Moon Township homeowners asked to evacuate took their landslides concerns to leaders 1 year ago
MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) — Moon Township homeowners brought their concerns over landslides to township leaders more than one year ago.
Two homeowners on Stags Leap Lane in the Sonoma Ridge development received word from Moon Township that an engineer assessed a landslide in their backyards and strongly advised them to evacuate Tuesday or Wednesday for their safety.
About two weeks ago, the landslide closed down part of Beaver Grade Road, which is below Sonoma Ridge. The landslide has only gotten worse, and the two homes are at risk of sliding.
"PennDOT is concerned about how their houses are built because they are built on fill," said Dawn Lane, Moon Township's manager. "It's very difficult to have to tell a homeowner that they may have to evacuate their home."
Lane said that geotechnical engineers evaluated the area and strongly advised the homeowners to evacuate because their homes are now within 20 feet of the landslide.
PennDOT has been working on Beaver Grade Road to stabilize the slope, but homeowners are responsible for their property, and the damage is not covered by insurance policies.
"The township itself has no funding," Lane said. "But we have avenues that we can try to get funding. We have federal FEMA monies, we have state FEMA monies."
KDKA-TV has learned the landslide is not new to the housing development. KDKA-TV uncovered board meeting minutes from 2022 from both the township and the HOA that state two of these very homeowners brought their concerns about their backyards sliding to the board members, and nothing was done.
"We were notified back in 2022 that there were some issues at the top side of that hillside," Lane said. "It's not been a long-going problem because it didn't happen until just now. But never did I believe we'd have to be facing this with homeowners."
Homeowners say they will ask the board about this at Wednesday's meeting.
