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Draper Having Issues (and other Utah housing/flooding related issues)

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Drove up there today. You can’t see really anything remaining of one house. Just the driveway. The second house has been gutted and most of it has fallen off the cliff. What’s eerie is that the two houses next to them have been evacuated but you can see that their lights are on, garbages are full, etc so obviously most of their stuff is probably still inside. There’s insulation scattered all over the neighborhood. I can’t imagine anyone there is sleeping well at night. But then again, I’m not sure why they bought up there? Their homes don’t have backyards because the entire neighborhood is built on the cliff.
Where is this? Suncrest?
 
Same thing has been happening in the Ogden area, a part of Riverdale that is really in Washington Terrace. Part of the hillside is washing away and I think now there have been 5 homes lost total.

 
Where is this? Suncrest?
Almost. It’s on the north east side of suncrest in the new Edge development called “Hidden Canyon.” If you’re coming up from the Utah County side then it’s the first right once you’re leveling off at suncrest. There’s that huge LDS church on your left.
If you’re driving from the SL county side, you’ll just hang a left at the church.

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The actual address of the house is something like 2500-2700ish Springtime road. You can't really tell anymore for... Obvious reasons. And the road is "closed" a few houses before where these used to be. But you can just park on a side road and walk up there. It sounds like a lot of their stuff was still in that house. They had planned to bring the rest of it out a day before this happened. Their daughter has been pretty active on social media. If I were Edge, I would pay these people a few million bucks and flush this down the toilet. Instead, it sounds like they're dragging their feet which just makes them look even worse.

Honestly, this entire development sucks. I noticed when we were driving there some homes on precarious slopes. Even if your home doesn't slide off the cliff, it might slide into your neighbor's yard. I noticed a lot of homes have pumps with hoses emptying water out into the gutter. I wonder how many basements are flooded right now? Again, even if your house isn't destroyed, I can't imagine how annoying it must be to deal with water/flood issues. I know people in our neighborhood in Lehi have dealt with a few. But that's mostly because of snow melting into their window wells.
 
Almost. It’s on the north east side of suncrest in the new Edge development called “Hidden Canyon.” If you’re coming up from the Utah County side then it’s the first right once you’re leveling off at suncrest. There’s that huge LDS church on your left.
If you’re driving from the SL county side, you’ll just hang a left at the church.

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To be fair "a huge LDS church on your left" describes 75% of all corners in Utah.
 
To be fair "a huge LDS church on your left" describes 75% of all corners in Utah.
I was thinking the same thing. I have been in places where I'm at a bit of elevation above a large neighborhood and I can count half a dozen churches in less than a few square miles. There are probably more LDS churches in Utah than gas stations.
 
I was thinking the same thing. I have been in places where I'm at a bit of elevation above a large neighborhood and I can count half a dozen churches in less than a few square miles. There are probably more LDS churches in Utah than gas stations.
Damn near the Mormon Starbucks.
 
Same thing has been happening in the Ogden area, a part of Riverdale that is really in Washington Terrace. Part of the hillside is washing away and I think now there have been 5 homes lost total.

That one's a complicated issue and nothing to do with the homebuilder since the houses there I think are same age as every other house in the Terrace. I think someone I went to high school with either lost one of those houses or is next door. Don't remember. I just moved, but I lived just a few blocks away from that area.
 
That one's a complicated issue and nothing to do with the homebuilder since the houses there I think are same age as every other house in the Terrace. I think someone I went to high school with either lost one of those houses or is next door. Don't remember. I just moved, but I lived just a few blocks away from that area.
Yeah it isn't the builder, but similar outcome. It is that hillside is basically a sand bank and it has been eroding away for decades.
 
How is this not a builder issue? They decided to build upon suspect land.

I’m not absolving the buyer from realizing the land was susceptible but like wtf…a builder knows his grounds and where he’s building. Not sure he/she is not pretty damn liable.
 
How is this not a builder issue? They decided to build upon suspect land.

I’m not absolving the buyer from realizing the land was susceptible but like wtf…a builder knows his grounds and where he’s building. Not sure he/she is not pretty damn liable.
And the engineers. And the city.
 
How is this not a builder issue? They decided to build upon suspect land.

I’m not absolving the buyer from realizing the land was susceptible but like wtf…a builder knows his grounds and where he’s building. Not sure he/she is not pretty damn liable.
Yeah but without the city or builder pointing it out most buyers won't have a clue.
 
I thought this story was interesting. Basically, Draper city can’t deny developers the ability to develop. I guess mindlessly voting into the legislature land developers wasn’t a great idea?


Still, these projects keep getting built, in large part because the Legislature — which is totally dominated by developers and real estate interests — and the courts have made it almost impossible for cities to say no, or to even impose safety conditions on a developer.

On a previous project Draper City tried to say no to a developer and ended up getting sued, Mayor Troy Walker told me Wednesday. The court told the city that it either had to let the developer build or it had to buy the property. When the developer who built the home that slid into the ravine last week came to Draper with the project, the city could have resisted and lost in court again, or it could have let it go forward.
Moreover, there is nothing in Utah law that requires the seller of a home to disclose potential hazards, whether the home is built in a floodplain or on a sloughing mountainside. It’s buyer beware.

“This is a discussion we need to have,” Walker said. “The expectation of the public is that the government is protecting them with this stuff and the reality is it isn’t. We’re not protecting them because we don’t have the power to do it.”
 
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I thought this story was interesting. Basically, Draper city can’t deny developers the ability to develop. I guess mindlessly voting into the legislature land developers wasn’t a great idea?

This is going to come across like I’m being an *******, but I don’t have another way to say it.
You seem genuinely unhappy with EVERYTHING going on in this state and country. Why do you still live here? Why haven't you packed up the wife and moved?
Genuinely curious.
 
This is going to come across like I’m being an *******, but I don’t have another way to say it.
You seem genuinely unhappy with EVERYTHING going on in this state and country. Why do you still live here? Why haven't you packed up the wife and moved?
Genuinely curious.
There's lots to dislike if you're looking for it. *shrug* Some people don't post about it and some do. We all cope in our own ways. It would be weird if he was posting about all the great things in his life. That **** is for Instagram, brother.
 
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