Huge sinkhole in middle of O.C. condo complex to be permanently repaired
Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Aug. 21. I’m Carol Cormaci bringing you this week’s TimesOC newsletter with a look at some of the latest local news and events.
It was in January 2019 when residents of the Coyote Village condominiums in La Habra first had to be evacuated after ground their complex occupied opened up following torrential rains, creating a 120-by-40-foot hole. One resident who had lived at the property for 20 years told the L.A. Times it felt like a small earthquake when the ground gave way that day. He saw toppled trees and slabs of concrete lifted off the ground between two rows of condos. Emergency repairs of the collapsed drainage channel where the sinkhole formed got underway then, but the problem was not permanently resolved.
In March 2023, that resident, Raymond Carillo, said he felt the same type of heavy bump one Wednesday evening that month when a second 40-foot-wide collapse took place about 7 feet from his front door. The next night, he and his wife “listened to chunks of earth fall into the damaged drainage channel, unsure if they should leave their home,” The Times reported.
“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 told The Times.
At that point, the city and the homeowners association had yet to agree on who was responsible for fixing the hole that opened four years ago, let alone damages that ensued. The city maintained that the storm drain was on private property, therefore not its responsibility.
The paper reported that state Sen. Josh Newman (D-Fullerton) had secured $8.5 million in state funding to repair and reinforce the site, according to his office, which announced the funding in July 2022. The work was still pending when the second hole opened, Gary Kranker, deputy city attorney for La Habra, told The Times, and state law prohibits the use of public funds to fix a private drain channel.
“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,” according to the 2023 article.
A follow-up story on Aug. 15, 2023, by my colleague Gabriel San Román, went into even greater detail as to the history of the sinkhole. He reported the condo complex had been developed on top of a private canal that plugs into Orange County’s Imperial Channel, which routes storm water out of La Habra, Brea and Fullerton. It stood as the only covered private channel in the county’s 380-mile public storm drain system. That explained the dispute over whether the association should have to pay for the repairs or the city or any other entity should be on the hook for them.
I recall reading both those stories and empathizing with worried residents. But I lost track of what had ensued since then until I received an email from Newman’s office Monday with the news that the long-awaited repairs got underway last week when the senator, officials with the city of La Habra and members of the Coyote Village Homeowners Assn. participated in a groundbreaking. The news release omits any details on why the work was delayed so long, but it does state it will permanently address the damage and dislocation caused by the sinkhole.
As is not unusual with news releases we receive from the offices of elected officials, there are a number of canned quotes from dignitaries saying how great it was that Newman was able to secure the funds. The senator himself states, “The collapse of the storm channel in 2019 created an ongoing hazard that couldn’t be ignored. I’m very proud to have secured sufficient funding for permanent repairs, and my office will continue to monitor and support the project until the work is done and the problem solved.
“It’s essential we repair the storm channel to provide for safety and a return to normalcy for the residents of Coyote Village,” he concluded.
Well, yes. Five years of being uncertain about the ground just outside one’s front door would be unsettling, at best.
MORE NEWS
• Irvine has the hottest housing market in the country, The Times reported Friday. Over the last year, median home values have surged to $1.56 million in Irvine, an increase of 20.8%, according to a review of Zillow data by real estate analyst Home Economics. The city is also outperforming California communities in growth, with 13,000 more residents over the past three years and 35,000 new homes built since 2010.
• Two area motels will be transformed into supportive housing units, a Travelodge in Costa Mesa and the former Tampico Motel in Anaheim. The Travelodge will be converted by nonprofit developer American Family Housing into 76 studio and one-bedroom apartments under the state’s Project Homekey program, the Daily Pilot reports, with the allocation of $29 million in grant funding from the Department of Housing and Community Development toward completion of that project. The Anaheim City Council approved a cooperation agreement with Jamboree Housing Corp. to convert the Tampico into 32 studio rental units for youth between ages 18 and 24 who are transitioning out of the foster care system or are otherwise at risk of being homeless, according to Times OC.
• Westminster City Councilwoman Amy Phan West, long at odds with her council colleagues, was censured during last week’s chaotic meeting for “unacceptable” conduct. “The lengthy 12-page resolution central to the dispute listed more than two dozen violations of the city’s ethics policy allegedly committed by Phan West, TimesOC reports, from filing a false police report against Councilman Carlos Manzo to trespassing on a construction site with her dirt bike on social media.”
• After taking a look at its fee schedule for parking citations, and surveying other area cities, Laguna Beach last week adopted new fees that will set scofflaws back at least $100 for a citation. And able-bodied motorists should think twice about using parking spaces in the city designated for disabled drivers, or they’ll be looking at fines north of $600 per citation.
• Yorba Linda native and former President Richard Nixon, who resigned in the wake of the Watergate scandal 50 years ago this month, is among the 10 honorees the Orange County Board of Supervisors named to the county Hall of Fame, TimesOC reported. Other notables receiving the distinction are fast food entrepreneur Carl Karcher, pioneering electric guitar designer Leo Fender, actress Michelle Pfeiffer and civil rights icon Sylvia Mendez, along with Nick Berardino, Wing Lam and the Lee family, Ed Paul, William Steiner and Charlie Zhang.
• A lawsuit filed this month against Newport Beach alleges the City Council violated its charter when it approved ordinances and resolutions necessary for the implementation of the city’s housing element instead of letting voters weigh in on them in the November election. The suit was filed by local nonprofit Still Protecting Our Newport (SPON). The city is calling for the creation of 8,174 housing units, about 68% more than what the state-mandated Regional Housing Needs Assessment requires, to ensure enough low and very low-income housing will be built to meet requirements.
• Orange County vector control inspectors have been keeping a close watch on mosquito populations in a section of Santa Ana, where some samples of the insects tested positive for West Nile virus, City News Service reported. West Nile-positive mosquitoes were found in an area bordered by Garden Grove Boulevard, the Santa Ana River, Trask Avenue and Fairview Street.
PUBLIC SAFETY & COURTS
• A bystander’s tip led Irvine police last Wednesday afternoon to the hiding place of a shoplifting suspect at the Irvine Spectrum — the trunk of her Tesla. In an edited body-camera video of the woman’s arrest, police are shown knocking on the trunk of a Tesla and announcing themselves before they open it and find her. The suspect, a 35-year-old woman from San Marcos, was alleged to have taken $600 in products from a Sephora store and $250 of Lululemon athleisure wear.
• A tow truck driver who was standing outside of his vehicle on the northbound side of the Costa Mesa (55) Freeway early Monday reportedly lost his left leg when a sedan being driven at a high rate of speed crashed into his tow truck during a multi-vehicle collision, according to the California Highway Patrol.
SPORTS
• Kaleigh Gilchrist, who first walked onto the Newport Harbor High pool deck when she was just 8, announced Thursday she is retiring from the U.S. women’s senior national team at the age of 32. She ends her water polo career as a three-time Olympian and two-time gold medalist. Wedding bells are in Gilchrist’s immediate future, as she’ll be married Saturday. The wedding date, Aug. 24 also Kobe Bryant Day or Mamba Day, holds great significance for the athlete, a huge fan of the late basketball star.
• With a 3-1 loss to the Atlanta Braves Sunday, the Angels fell to last place in the American League West. “We got good pitching and defense, we just couldn’t execute some situations. And it was our downfall right there,” manager Ron Washington said afterward. The next night didn’t go any better, when the Braves beat the Angels, 5-3. As of Tuesday afternoon, with a 5:10 p.m. road game against the Kansas City Royals still ahead of them, the Halos had 52 wins and 73 losses.
• In related news, two area legislators have called for a state audit to investigate the failed Angel Stadium sale and whether the Angels have complied with the current stadium lease, Times writer Bill Shaikin reported last week. The audit was requested by Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) and Assemblymember Avelino Valencia (D-Anaheim) and approved by the Legislature. In the audit request, Umberg and Valencia cited “deep concern” that the team has withheld revenue owed to the city and failed to comply with stadium maintenance requirements stipulated in the lease.
• A 2-year-old gelding, Gentle Peace, suffered a fatal injury at Los Alamitos Race Course over the weekend, according to state horse racing officials. He was injured “while galloping out after the 5th race at Los Alamitos Saturday night, requiring euthanasia,’’ Mike Marten, spokesman for the California Horse Racing Board, told City News Service. Gentle Peace is the ninth horse to die from a racing or training injury at Los Alamitos this year, according to the CHRB.
LIFE & LEISURE
• “Dressed for the Dance,” by South African artist Zondlile Zondo, features a vibrant scene of a red and white cow standing in a mesmerizing background of colors, flowers and patterns, made entirely of tiny glass beads hand-sewn onto black fabric. It has recently been acquired by Bowers Museum. The acquisition came about a year after the museum debuted “Ubuhle Women: Beadwork and the Art of Independence,” a show originally commissioned for the Smithsonian featuring the beaded artwork developed by a community of women living in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
• The Irvine-based nonprofit University Lab Partners, a wet lab and medical technology incubator, believes in giving students a hands-on approach to life sciences. Earlier this month it held its third annual “ROCK the Science” event at UC Irvine. The event serves as a conclusion to ULP’s Summer Research Program, which featured 50 high school and college students who for eight weeks worked in groups on projects relevant to current life sciences discussions. My Daily Pilot colleague Matt Szabo spoke to students and the ULP team about what the program means to them. The consensus? It’s exciting for budding scientists to have such an opportunity.
• Just over a week from now, a longtime Santa Ana restaurant, Little Onion (or La Cebollita, which it most recently has been called), will become just a fond memory. The eatery at 110 W. MacArthur Blvd. was founded 52 years ago by Lorin “Lorenzo” Reich and is currently owned and operated by his daughter, Lori Reich Rowe, who reluctantly decided this summer it was time to call it quits. “It has been about two years of denial. It was an extremely painful decision. I am the exact same age as the restaurant so my whole life is emotionally connected here,” Rowe told TimesOC. “It was my parents’ dream and so many special memories were created there and it provided for our family.” The last day is Friday, Aug. 30.
CALENDAR THIS
• Tustin resident Janet “Angie” Kardashian, who cooked for FDNY personnel after 9/11 will speak on her book, “The Power of One” during a talk scheduled for 2 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 8 at the Costa Mesa Historical Society. Kardashian, who owned a restaurant prior to the terrorist attacks was so moved that she sold her business and traveled to New York to help feed first responders on the front line, my colleague Sara Cardine reported in this story published over the weekend. “Everything just happened — I sold my restaurant, and I got people to move into my house in California while I was gone,” Kardashian said. “I went to New York with a suitcase in my hands and not much else. I moved 13 times in two years, because I was subletting. But 13 times, I had a place to move into.”
• Orange County Center for Contemporary Art will hold its Painting in Real Time collaborative event from 6 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7, with the corresponding exhibition running through Sept. 28. The opening reception will feature a live workshop led by artist Roderick Smith with four to six participants working during two live drawing sessions, accompanied by cellist Chris Rorrer. Creating with pastels and charcoal on an 8-foot-by-4-foot sheet of drawing paper, each will take turns making improvisational marks that will gradually transform into a work of art. OCCCA is located at 117 N. Sycamore St., Santa Ana. Admission is free.
• The Ocean Institute in Dana Point Harbor is swabbing its decks to prepare for its 40th annual Maritime Festival, set for Sept. 13 through 15. Scheduled events include the Sails N’ Ales kickoff party, mermaid swim shows and a school for scallywags where one can learn the art of swashbuckling, treasure hunting and pirate etiquette. There will be cannon battles, a mermaid breakfast, afternoon mermaid tea, free pirate adventure shows and more. The crown jewel of the weekend is the third annual Pirate and Mermaid Ball. For more information on the festival, tickets or sponsorship opportunities, visit maritime-fest.org or contact Ocean Institute at (949) 496-2274.
A READER WRITES
TimesOC newsetter reader Marc Romano responds to the main topic of last week’s edition, which centered on the L.A. Times report by Hannah Fry that put the spotlight on overcrowding in Laguna Beach:
From the mid-’90s through to 2010, I would visit Laguna Beach from my home in New York. I would often say to others when I returned home that part of my heart was still in Laguna Beach. During that period there was no overcrowding, there were no issues with littering, and I saw only deep care and respect for the environment.
In the summer of 2010, my wife and I were married in the outdoor gardens at the Ritz Carlton in Dana Point on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Our dinner the evening before our wedding was at Georges On The Cove in LaJolla, and we spent the rest of our week enjoying the peace and beauty of Laguna Beach. It was a magical time for us.
It saddens us to hear that this quaint and peaceful slice of heaven is becoming compromised by people who simply don’t care. I agree that it cannot continue in this way. As a first step, I strongly urge the town to stop promoting it as a destination. Lower the volume about its presence, and create a team made up in part of young, progressive, and environmentally conscious minds that will bring new ideas to the table, and develop new ways to protect and preserve this beautiful place.
Positive change is more often driven by new and progressive ideas.
Having worked as an advisor to several companies over many years, I can confidently say that old ways of thinking rarely work in today’s environment.
There is an urgent need to bring new ideas into the discussions about the environmental challenges we are facing, to protect what we have, and rebuild what we have lost. I hope those who love and live in Laguna Beach will be innovative in their approach to protecting and preserving it. I am a proud New Yorker, but a piece of my heart will always be in Laguna Beach.
If, like Mr. Romano, you’d be willing to share your thoughts here, please reach out to me at the email address found at the bottom of the newsletter. Such contributions are always welcome.
Until next Wednesday,
Carol
KEEP IN TOUCH
I appreciate your help in making this the best newsletter it can be. Please send news tips, your memory of life in O.C. (photos welcome!) or comments to carol.cormaci@latimes.com.
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