This past Spring a portion of the Amapas hillside gave way, taking away part of the foundation of a building. Neighboring the building and currently under construction is the condominium development Villas de la Colina II being built by developer and also neighbor in the area, Chuck Toops. Much has been written about this incident in the local newspapers, unfortunately few have bothered to ask the developer what he believes actually took place, what role his project may have played in this incident and what he intended to do about it. We felt he should have this opportunity and offered him space here in the Vallarta Real Estate Guide to tell his side of the story.
“First, at the outset, I want to say that my company is C & C Development. Many mistakenly contacted Tropicasa Realty after the incident, but they are just marketing agents and real estate brokers, we are the developers.”
“We began in early 2006 the planning and permit process for Villas de la Colina II. We completed every study required by law, including the city environmental impact study with a permit from the municipal government, but after some unforeseen events the requirement reverted to the legalities of obtaining authorization from Semarnat at the federal level, which we did and were the first to obtain this permit. We began construction in November 2006 and had completed the excavation for the first building in April when the ‘hill came down around my ears.’ Fortunately we noticed that something was happening to the hill the day before the slide and on the day of the slide we notified the people in residence that they should move out until we could ascertain what was happening. The slide occurred on April 17 at about 2:30 pm and by five o’clock we had arranged to have a meeting with the affected owners and tenants for 8 pm.
“How could this have happened? We had consulted with two separate engineering companies for advice on removing the side of the hill and containing it for the project of VC II. They took corings as deep as six meters for the soil analysis. The first one recommended anchors drilled into the hillside with pourings, then steel webbing and finally, a concrete spray to contain it. There was no advisement about the cistern above at El Campanario nor the effect of its weight.
“The second group of engineers said that while no anchors were needed, a foundation should be built under the cistern to sustain its weight. Then, to contain the hillside, apply steel webbing and spray with concrete.
“We chose the more expensive route, first creating a foundation under the cistern, then applying the steel webbing and the concrete spray. We then began our excavation for the first building and completed it the first week in April.
“Right around that time, (12 April 2007), there was an earthquake in Colima that reached 6.3 on the Richter scale. Within days, cracks showed up under the cistern in the brick walls. Five days after the earthquake, the concrete reinforcing wall gave way causing parts of three condos above to fall. What actually crumbled was a section that had been added to the original construction of El Campanario, two terraces, a bedroom and the bathroom of a third condo.
“What we found later, without attempting to place any blame or escape responsibility, is that there was a crack or fault under the condos that was about eight meters long and seven meters deep. It was apparently still expanding from the rain as well as some drainage from a leak on the cistern. We honestly do not know what caused the slide but there are those who believe that the excavation of the hill, also exacerbated by the recent earthquake caused the fault to open up creating the slide.
“When we met with the four residents, tenants and their attorney the night of the incident I told them very clearly, that we did not know what caused the slide but we accepted the full responsibility for fixing it. We had a team from C & C Development working ‘round the clock helping to get the owners and tenants taken care of. The water and electricity that had been turned off for safety was reconnected the next day and while we were anxious to get to work making the necessary repairs it took over three weeks to get back to work on the project.
“My contention was that we needed to do something immediately to stabilize the buildings and the hill before the rains. We immediately assembled a team of professionals to assess the situation and to recommend a safe and permanent solution to the problem. Our team includes Dr. José Ibarra Torres, Dr. Carlos Garcia Herrera, Master of Sciences Gaspar Sandoval Salazar, Engineer Pedro Preciado Morales, Engineer Luis Palacios Harweg and Engineer Ulises Uribe who worked with the Director of City Planning Arq. Jesus Alejandro Vasquez Nares, to develop the plan allowing us to return to work. Arq. Nares and his group of inspectors have been diligent in their effort to assure the neighbors and the community that the continuation of our work is being done to the highest standards. Our job site is visited daily by the city inspectors, engineers, and more recently, by PROFEPA (Procuraduria Federal de Proteccion al Ambiente, or the federal department of environmental protection). We have met or exceeded all of the requirements that we are aware of and in fact we have been told that, “the studies we are doing may become the standard for future development in the hills.
“With input from the city, our team is redesigning our project to make it even more environmentally friendly. We’ve also widened the original road to prevent any of the construction activity to hamper or impede the local traffic. In fact, we’ve made a number of improvements to the area at our own cost. We completely dug out the original culvert that was buried by years of silt and runoff so that the rain water no longer crossed the road, previously taking out parts of it. While some critics say the site looks like a bomb-zone, they don’t understand the necessity of creating proper drainage from the beginning as a preventive measure. If they look closely, they’ll see the care we’re taking in completing everything to the best of our ability and with the least amount of inconvenience to our neighbors.
“The local and federal regulations require developments to leave a percentage of the site as green area. Very few of them are doing that. We’ve transplanted all the trees except for one that can’t be saved and we have paid for its removal. Waterfalls are a part of the natural features. We’re using steel instead of concrete, which also cuts down on the traffic of the concrete trucks on the hill and on the roads. We’ve even moved back from the edge of the site to create more natural space around us. Time will tell but I really believe that we’ll be a real credit to Amapas and a model for others to pattern themselves after.”
