipe into a gully
and thus expedited mother natures natural erosion by decades at least.
 @Gino  @gangdestroyer And SOMEBODY issued the "permits" the cities thrive on to build the houses, install the drain pipes, and change the landscape in the FIRST place to be able to build in an unstable area. In this state, you can't build a CARD house without the government getting involved, and having to jump through more hoops than a trained poodle. Fee here, permit there, here a fee there a permit.....money money moneey. Yea......this little skirmish will make it "hot in the city" tonight.