Examining concerns of neighbors around landslide zones

Officials in Colorado Springs said they’re doing what they can to help homeowners affected by landslides, but is there also a risk for people living just outside the perimeter of landslide zones?

KRDO NewsChannel 13 is investigating how extensive the current landslide risk may become, either by expansion of current slides or development of new slides, and what preventive or protective measures can be taken.

There are five known landslide zones on the city’s west side, from Mountain Shadows and Rockrimmon on the northwest side to Broadmoor Bluffs on the southwest side.

Brian Hildenbrandt, a structural engineer in Colorado Springs, said most people living on the fringes of those zones should be safe from landslides.

“There’s places a block away from a landslide that will never experience one,” he said. “Some houses are in an ancient zone that hasn’t moved in 10,000 years. The newer homes usually have a stronger foundation to account for the extra forces in the ground.”

But Hildenbrandt also said movement can vary within a zone, and is an example of how difficult making preparations in advance can be.

“You have stable areas within adverse areas,” he said. “I repaired one home that was close to a landslide and affected by it, but not within it.”

City officials continue to insist that it was last spring’s record rainfall, not any wrongdoing, that caused the landslides.

Hildenbrandt advises homeowners who live around or near landslides to have their homes inspected by an engineer or geologist to determine what level of risk exists.

“That’s probably the best we can do,” he said. “I’m not sure that more regulations or requirements on the city’s part is going to help things. I think it’s just being able to access that information.”

Sharon Signorelli lives on Zodiac Drive, across the street from the bottom of the landslide in the Skyway neighborhood.

“But just having a street there, doesn’t mean the landslide will stop,” she said.

City officials emphasize that having a home in or near a landslide zone doesn’t mean it will be affected.

Signorelli agrees, saying that she and her husband had their home inspected 10 years ago and found they were threatened more by expansive soils than a landslide.

“We had old cracks reopen downstairs, after the heavy rain last spring,” she said.

Signorelli said taking action shouldn’t be entirely a homeowner’s responsibility.

“The city perhaps should have been a little more firm on not allowing builders to build (in landslide zones),” she said.

But her friend, Colleen Ripp, takes a different view. Ripp lives near the Rockrimmon landslides.

“I understand people wanting a great view and to be up high,” she said. “But if you’re going to make the decision to build there, then you’d better have the money to take care of it.”