PROJECT SCHEDULED TO SHORE UP HILLSIDE.

Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer

Morrison Ranch is under attack from Mother Nature, and the area homeowners association is ready to fight back.

At 15 locations in the 1,226-home development, hillsides are on the move. One family has abandoned its home, and others have suffered property damage.

Now, with money from the confidential settlement of a lawsuit against developer Morrison Associates, the Morrison Ranch Estates Homeowners Association is preparing to shore up the hillsides and stop the earth from moving any farther.

``There's just a variety of areas throughout the project that need some sort of attention,'' said Jeff Moerer, attorney for the homeowners and construction manager for the repair project.

There are several phases of repair. The first involves an abandoned home in the 29200 block of Laro Drive.

Over the next several weeks, workers from Valentine Construction of San Diego will demolish the two-story, 4,000-square-foot home that sits atop an unstable area that allows the hillside behind the home to move, said Mike Kamino, the city's senior planner.

``They discovered that there's an active slide plane 20 feet beneath the house,'' Kamino said. ``It's actually moving. It's an actual landslide.''

Moerer said the slide plane is part of an ancient landslide that may have been aggravated by development in the area. ``It was something that pre-existed the development.''

A monitoring device known as an inclinometer revealed that El Nino rains really put the hillside on the move.

To remove the slide plane, workers will dig out a 40-foot by 200-foot chunk of land to a depth 35 feet below the surface. About 46,000 cubic yards of earth will be moved from the site, then compacted and returned. Underground drainage also will be added.

``That acts as an earth block that holds the rest of the landslide in place,'' Moerer said.

The project also will repair and replace damage to the back yard of a home on Kingham Court, which sits atop the moving hillside. A patio and swimming poll have been damaged by the moving earth.

``As the landslide has moved downhill, it's just kind of taken the pool with it,'' Moerer noted.

During repairs, dirt will be stored in Medea Creek Park and on the west side of Grey Rock Road between Weeping Willow and Laro drives.

Because the excavation site sits near Willow Elementary School, trucks will only move through the area between 8:45 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. A crossing guard will be posted at the Canterbury Drive intersections of Laro Drive and Macadam Court.

``We're trying to be very careful about children and that type of thing,'' Moerer said. ``The people that live in the vicinity of this one are anxious to get it fixed.''

Another phase of repairs involves two slides near Edinburgh Court and Woodbrook Drive.

Next summer, a major slide near the intersection of Fountainwood Street and Kimberly Drive will be attacked. The hillside sits above a series of homes, some of which have seen damage to their back yards.

Moerer said the hillside there will be graded to a less severe angle. ``That's a much more substantial project.''