If the city wisely uses geological data to restrict building in high-risk areas and to require the developers to disclose the dangers and take necessary steps to mitigate them, its policies could become a responÂsible-government model for dealing with landslide hazards.
The city's report, done by an Oregon-based company that used Utah Geological Survey information, does not predict landslides will occur in the pricey SunCrest development, which offers homeowners spectacular views of the Salt Lake Valley. But its review of UGS data indicates some of the development's planned 3,800 homesites are on potentially unstable clay soils formed from ancient volcanic ash.
Digging and moving such soil and saturating it with sprinklers, leaking pipes or pools could unbalance the hillside and cause larger areas of the earth to move, the data shows. Building homes on fill dirt placed on top of existing slopes could compound the threat.
That should be enough to prompt city officials to prohibit building in some areas and impose strict requirements on the developer to prevent the kinds of homeowner losses caused by landslides on other hillside residential areas.
The city has a moral, if not legal, responsibility to inform its residents of the possible risk. That didn't happen in Morgan County, where at least one home was destroyed and others damaged by a landslide after county officials failed to act on warnings from county engineers.
It's not easy for a city to take a tough stance with deep-pocketed developers who have already spent millions and stand to make millions more. SunCrest's owners threatened Draper with a $500 million lawsuit if it released the report, but later backed down when the threat became public. They say the company is following recommendations of its own scientists. But cities should rely on UGS data, as UGS geologists are on nobody's payroll except the taxpayers'.
The demand for mountainside homes is increasing. Cities must adopt firm building policies that take into account the inherent risks of living on what could be slippery slopes.
