Homes to Be Bulldozed in Slope Rebuilding

Workers will bulldoze 51 homes as part of a $23-million project to rebuild a Laguna Niguel slope ripped apart by a massive landslide a year ago today, lawyers for one of the homeowners associations said.

Ten houses at the top of the slope along Via Estoril, most of them already destroyed, will not be rebuilt when reconstruction of the hillside is finished in about a year, said attorney Andrew Kurz of Cardiff-by-the-Sea, who represents the Niguel Summit Community Assn.

Also, Kurz said, all 41 units of the Crown Cove Condominiums at the bottom of the hill will be demolished and not rebuilt.

Making for spectacular photographs and videotape, houses fell down the hillside over a period of days when the slope collapsed last March 19, the culmination of several years of complaints from residents about cracking walls and sagging fences.

Kurz said $3.3 million has already been spent to secure the hillside temporarily and prevent further damage.

As part of a settlement with Hon Development Co. and J.M. Peters, the developer and builder, the Niguel Summit association received $20 million for slope repairs. Also, Hon agreed to buy all 41 condo units from displaced owners for nearly $16 million.