City Council to vote on a “development agreement” during a Tuesday meeting
Santa Cruz Sentinel | By Hannah Hagemann PUBLISHED: April 25, 2022 at 5:06 p.m. | UPDATED: April 26, 2022 at 1:54 p.m.
WATSONVILLE – The Watsonville City Council could approve a development agreement at its Tuesday meeting that would make future residents of a 144-unit housing project – dubbed Hillcrest Estates – financially responsible to maintain and improve a pit of contaminated soil, a move environmentalists are calling precedent setting. The 11-acre site – previously known as Sunshine Vista – abuts the Watsonville Slough and the Sea View Ranch community. Prior to being slated for development, the property was a junkyard. Sixty years of auto-wrecking activities likely triggered high levels of lead, arsenic, hexavalent chromium, nickel and petroleum hydrocarbons in soils. Levels of lead, a carcinogen and neurotoxin, have been found at concentrations up to 5,400 parts per million, according to a 2021 Webber Hayes & Associates report — a consultant retained by the developer, Hillcrest Estates, L.L.C. That’s more than 160 times higher than a San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board soil screening level, established to assess long-term risks to human health.
An aerial view of the lot that is likely to be developed into Sunshine Vista. (Google Maps Screenshot)
Motor oil levels, or total petroleum hydrocarbons, were found at 97,000 ppm, well beyond the state’s 100 ppm screening threshold. Other metals such as nickel and cadmium have also been found at levels exceeding state board levels.
Developers plan to bury some 20,000 tons of contaminated soil on site. The group argues that by excavating and moving contaminated soil to the edge of the property, where they would bury it in a 35 foot deep pit sealed with clean soil and a concrete cap, they’d protect residents and surrounding waterways from toxic impacts. But environmentalists and community members are voicing concerns.
“They’re basically going to build a toxic waste dump on site,” said Jane Williams, director of California Communities Against Toxics who’s familiar with the project.
If the structure fails, future homeowners could be liable to fix it and potentially pay a high price to clean up contaminated soil. They would also be responsible for regularly paying for maintenance of such a structure if the city council votes to approve the development agreement.
“This is a bold move, by the developers and the County of Santa Cruz,” Williams said. “You really think a homeowner is going to understand that they are signing up for potentially millions in liability when they’re buying their house? That 20, 30 years down the road when a retaining wall fails and there’s lead and cadmium all over the neighborhood, they’re liable?”
Former site project manager John Fry, of CDM Crocker Fry likened the covenant to a guarantor on a car loan, or a sewer system that is maintained by a homeowners association. Fry said he left the project three months ago due to “ownership concerns.”
“The city is putting in the sewer but they say, ‘We’ll inspect it but we don’t want to maintain it, and by the way homeowners you’re going to have to fix it if something goes wrong, we don’t want to do it,’ ” Fry said.
City of Watsonville Community Development Director Suzi Merriam explained that if the development agreement is passed by the city council, the future Hillcrest Estates Homeowners Association would be financially responsible for “maintaining all improvements to the development, including the remediation pit and retaining walls.” When a future buyer purchases a property in the development such a covenant will be recorded as a deed restriction, Merriam wrote in an email.
Resident Bob Culbertson owns a property adjacent to Hillcrest estates and is worried about the developer’s plan to leave most of the contaminated soil on site, rather than haul it away to landfills.
“We need houses – I’m not against a subdivision,” Culbertson said. “City council likes to say you’re some kind of tree hugger who doesn’t want new houses – no. It’s the toxic metals from the junkyard that they haven’t cleaned up appropriately.”
Another neighbor, Lisa DuPont wrote in an email to the Sentinel, “I think the city council is grossly underestimating the health risks associated with this plan.”
The Santa Cruz County Department of Environmental Health did not respond to requests for comment before print deadline.
IF YOU GO
What: Watsonville City Council Meeting
When: Tuesday, 4 p.m.
Where: City Council Chambers, 275 Main Street, Watsonville. Also streamed online at https://cityofwatsonville.org/.
At-issue: A 144-unit housing project, Hillcrest Estates