Not quite a year after the chaotic evacuation of Creekside Cabins following the appearance of a sinkhole between the community and Highway 101, Mendocino County and the property owner are in a dispute over abatement costs, and who is responsible for allowing the sinkhole to develop. The parties presented arguments at an administrative hearing before Anthony Farrington, a Lake County attorney serving as the hearing officer, on December 13.
In the last few days of 2022, a series of storms washed out the only entrance to Creekside Cabins, an RV park on Highway 101 by Reeves Creek just north of Willits. Over 50 people were stranded as the county, state agencies and the property owner, Teresa Thurman of Houser Holdings, argued over who was responsible for repairing the sinkhole, and who caused it. Though the state Department of Transportation owns the small parcel where the damage occurred, Caltrans contends that repairing the failed culvert is Thurman’s responsibility, since it was used almost exclusively by her tenants to access her private property adjoining the highway.
In the days following the collapse, the county declared a public health emergency due to sewage leaking onto the ground and deemed the property a public nuisance. On January 25, Wylatti Resource Management installed a narrow temporary bridge for a two-day evacuation in which some former residents’ trailers were damaged and a tow truck driver was injured. When it was over early on the morning of January 27, 25 RVs and 21 vehicles remained, abandoned and inaccessible. Now the county is trying to recover $254,000 for the contract with Wylatti and staff time.
But Thurman’s attorneys say the county had no jurisdiction, since the mobile home park has been regulated by the state since 1981. They argue that the county improperly obtained warrants to conduct inspections, and that any evidence presented as a result of the searches they characterize as illegal should be barred. In Houser Holding’s abatement brief, Thurman’s attorneys wrote, “The County cannot recover because it failed to prove that Creekside is responsible for an agency’s failure to maintain the culvert.”
The state did put in some appearances at the property. On January 9, the state Department of Housing and Community Development issued a notice of violation, giving Thurman five days to “provide a safe means of exit and entry for residents and emergency personnel into the park.” HCD issued another notice of violation on January 27, the day the last trailer rolled over the bridge, for leaking sewage and accumulation of trash . But in May, HCD closed the complaint, noting that staff had removed rubbish with wheelbarrows, “received a burn permit from the county to burn permittable materials;” and covered residents’ remaining belongings with tarps and surrounded them with wattles.
In emails included in the hearing packet, Thurman insists that a Caltrans representative initially told her the agency would repair the damage. But internal Caltrans emails as well as one from Caltrans to Thurman on December 31, indicate that the agency expected her to pay for the repairs. That evening, Thurman emailed county and Caltrans officials, declaring that, “This morning I have canceled my world cruise since I found out my tenants have been left in peril due to Cal Trans (sic) changing their mind.” She included a list of nine people who were in the hospital, dependent on oxygen tanks, or disabled, including one resident with no legs.
Still, on January 9, the day she received the notice of violation from the state, she also received a contract from Wylatti to restore access to Creekside for no more than $100,000. Wylatti ended up building the temporary bridge for the county and taking erosion control measures for a little over $150,000. The Department of Fish and Wildlife forbade further work on the creek at that time of year because the steelhead spawning season officially began on February first.
An after action report by county code enforcement notes “evidence that a piece of plywood had previously been anchored to the concrete head wall of the culvert to restrict its overall diameter;” and that county officials, Wylatti, Caltrans and CDW agreed that, “there was a reasonable likelihood that this illegal modification to the culvert contributed to the failure by increasing the flow pressure. Furthermore, the observed modifications to the culvert were determined to have been completed without the benefit of a Caltrans Encroachment Permit nor (sic) a CDFW-approved Lake and Streambed Alteration Agreement.”
“Said differently,” according to the Houser Holdings Abatement brief, “Caltrans’ or the County’s failure to maintain the culvert (e.g., inspect the culvert and remove all debris, including the plywood, before predicted winter storms) led to the culvert’s failure, the sinkhole, and the destruction of Creekside’s access to its property…Creekside had no role in placing the plywood or debris in Reeves Creek, nor was the obstruction readily noticeable when using the public way access to the Creekside property.”
But last year, Creekside residents said differently. As night fell on January 26, Wylatti moved to block access to the temporary bridge to prevent evacuees from venturing out onto the road without traffic control. Resident Jaylene Harvey led an effort to keep the bridge open for a few more hours. As the frantic evacuation commenced, she said the sinkhole first appeared in 2017, and that Creekside management had tried to repair it by filling it in with rocks.
“This has been a problem for years, and the landlord has known about it,” Harvey insisted. “And it has not been fixed.” Harvey contends [The owner] told the manager to “just put in some rocks and put some cones. There were some cones out there for a few years, and after about five years, they just kind of disappeared.”
John Fails, a longtime resident who said he had worked on the property for decades, placed the first sinkhole a little later than 2017. Last year, he was at the far end of the park in total darkness, packed up and ready to go and waiting for someone to tow him out when he recalled that the sinkhole started two or three years prior to the 2022 collapse. “And I filled it up with a bunch of riprap stuff and we poured gravel in there, and it was fine until now,” he said. He believes the manager installed the plywood, “Because the culvert had sunk. The gravel was falling out of it. So he put that like a patch up there. It kept it there for a while.”
The Houser Holdings brief argues that, “Creekside provides a rare source of extremely low-income housing within the county;” and that, “Protecting extremely low income housing serves the public interest and meets Constitutional requirements for the use of public funds.”
Mendocino County Counsel shot back, writing that the exception doesn’t cover building a new culvert for the primary use and benefit of a private landowner, “with the incidental benefit of assisting the low-income residents that she profits from.”
But last year, as he packed in the dark, Fails didn’t care who was responsible for the hasty wintertime evacuation. The 62-year-old, who said his wife needed oxygen tanks, said he’s been homeless before.
“I don’t know they can live with theirselves,” he said as he waited with dwindling hope for a tow. “Making people homeless.”
The hearing officer will issue his determination on February 9.
Matthew LaFever of MendoFever contributed to this report, participating in interviews with Creekside Cabins residents.
