Neighbors demand closure of south-end roadway

Published 1:00 pm Saturday, July 15, 2006

After winter slides, Halls Hill threatens homes below, several tell the City Council.

The City Council took a bold move Wednesday in voting to close Halls Hill Road at the island’s south end, in response to impassioned pleas from residents to shore up a hillside they fear could plunge into their homes.

“The neighborhood is in extraordinary jeopardy,” said Stephanie Ross, who lives on narrow Seaborn Road, tucked between the north shore of Blakely Harbor and the steep slopes of Halls Hill. “Shut that road tomorrow. Shut it and fix it. It can’t withstand anything.”

The council heeded Ross’ plea, directing the city Department of Public Works to erect barricades along the road until the hillside is proven safe.

The closure surprised public works staff – who consider both the hill and road stable – and the city’s attorney, Paul McMurray, who was unsure whether the council has the authority to order a specifc road shut down.

The council’s action is currently pending legal verification from McMurray.

“I want to nip this in the bud,” said Councilman Nezam Tooloee, who proposed the road closure. “Maybe in a matter of a couple of weeks, nothing will be wrong and life goes on.”

If the road is closed, direct south-end access to and from Rockaway Beach would be cut off, and all homes on Halls Hill will need to use alternative routes toward Blakely Avenue and Blakely Hill Road.

Public Works Director Randy Witt said a previous geotechnical assessment of the hillside has undergone updates and still lists the road and hillside as safe. While admitting the road needs long-term repairs, Witt said he’s confident no landslides will occur in the next 12 months.

But Ross and others in the neighborhood say they’ve seen a sharp increase in water and sediment flowing down from the hillside, especially during the heavy rains of last winter.

The sand bags and plastic tarps that still line portions of Halls Hill Road have done little to stop runoff exacerbated recent city projects on the road’s north side and residential land clearing on the hill’s crest.

Former councilwoman Deborah Vann, a Winslow resident and member of the newly formed environmental group Island Keepers, took particular aim at a 17-acre hilltop property where owner and developer Kelly Samson plans to plat nine residential parcels.

“It doesn’t take an engineer to see the danger,” Vann said. “How is it possible that (the city) approved new development?”

Vann also accused Samson of illegally cutting vegetation and violating Halls Hill Road’s truck weight limits when he hauled tons of soil up the hill for a planned pasture and sports field.

The city, she said, has been complicit in what she characterized as Samson’s environmentally irresponsible development projects.

“Kelly Samson has been given all kinds of latitude and assistance,” she said. “Enough is enough.”

City blamed

Samson denied any wrong-doing Thursday and asserted that his land-clearing and construction projects are within city guidelines.

He said clearing noxious weeds, including English ivy and Scotch broom, does not require a permit unless on steep slopes.

The platting of the cleared 17- acre parcel awaits approval from the city, possibly by next week.

Samson said sediments washing down during heavy rains stem not from his property, but from a poorly installed sewer line running along Halls Hill Road, he said.

According to Samson, gravel lining the ditch above the sewer line failed to properly channel rain and runoff sediments.

City Engineer Bob Earl said Friday that the sewer line was properly installed and that the ditch was lined according to common practices.

However, Earl admitted that the velocity and volume of water running down the hill last winter was too much for the gravel to take. The gravel shifted, forming small dams that allowed water to spill onto Halls Hill Road and down to Seaborn.

“Mud was carried with it,” he said. “It got a little messy. We used commonly used materials that we found needed to be corrected, and it was.”

But a fixed ditch may not hold up an hillside some say could crash into the harbor as increased development reduces vegetation and loosens soil.

Residents raised the specter of the 1997 landslide on Rolling Bay that claimed the home and lives of its four residents.

“We couldn’t prevent that one but we can prevent this one,” Ferncliff Avenue resident Lois Andrus told the council. “People that don’t pay attention to history are doomed to repeat it.”

Tooloee said the argument for Halls Hill Road’s closure reminded him of another impassioned neighborhood-led effort.

“This has shades of Kallgren,” he said, referring to a residential street the city had planned to link with Day Road, despite well-organized opposition from residents. After months of controversy, the city abandoned the proposed street link. “I don’t want this to turn into another Kallgren.”

While calling the closure “dramatic and drastic,” Council­woman Debbie Vancil lent her support out of concern for Seaborn’s residents.

“This is the second time the community has come to us saying there’s a lack of attention,” she said, also referring to the Kallgren Road issue. “We don’t have all the information about this road. There has been some slippage action the council didn’t know about.

“Closing the road could address the lives of residents.”

The council’s Land Use Committee will discuss the Halls Hill Road closure at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall.