Everett homeowners seek damages for mudslide

EVERETT — Jay Himmelman and his neighbors feel as though the city has backed them up to the edge of a cliff that’s literally crumbling beneath them.

They’re threatening to sue Everett over a landslide that’s been endangering their homes for about three years.

Starting in September, eight homeowners from south Everett’s Valley View neighborhood began filing tort claims. They’re asking for $133,000 to $2.3 million each in compensation. They blame a city drainage project on a nearby cul-de-sac as the cause of their troubles, something Everett officials deny.

“We’d like to settle this, but not in court,” Himmelman told the City Council earlier this month.

The middle-class neighborhood east of I-5 was mostly built up in the 1970s and 1980s.

The shifting ground first became obvious to current homeowners of Panaview Boulevard and Burl Place in December 2010 and January 2011. Early clues appeared in the form of driveway cracks and listing trees. Soon, people watched fissures widen in their back yards.

By March 2011, one house had begun its slow tumble down the hillside that affords a gorgeous view of the Snohomish Valley.

To date, the city has red-tagged three homes, deeming them unsafe to enter, city spokeswoman Meghan Pembroke said.

One of them is John Vicente’s former split-level on Burl Place. It’s the house that’s already fallen off its foundation, below street level. A stairway now leads to a phantom entryway, where the front door used to be.

“As a result of the failing slope, I was forced to evacuate my home,” Vicente wrote in his claim, the one for $2.3 million. “Witnessing the failure occur, having to pack my things, evacuate the house and subsequently deal with my mortgage … have all resulted in excessive stress, anxiety and emotional distress. To this day, I am still dealing with the bank.”

The Snohomish County Assessor valued the home at $307,100 in 2010 but slashed the amount to just $12,000 by 2013. Demolition costs likely would far exceed that value.

The claims fault a 2004 city drainage-improvement project for causing a deep-seated landslide.

The city project was designed to increase the amount of water flowing downhill, so it wouldn’t pool up around the houses down the street from those on the eroding hillside.

“You did a great job of stopping the flooding,” Himmelman told the City Council earlier this month. “You did horribly on anything below us.”

The claims contend that the steep, 36-inch drainage pipe the city installed led to more intense flows of water into the creek below them.

“The erosion is just obvious,” Himmelman said, during a recent backyard tour.

They’ve dubbed the waterway “Armageddon Creek.” A mere trickle during dry spells, it produces a powerful spray during heavy rains.

Videos Himmelman posted online after September rainstorms show the pipe blasting water more than 40 feet from the pipe’s mouth.

Himmelman, a systems engineer, has tried to calculate the flow of water and the resulting erosion. He’s pored over city documents about the drainage work. He believes an environmental checklist shows where the design went off track.

The checklists are used to determine whether additional investigation is necessary before work begins on public works projects. The public works official who filled out the form in August 2004 answered “no” to a question about whether there were visible signs of unstable soils in the area. The form also states there were no year-round or seasonal streams in the immediate area, apparently missing “Armageddon Creek.”

By answering the questions in the negative, the city avoided triggering requirements to perform more extensive studies, which would have taken additional time and money, Himmelman said.

“They took a risk,” he said. “They cut a corner.”

Everett officials have offered scripted responses, of late, given the neighbors’ threats to sue.

City attorney Jim Iles and others have made it clear they will argue the drainage project is not to blame. They say the slope in question was unstable years before the drainage improvements in 2004.

“City staff will continue to review information as it becomes available,” a prepared response reads. “But information gathered so far does not point to fault by the City.”

The city says the landslide was caused by a combination of fill dirt on the properties, natural topography, groundwater movement through the soil and prolonged winter rains, starting three years ago.

Himmelman and his neighbors continue to press their case.

“This thing kind of engulfs you and depresses you,” he said. “I’m now sitting on a home that’s worth zero that I owe $170,000 on.”

Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465; nhaglund@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Lynnwood
Crash in Lynnwood blocks Highway 99 south

The crash, on Highway 99 at 176th Street SW, fully blocked southbound lanes. Traffic was diverted to 168th Street SW.

The view of Mountain Loop Mine out the window of a second floor classroom at Fairmount Elementary on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
County: Everett mining yard violated order to halt work next to school

At least 10 reports accused OMA Construction of violating a stop-work order next to Fairmount Elementary. A judge will hear the case.

Imagine Children's Museum's incoming CEO, Elizabeth "Elee" Wood. (Photo provided by Imagine Children's Museum)
Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett will welcome new CEO in June

Nancy Johnson, who has led Imagine Children’s Museum in Everett for 25 years, will retire in June.

Kelli Littlejohn, who was 11 when her older sister Melissa Lee was murdered, speaks to a group of investigators and deputies to thank them for bringing closure to her family after over 30 years on Thursday, March 28, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘She can rest in peace’: Jury convicts Bothell man in 1993 killing

Even after police arrested Alan Dean in 2020, it was unclear if he would stand trial. He was convicted Thursday in the murder of Melissa Lee, 15.

Ariel Garcia, 4, was last seen Wednesday morning in an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Dr. (Photo provided by Everett Police)
Search underway to find missing Everett child, 4

Ariel Garcia was last seen Wednesday morning at an apartment in the 4800 block of Vesper Drive.

The rezoned property, seen here from the Hillside Vista luxury development, is surrounded on two sides by modern neighborhoods Monday, March 25, 2024, in Lake Stevens, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Despite petition, Lake Stevens OKs rezone for new 96-home development

The change faced resistance from some residents, who worried about the effects of more density in the neighborhood.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.