Casa Romantica Landslide: More Land Moves Friday, Residents Evacuated

SAN CLEMENTE, CA — The hillside behind Casa Romantica Cultural Center in San Clemente was still moving late Friday afternoon, after the ground behind the historic structure dropped roughly 20 feet Thursday.

According to the City of San Clemente, the slope of the western side of the historic building remains "unstable." Debris, rock and dirt has moved five to 10 feet closer to nearby train tracks as of Friday morning, the city said.

Soil was also reportedly moving toward a residence at the ReefGate residential development, the city said. The home was red-tagged and evacuated Friday night at around 10 p.m.

"There doesn't appear to be a significant change in the landslide at the top near the building, but the city's contracted geologist is concerned about the 20-foot vertical face of soil near the building and rear patio," San Clemente City Manager Andy Hall said.

The city, county and the California Coastal Commission will address the hillside's stabilization and restoration, the city said, and the consulting firm hired by the city will begin recording baseline measurements of the hillside.

Train service was unavailable through south Orange County Friday due to the landslide that sent dirt and debris cascading down a hillside and toward coastal railroad tracks.

The service shut-down comes just a few weeks after a project to address the cliffside erosion and its impact on the train tracks in Orange County was completed.

Metrolink service was shut down Thursday afternoon and remained shuttered Friday south of the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo Station. That left no service available to San Juan Capistrano, San Clemente or Oceanside.

Inland Empire-Orange County Line trains on Friday will originate and end at the Laguna Niguel/Mission Viejo Station, but will extend to San Juan Capistrano over the weekend, according to Metrolink officials.

Amtrak's Pacific Surfliner, which uses the same tracks, suspended service between Irvine and San Diego due to the landslide, although Amtrak officials said some limited service would be available as far as San Juan Capistrano.

Casa Romantica was red-tagged, or deemed unsuitable for occupation, along with some condominium units farther down the hillside following Thursday's slide. It was unclear exactly how many residents were displaced.

Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley said it could take a long time to repair the damage at Casa Romantica.

"I was on the balcony before the terrace that fell," Foley said of a visit to the center Friday. "That's going to take a lot of construction work to get that back."

She anticipated the repairs may require Coastal Commission approval as well as city permits.
The hillside "slid like 20 feet so they've red-tagged four buildings, including Casa Romantica, and the other buildings are residential, so they're working with them to get (the residents) out," Foley said.

Casa Romantica has weddings booked through next year so a lot of those plans have been disrupted too, Foley said.

"Then we have the railroad tracks closed for awhile because the hillside continues to slide and it's on the tracks now, which is different than the other slides, where it wasn't quite like on the tracks," Foley said.

"We're all working on a long-term study of the railroad tracks," Foley said of the county, the Orange County Transportation Authority and Rep. Mike Levin's office.

The landslide occurred around 1 p.m. Thursday, roughly two weeks after officials at Casa Romantica first reported ground movement that caused some cracks on the property's concrete terrace facing the ocean.

While slight movement had been continuing over the past two weeks, the ground collapsed by about 10 feet on Thursday afternoon, damaging the Casa Romatica terrace, part of which tumbled down the hillside.

The San Clemente City Council earlier this week approved a $75,000 contract with a geologic contractor to study the ground movement and develop a plan for shoring up the hillside. The contractor was working at the site this week when the slide occurred.

The slide occurred about two miles north of where the Orange County Transportation Authority is finishing up construction to shore up a hillslide slope near the Cyprus Shore Homeowners Association in San Clemente, officials said. Work in that area led to an extended disruption of rail service between Orange County and San Diego earlier this year. Service in the area was restored earlier this month.

City News Service contributed to this report.