Rebuilding in Lake County’s fire zone slower than expected

June 01--As she watches her new, Cobb-area home rise from the ashes of the Valley fire, Angie Newman is thrilled to be moving into the next phase of her life on the mountain property where she has resided for 33 years. But it wasn't always so.

Like others who lost their homes and belongings in the fire that killed four people and destroyed nearly 2,000 homes and other structures across 76,067 acres in southwestern Lake County last year, Newman and her husband Rory had their doubts about rebuilding in the same place.

"At first, we weren't going to rebuild. We thought it would be too painful and with losing all the trees it would be ugly, ugly, ugly," said Angie Newman, 56.

Life was a struggle the first six months after the fire, during which Newman felt she was in a fog. The couple signed a contract to build, canceled it, then signed a new contract.

Indecision is one of many factors -- along with age, grief, ties to the community, finances and insurance coverage -- affecting choices about rebuilding, which has been slower than expected. Only about 85 applications for building permits have been submitted to the county planning department for homes in the fire zone, said principal planner Audrey Knight. Seventy building permits had been issued as of a week ago, she said. That's compared with nearly 1,300 homes lost to the fire. A county survey in February indicated almost 60 percent of the people who lost their homes to fire expected to rebuild.

The longer it takes, however, the more it will cost the county, schools and special districts in property tax revenue. They are losing an estimated $2.2 million annually. The county general fund alone is estimated to be losing almost $800,000 a year.

"The county's finances are important, but they're not the priority" said Lake County Supervisor Rob Brown. "We just want people home."

Mark Mitchell of Lake County Contractors, one of the busiest companies in the area with about 20 homes in various stages of planning and development, said most people likely think "there would be this big flood" of building.

"It's just not that way," he said.

Yet, building is expected to spike once people work through the trauma of losing everything, cleaning their properties, dealing with insurance companies and deciding what's next.

For Josh Wood, the decision was clear early on to rebuild.

"We love it here. It's beautiful" despite the loss of greenery, he said. There already are signs of vegetative regeneration everywhere, including sprouting oak trees.

"It's still a lot more green and a lot more trees than we were used to seeing in the Mojave desert" town of Ridgecrest, where Wood and his family lived until two years ago, he said. And he now has a spectacular view of Mount St. Helena and Cobb Mountain from his Summit Court property.

"You knew it was there but there were too many trees in the way," Wood said.

What clinched his decision was that the tiny town of Cobb's grocery store, post office and school survived.

"We love the small town," said Wood, who works nearby at Calpine's geothermal power plant.

There are others, like Wood, who want to stay in the area but also have no desire to take on a rebuild.

"I was never going to leave here," said Darlene Hecomovich, 81, whose ancestors moved to Lake County in the 1930s to operate a resort at Siegler Springs. Her family is related to the Hobergs, who built Hoberg's Resort in the late 1800s. "My decision was not to move or not. It was whether to rebuild or not."

She said she's too old to take on the task.

"I didn't want to spend two years of what I may have left of my life rebuilding," she said. "I didn't want to get tied down to all of that."

Instead, she purchased a home the fire skipped in a nearby area.

Hecomovich's cousin, Sandra Hoberg Fox, said her own mother's home, near the resort the family once owned, also won't be rebuilt. Instead, Fox is expanding her own home to better accommodate her mother.

Waline Fisher, 84, also didn't want to take on the task of rebuilding her home. But, unlike Hecomovich, she's not staying in Lake County, her home of 16 years.

"It looks terrible up there. I lived up there because it was beautiful," Fisher said.

She also said the experience of fleeing the fire, flames licking at her vehicle as she escaped, changed her. She also lost six of her nine cats to the fire.

"I still have nightmares about it. It was just one big orange and red fiery mess," Fisher said.

She's moving to Texas, near Houston, where she has family.

"I think the older you are, the harder it is" to deal with the trauma and rebuilding, said Timothy Toye, a Lake County real estate broker.

Empty lots in the fire zone already are on the market and igniting interest from people outside the county and building speculators, Toye and others in the building and real estate market have reported.

Ron Haskett, the first person to build a house from scratch in the fire zone, said he knows someone who isn't rebuilding because he wanted to get his children into a stable home and school situation as soon as possible. Others already were considering a move, and the fire provided an impetus.

"I think everybody's got their own reasons," said Haskett, who works at Kelseyville Lumber, where business has been brisk with the surge in construction.

Regulations also are a factor. The county has modified building rules where it can in the fire zones, but state law prohibits septic systems being rebuilt too close to creeks. The problem is worst in Anderson Springs, which is expected to need installation of a costly, municipal-style sewer system before any of the 115 homes lost there can be rebuilt.

Some underinsured people reportedly are bogged down with insurance settlement negotiations while those uninsured are trying to figure out whether they can afford to rebuild. Still others are going through the onerous process of applying for permits themselves.

"It's overwhelming enough" even without doing the permitting, said Angie Newman. She doesn't think she could have coped with rebuilding had it not been for Lake County Contractors taking care of all but the smallest details, like choosing flooring and paint colors.

Some people may not be in a hurry to rebuild because the homes they lost were second homes, vacation homes or rentals. And some of the rentals are old and would cost more to rebuild than it's worth to the owners, said Mark Borghesani, co-owner of Kelseyville Lumber.

"They are now saying, 'Do we spend a couple hundred thousand to rent this out or take the insurance and sell the lot and move on,'" he said.

Time will tell how many homes ultimately will be rebuilt. Borghesani, whose store currently is supplying materials for about 70 homes, some 38 of them in fire zones, said it could take up to a decade to rebuild. And he'd just as soon see smaller building waves than one huge one.

"From my perspective, I kind of like this better than 400 homes being built at one time," Borghesani said.

You can reach Staff Writer Glenda Anderson at 462-6473 or [email protected]. On Twitter @MendoReporter

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