A gloomy Sunday evening sky mirrors the faces of Del Playa Drive residents soon to be evicted from their ocean side homes. Students carry televisions, couches, and trash out of their apartments in compliance with the county’s eviction deadline tomorrow.
Yellow “Important Notice” orders to vacate and abate that were posted Friday litter the ground. Five of the nine Isla Vista houses previously questioned for stability and safety because of the eroding beach and cliff below have now been deemed dangerous.
It was, however, a very different scene only one week ago.
When asked about the impending deadline for eviction most residents felt safe with reassurances from their landlords. When asked if they were going to have to vacate most residents said “probably not.”
Only one resident at 6645 Del Playa Dr. showed genuine worry. “It’s up in the air right now, the land lords are trying to act like it’ll be all right,” said Kevin O’Brien, resident and UC student. “But I have a feeling they’re going to screw us.”
O’Brien didn’t get the run-around, but the ocean-side apartment buildings from 6741 to 6757 Del Playa Drive all did. Dianne Meester, assistant director of the County’s Planning and Development Department, said the information provided by owners was not enough to prove the houses are safe. “They’ve turned in some information but not all of it,” she said. “In fact I think most of them haven’t turned in geological surveys. The staff looked at the information they did turn in and decided it wasn’t adequate to lift the notices.”
Three other buildings were able to get extensions to turn in engineering reports and one building has begun trying to correct the problem.
Dave Willows, owner of 6745 and 6747 disagrees. “They always say stuff like that,” he said. “We turned in everything they asked for. At the last minute they asked for some geotechnical surveys. I mean in court they only spent a half hour looking at all our evidence. The evidence showed they are safe.” Willows said he plans to appeal the decision.
Owner of apartment buildings 6701, 6741, and 6743, James Gelb, seemed confident that things would work out to his advantage previously. On Sunday however, his attitude was markedly changed. He shared his plans to remodel his buildings. “It’s going to cost me $150,000 a building to change this,” he said. Gelb said that to his knowledge all of his tenants have new places to stay. One of his residents, however, tells Gelb she has not yet found another home. “I haven’t found a place yet,” said Katharine Wyman, a resident of 6743. “I’m still looking.” Gelb has an answer, “I’m going to put them up in the heart break hotel,” he joked.
Not everyone shares Gelb’s humorous attitude.
Many residents – like Christian Clark, City College student and resident of 6745 – are frustrated with their land lords for giving them false reassurances about their chances of staying. “Our land lord, Dave Willows, even said he was going to throw us a staying party. He said he was 90 percent sure,” Clark said. “I got bent over; I feel like the new guy in prison.”
Willows explained that he didn’t know what was going to happen. “If we won the court case we were gonna have a bar-b-q,” he said. “We are going to appeal – we’ll work it out.”
Many residents have been in the apartments since the beginning of the summer but a few are moving out after having moved in only days before. Another of Willow’s tenants, Tom Schultz of 6647, is one such resident. “I’ve only been here like 4 or 5 days,” he said. “Willow said he’d move us into another one of his properties but one of them has been extended a month and another isn’t ready yet. They’re also too small for the price.”
Colin Lipper at the same address said he just signed his lease on the 20th. “The landlord said stuff like ‘it’s not going to be a problem,'” said Lipper. “They didn’t tell me they’d received the notice.”
Willow said he does have places for tenants if they are interested. “Everyone’s frustrated, I feel bad,” he said.
Meester said unfortunately there was no way they could help the residents other than posting notices on the buildings. “All we can do is answer people’s questions,” she said.
Another of Willow’s tenants, Mike Burgess, said the owner is putting tenants up in a house on Embarcadero del Sur though he declined to give the address.
There were reports late last week that attorney Susan Petrovich planned to file for an emergency hearing to stop the action. Meester said Petrovich was unsuccessful. “There was a hearing on Friday to confer the judge to consider a temporary restraining order and it was denied,” she said.
The order to vacate and abate will become final tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. Those who have not moved out by that time or who returns to the houses are warned that they may be charged with a misdemeanor.
