Developers are continuing to build new homes in Dublin, CA as families flock to the city for its access to job centers, terrific schools, marvelous parks, and, in some cases, beautiful views. Much of the new housing in Dublin is concentrated in the more hilly areas that require significant amounts of grading, rock blasting, and engineered site fill to create level areas. Some of these areas pose significant landslide risks to nearby homeowners. One such catastrophic landslide in 2006 resulted in a death and a subsequent $4.8M award from the City of Mill Valley to the victim’s grieving family.
Mill Valley city officials knew about the risk of landslide and had set up a Geological Hazard Abatement District (GHAD) as part of the approval for this doomed master planned project. The courts have nevertheless ruled that those precautionary measures were insufficient in protecting the homeowners.
Like Mill Valley, Dublin has setup up a few GHADs for specific residential projects within the city’s borders.
Schaefer Ranch in the West Dublin hills is built on a site that has reportedly had nearly 60 landslides. Some have alleged that the project’s developer had to blast nearly 1.1M cubic yards of hard rock, move 9.4M cubic yards of dirt, and fill up to 150 feet of soil to build this new residential community.
Building on risky sites is not a problem limited to West Dublin. The upcoming Fallon Crossing community in East Dublin will feature wine country living and landslide risk at the foot of the East Dublin hills. Located at the intersection of Fallon Road and Tassajara Road, these new homes from Standard Pacific will also be part of a GHAD designed to collect fees to help cover the cost of protecting homeowners in the event of a catastrophe.
Homes proposed for construction at Wallis Ranch and Doolan Canyon may also face similar risks, as home builders blast into the hillsides and fill in soil to create level foundations for future developments.
The fees collected by the city-mandated GHADs may not be enough to protect the residents from damages. Just as the courts have ruled in favor of the victims from the Mill Valley landslide, the City of Dublin may one day be held liable for homeowner losses should a landslide occur in one of these GHADs.
Dublin’s continued housing development has yielded new families and additional property tax revenues for the growing city. The developer fees generated from these new projects help pay for infrastructure like roads, parks, and other amenities within this growing city. Still, the City’s expansion into hilly and less geologically stable areas has exposed Dublin residents to the risk of landslide and opened the door to potential lawsuits. Will the City of Dublin suffer a fate similar to the City of Mill Valley, where all residents are now saddled with a $4.8M bill?
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