Carlsbad City Council has authorized a settlement with homeowners on Trieste Drive due to a slope that has seen a slow and ongoing landslide.
“This didn’t happen overnight. This was a slow-moving landslide over four years that just didn’t get regarded as serious,” Homeowner Nansea DePretis said.
DePretis and other homeowners on Trieste Drive told NBC 7 that they noticed the landslides in 2020 and the damage continued to get worse as time passed.
“It was very scary and just frustrating to watch everything we’ve built just slowly go down the hill without being able to stop it,” DePretis said.
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Carlsbad City Councilmembers passed an emergency declaration to address the failing slope in February 2024.
Homeowners affected by the landslides retained counsel and filed a lawsuit against the city of Carlsbad due to the city’s inaction regarding fixing the failing slope, according to Attorney Philip Kunka.
Weeks after the emergency declaration was passed, a trial began regarding the slope between Trieste Drive and El Camino Real.
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While the trial was ongoing, the parties came together to put together a settlement.
“Our homeowners were able to present good testimony, as well as our experts were able to present great testimony and I think that kind of geared the city towards there was a need to resolve this case,” Kunka said.
The details of the settlement are being ironed out but there is a framework in place, according to Kunka.
“The settlement that we reached is $7 million dollars total and that settlement will be distributed amongst the homeowners as they see fit and that’ll go towards repairing their homes and the second part is they’ve committed to repairing the hillside by October of 2024,” Kunka said.
City staff will monitor the ongoing repairs being made.
“This local emergency will be renewed at each regular City Council meeting until the emergency is declared over, so if there are any changes in the timeline, it’ll be reflected in the new staff report,” City of Carlsbad employee Nikki Matosian said.
