Area aims to buck erosion

Corona del Mar residents Gari and Milli Andreini have watched erosion in Buck Gully take out as much as 10 yards of dirt and eat up small trees since they bought their home on Hazel Drive next to the coastal canyon that drains into Little Corona Beach in 2000.

“Our property is one of the problem points, where the runoff creek makes a fairly sharp turn — you can see it just eating back and back,” Milli Andreini said.

Newport Beach engineers believe a wet winter could put homes that ring the gully in danger of landslides. The city wants to use state grant money to put gabions, or metal cages filled with rocks and soil to prevent erosion, in parts of the gully, but about half of the homeowners in the area won’t give the city easements to complete the work.

The Andreinis are in favor of the project, but say some of their neighbors don’t see things the way they do.

“It needs to be done for everyone’s sake, not just ours,” Gari Andreini said.

The city has secured 12 easements from homeowners in the area, but needs the go-ahead from 14 more property owners to start work in the area, said Ben Stein, an assistant city engineer with the Newport Beach Public Works Department. An easement is a legal document giving the city permission to make improvements on a homeowner’s property.

Many people are unwilling to give the city control of a part of their property, said Stein, who hopes the anti-erosion measures can be put in place before a big winter storm can wash out parts of the gully.

“Some people may be skeptical that there isn’t really a problem,” Stein said. “Our concern is that things can unravel in a canyon like Buck Gully very quickly.”

Newport Beach has secured a $2.5-million state grant to pay for part of the erosion prevention measures in the gully, and Stein hopes to gain approval from all of the homeowners so the funds don’t have to be diverted to another project.

“It’s hard to really pin down the concern people have about it,” said Councilwoman Nancy Gardner, whose district encompasses Corona del Mar. “Some people have an issue that they’re going to have to cut some [vegetation] down, and some are just suspicious of government,” Gardner said. “It’s a good project, and I hope we get to do it.”

Board members from the Shorecliffs Property Owners Assn., which covers the area surrounding Buck Gully, could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

Karen Tringali, president of the Corona del Mar Residents Assn., said the association has conducted campaigns to better educate residents about issues surrounding Buck Gully.