NORTH SALT LAKE, Utah -- It was nine months ago Tuesday that a landslide destroyed a house in the North Salt Lake community of Eaglepointe, and residents are still awaiting answers as to what the city and developer plan to do about the hillside left behind.
During Tuesday’s city council meeting both the city and Eaglepointe Development said the hill needs to be stabilized. However, neither side wants to take responsibility, so the community is left to wonder when and if anything will be done.
"We want answers but more importantly this is something that affects all of us, we need to step up to the plate as a city, as a community, and get it resolved,” said Grant Foster of North Salt Lake.
Eaglepointe home owners are always wondering when the next slide may occur.
"We had a large family gathering here last week, some people you could tell were kind of nervous they said, ‘are you sure you're OK here, are you sure you're OK, yea, we think, stay in the house you should be good,’ so it's unnerving,” said Jeanette Evans.
The Evans family lost 60 feet of their backyard due to the slide. They said they warned the city about potential disaster back in 2012, when Eaglepointe Development first started working on the hill.
"We were never given any answers from the developers. I continued calling, ‘what are you going to do to fix this,’” said Paul Evans.
It's going to cost $2 million dollars to stabilize the hill. The city and Eaglepointe have come to a stalemate as to who will pay. The Eagle Ridge Tennis Club, who suffered damage to three courts, is already suing both sides.
"It seems to me that there is a lot of finger pointing going on, litigation is not the answer," said Foster.
Home owners say as long as the hillside remains in its present state, those property values will continue to fall just like the soil.
The city said if they do end up having to pay for the remediation they will most likely have to raise taxes. That decision would be made by the public in a November ballot.
