Red Tape Hitch Hangs Up Sausalito Landslide Removal

SAUSALITO (KPIX) -- Five months after the Sausalito landslide -- the mess is still there and getting it cleaned up will take a bit longer than expected.

Crescent Avenue in Sausalito hasn't changed much in five months. The debris from the Valentine's Day landslide is still sitting exactly where it landed.

"A lot of these people don't have driveways, they have parking permits," neighborhood resident Christopher Holbrook explained. "Garbage and recycling has a hard time getting up and down the streets. You'd think that they'd make some progress by now."

Progress is going to take a bit longer. Sausalito is now having to re-launch the bidding process for the cleanup after failing to meet all of the criteria set forth by FEMA. Those criteria are necessary for that funding.

"We didn't follow that exactly. It's very complicated -- the federal process -- and we have not done this in the past," said Sausalito city councilmember Jill James Hoffman. "So we missed a couple of the criteria, the check-off criteria."

And now the bidding begins again. This time, the city manager will have the authority to accept a bid on behalf of the council if that helps speed things up. Starting over, however, will push the cleanup back at least another month.

"We're all very cognizant of the timing issues and trying to get that resolved and on its way," Hoffman says.

"All in all, yes, it's an inconvenience," said Holbrook. "But no one got injured. It could've been a lot worse."