DRAPER, Utah — On Monday night, residents had the chance to question the developer of the neighborhood where two homes slid over a cliff over the weekend.
"It’s sad that they are now paying attention to all of the concerns about the retaining walls and the neighbors' complaints about different things," said Eric Kamradt, whose home was one of two that slid down into the canyon below early Saturday morning.
Edge Homes founder Steve Maddox shook the hand of the Kamradts and apologized to them.
He then said Edge has met with a shoring company to come up with a plan to stop the immediate slide and met with an engineering firm to review the rest of the neighborhood. He also said the company plans to turn the destroyed lots into open space.
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“Our ordeal is basically over except for negotiation," Kamradt said. "It’s more about the neighbors down the street and their property values and their backyards being repaired."
The meeting became confrontational at times.
The first question came from a man who told Edge the landslides are the company’s fault. He was asked to leave after he kept talking when the moderator tried to move on to another speaker.
After that, the meeting was largely congenial.
Ellen Keller, her husband and their three children live across the street from the landslide. She told edge she’s worried their street will give way next.
"Moving forward, the biggest concern of our street is safety, stability and accessibility of our homes," she said. "We have a massive crater across the street from us now, and the question of stability is something that’s on our minds every day."
Every home on Traverse Mountain is at some level of risk, according to Kathleen Nicoll, professor of geography at the University of Utah. She says she and her students have studied the area since 2007.
"It’s just a matter of time before places in this landscape do move downslope," she said. "All of those houses are on the same kind of geologic substrate, which is a soil that tends to have a plastic style, meaning it can bend and buckle.”
Nicoll published her research in 2010. The full study can be read and viewed here.
“If it’s failing, it’s failing kind of at the base," she said, "It’s essentially moving up the slope to capture the crown, and those houses on the ridgeline over there at the crown.”
READ: Utah geologist not surprised Draper homes tumbled down hillside
Edge Homes President Gordy Jones said he hadn’t seen Nicoll’s research on the mountain’s geology. He told the crowd of about 80 on Monday evening that he believes the problems are isolated to Hidden Canyon Estates. He referred to the slide as a failure exacerbated by the wet winter and spring.
The company sent a full written statement to FOX 13 News Monday afternoon. It reads:
"The events of last Friday night and early Saturday morning were shocking. As a company, we have never experienced such devastating events with our homes. More than anything else, we are incredibly grateful that no one was injured.
"With the failure of the retaining wall and hillside slope, we want to address the question on everyone’s mind: how did this happen? The engineering and construction firms that designed and constructed the retaining walls are long-standing companies with proven track records and years of combined experience. The design of the retaining walls underwent a thorough review process with Draper City, with frequent inspections and quality checks throughout construction. Yet, despite all the engineering and quality control efforts, the wall and hillside experienced a complete failure. Was this a design failure by the engineers? Was this a construction failure by the excavators and retaining wall companies? Was this a combination of both, or neither? We simply cannot answer these questions today. More analysis and data are necessary, but we are committed to finding the underlying cause of the problems to ensure they do not happen again.
"We do know that stability issues and structural concerns with these two (2) homes existed even before this past winter began, with its record snowpack and deep soil saturation. These winter conditions amplified the problems and prevented us from stabilizing the homes. We had hoped to perform a controlled demolition of the two homes in the near future, but that is no longer possible. The remediation, hillside stabilization, and beautification will now be our focus. We will see this situation through to the end in order to protect our homeowners, their families, and the community.
"Last October, when Draper City unilaterally revoked the occupancy permits for these two (2) homes and forced the owners to move out, we initially disagreed with that decision because the data at that time indicated that the recently-installed piers had stopped movement of the homes. As we continued to monitor the situation and collect additional data, however, it became evident in December 2022 that the homes were continuing to move and that evacuation of the homeowners was the correct decision."