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NB may extend deadline on house
Monday, August 25, 2008 10:42 AM PDT
Although no work has been done to a potentially dangerous property above Sapphires Mongolian Grill in North Bend, its owner may get yet another extension to make his land safe.
The action could come more than a year and a half after city officials became concerned about the hillside property and house sliding toward the restaurant and hurting someone.
The property at 2505 Sheridan Ave. will be the focus of a special city council meeting Tuesday. Councilors will consider a deadline extension to require owner Yesi Guirado to make the house safe or destroy it.
Set at 5 p.m., the meeting will be held in the North Bend City Council Chambers and will include unrelated agenda items.
City Planner David Voss said Guirado requested an extension because he and the owner of Sapphires are suing each other. Guirado and Sapphires owner Eugene Hill will be entering into mediation. The city’s deadline may be extended past the mediation date to the end of the month.
“While this is still bound up in the court system, things kind of go into limbo,” Voss said. “It’s really just housekeeping stuff, but they just need to fix that date, move it out a little ways.”
Perched on a slipping slope, the house became a hot-button issue for the city in early 2007, when city staff told the council the land under the house was slipping and the building could come down, too. The hill has erratically slid since 2005, moving most recently in early February causing a small avalanche behind a debris dam on the Sapphires’ property. The slide caused the restaurant to close for three days.
In March, the City Council ordered Guirado to demolish the house or stabilize the hill by Sept. 1, or the city would take the matter into its own hands. The ultimatum came with a number of additional orders, including staying out of the building and getting a report from a licensed geotechnical engineer to conduct work. Without the report Guirado is prohibited from working on his property until the city can bring in a geotechnical engineer to determine safety. The council’s order came after many frustrating months in which Guirado repeatedly missed nearly every set by the city.
According to Voss, Guirado hasn’t filed anything since before the last hearing.
“I don’t believe anything’s been done there. And we haven’t received any applications or anything, or any reports,” he said.
Voss said he hasn’t noticed any changes in the hillside over the summer or with the recent rain. City staff hasn’t been on the hillside, but that doesn’t mean people have forgotten about it.
“Everybody drives there and looks at it,” he said. |