Homeowner Wants Long-Term Fix on Unstable Hillside After Recurring Santa Rosa Mudslides

When Katherine Kanarek purchased her Santa Rosa dream home in 2017, she was grateful at first for the grassy hillside behind her property. 

“I was excited because it meant that somebody couldn’t build behind my property,” Kanarek said.

She never imagined all that soil above her property sliding down the hillside, splintering fences and piling up in her backyard.

But that’s the reality she and other property owners along Cooper Drive now face following a parade of winter storms that dumped rain onto the unstable hillside, leading to a slow-moving mudslide that forced residents out of their homes.

It feels like Deja vu for Kanarek, whose property got hit by a similar slide back in 2019. She had to spend $5,000 to replace a destroyed fence and says her neighbor spent significantly more repairing the collapsed hillside.

That year, the city financed a project to replace 875 feet of a deteriorated concrete drainage ditch and install a retaining wall to repair “localized failures” along the slope, and Kanarek believed her hillside problems were in the past.

“It was work that was going to help us,” Kanarek said. “I had no reason to think that it wasn’t going to help.”

Then came 2023 and a string of powerful  winter storms.

“So my neighbor, a day or two after New Year’s … called the fire department because they saw a landslide forming at the top of the hillside,” Kanarek said.

Katherine was forced to leave her home for weeks and the fire department red tagged her home, saying it was unsafe to occupy. Then in March, after getting pummeled by more rain, the slide continued down the hillside, plowing through her back and side fences and depositing mounds of dirt in her yard.

“I’m just nervous and have lost a lot of sleep and have anxiety over what’s going on,” Kanarek said. “Not being sure that it’s going to be safe to be in my own home.”

Kanarek said she can’t be sure what’s causing the slides, but believes it’s a combination of inadequate drainage and unstable soil. The city of Santa Rosa owns an easement behind her backyard, and a large Jewish temple sits on top of the hill.

Now, Kanarek says she can’t help but question the city’s 2019 project and whether they went far enough to shore up the hillside. She’s left scrambling for answers about what caused the slide, who’s responsible, and whether she’ll be on the hook for more repair costs.

The city told NBC Bay Area its current priority is “removing the slide mass that is currently threatening life safety” and that “any future issues would be reviewed and discussed once the immediate threat has been mitigated.” 

According to the city, the recent slide has impacted the retaining wall and concrete drainage installed in 2019, but “the slide area reconstructed by the city in 2019 appears to be stable and is showing no signs of failure.”

Removing the slide mass from the hillside is expected to cost about $300,000, according to a city spokesperson. They couldn’t say what costs homeowners might be on the hook for until the debris has been removed and they can investigate what caused the slide.

Earlier this week, Kanarek said she received a message from an engineer working on the cleanup project saying the city would replace her back fence along the easement, but not her side fence.

Congregation Shomrei Torah, the temple that owns the land above the city’s easement, sent a statement saying they’re “absolutely aware of the landslide’s impact on the neighborhood” and are working with the city to find a path forward.

“Shomrei Torah is working closely with the city, which has had its engineers keeping close watch on the slide and the safety of the people who live in the affected homes,” said Executive Director Katie Evenbeck. “We are working with the city on assessing the cause of the slide and its resolution, including repair costs. The rainfall we’ve received since Dec. 26 has created challenges throughout our community.”

As for Kanarek, she’s hoping for a long-term solution, one that doesn’t leave her anxious the next time it starts raining.

“We haven’t really heard much from the city about next steps,” Kanarek said. “I’m nervous that the solution isn’t going to be long lasting. I’m nervous that it’s going to continue to be unsafe. I’m worried that I’m going to have to relive this nightmare every year.”