Sep 26, 2018 5 min read

The developer of Majestic Hills in North Strabane Township will have until Friday to clean up and stabilize a second slide that happened in the development last week on Bentwood Drive.

The state Department of Environmental Protection issued a 72-hour notice to Joe DeNardo, part owner of the development corporation, Majestic Hills LLC. The developer has until Friday to clean the slide on Bentwood and stabilize the slope.

“We’re working on that now,” DeNardo said in an interview Wednesday. “They want someone to address that slide before it gets any worse. This is a much more minor situation and slide.”

Three homes along Majestic Drive have already been condemned by the township following a June landslide. The back yards of those homes slid onto Forest Lane Drive, which is still closed. The homes were deemed unsafe to live in, because the land has continued to slip since.

According to the township engineer, Joe Sites of Gateway Engineers, the Bentwood slide has not yet affected the homes behind it, but the DEP order will require DeNardo to stabilize the slope “so we don’t lose more.”

DeNardo said he’s hoping to get that done as soon as the “weather permits.”

“I’ll only be able to get it done by Friday if I can find dry material and if the weather cooperates,” he said. “My title is developer, not miracle worker.”

DeNardo attributed the Bentwood slide to poor stormwater management, saying the runoff water was transferred to a detention pond through a channel at the bottom of the slope, compromising its stability.

“All this rain we had exacerbated the problem,” he said.

He said the township and other regulators are partially to blame for the stormwater issues due to mandates on how the developer is allowed to build.

“Any developer is not seeking to create any problems. We want to get it right the first time,” he said. “They all approve the plans, then we build them, then there are issues with what they approve and what they mandated.”

Sites said that should DeNardo not meet Friday’s deadline, the township will step in to stabilize the Bentwood Drive slope and pursue reimbursement from the developer through the legal system.

As far as the major slide goes, the DEP has ordered that the developer stabilize that slope and provide to the DEP a remediation plan on the entire development, which will need to be approved by the agency before any work is done.

“He is required to hire a geotechnical engineer to do a study of the entire plan,” township Manager Andy Walz said during a Tuesday meeting.

Walz said the township received an estimate of $54,000 to demolish the three condemned homes. He said the homeowners would be notified before any demolition begins. Township solicitor Gary Sweat said the township has scheduled a meeting with the homeowners and their attorneys to figure out a way to proceed with demolition.

DeNardo, however, wants to save those homes.

“It’s complicated, and we’re trying to understand how to save the homes that are there,” he said. “We believe they can be saved.”

After the slide, a geotechnical investigation was conducted by Baker Engineers and determined that the homes were unsafe for occupancy, resulting in their being condemned. Walz said there was not much structural damage to the homes.

“That’s just one engineer’s opinion,” DeNardo said. “In construction, there are nine ways to skin a cat. Taking houses down was a real easy way out. If those houses can indeed be saved, we need to understand what that information is, what it would involve, and come up with a plan for that to develop. We’re just getting a second opinion.”

DeNardo said the June slide likely occurred because of a “number of reasons,” one of them being a water line break. He said one of the condemned homes had a water line break over the summer while the family was on vacation, and the water “ran all summer.”

“Slopes fail because of water issues, so everyone’s looking to point blame, but at the end of the day, there was a rogue water situation that developed on top of that hill,” he said. “You have to be realistic with what caused it.”

Both Sites and Walz said the water line break that occurred in the Majestic Hills neighborhood happened “years ago,” and was not a likely contributor to the June landslide.

Another likely cause of the slide, DeNardo said, could have been a broken downspout at one of the condemned homes.

“You definitely have Mother Nature contributing to the problem,” he said. “Large amounts of rain were indirectly the problem, but the water had nowhere to go. The majority of the time, when there’s a slope failure, it’s usually because of water. We build slopes all over the place and never had this kind of issue. These slopes usually fail because of the introduction of water that’s uncontrolled.”

During Tuesday’s meeting, the township declared a state of emergency in the township for landslides and flood problems, following another slide in the 200 block of Coachside Drive on Sunday and the problems with Majestic Hills.

“I consider this to be an emergency,” Sweat said about Majestic Hills. “These homes are continuing to slide.”

Sweat said the declaration will allow the township to take action immediately to clear landslides without advertising and bidding the work out as a project, and going through approval processes during the township’s monthly meetings.

“That can take a month to six weeks. In an emergency situation, you don’t have that luxury,” he said. “We just have to be able to react immediately.”

Sites said the Coachside Drive land slid behind a house, but has not yet affected the home or damaged any roads.