Published Monday January 12, 2009 Loess Hills sinkhole turns their $329,000 dream home into: The Money Pit BY JOHN FERAK WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER GLENWOOD, Iowa - Christi and Nelson Leidel own a $329,000 house that isn't safe to call home. Click to Enlarge Nelson Leidel circles the growing area of sunken land at the back of his property in Mills County's Loess Hills. The movement of the soft ground under his house caused the foundation to shift, leaving the home uninhabitable for Leidel and his wife, Christi. A close look would show the house's foundation has shifted, opening cracks and buckling floors. A first-floor bay window sags. A bathroom wall bows. Large chunks of the backyard continue to slough off into the creek bed behind their lot. In November, federal officials determined that the four-year-old house was unsafe for the Leidels to occupy. Yard signs caution neighbors. The problem traces to rain draining from a subdivision into the house's backyard, which sits at the bottom of a steep slope in an area of western Iowa known for its bluffs and unusually soft ground. The uninhabitable house has left the Leidels with broken hearts and mounting debt and fostered worries among neighbors that they, too, could be in trouble. The house also has raised questions about Mills County's oversight of new construction. One county official wondered whether experts should be hired to determine if erosion problems are more far-reaching and need mitigation. Click to Enlarge Federal officials determined the house unsafe for habitation. "Emotionally, this has almost destroyed our family," Christi Leidel said. "I am living in a rental dwelling and still paying on a home and storage unit and not enjoying a single luxury item in my home. We are financially ruined." Both Leidels are military veterans who served in the Persian Gulf War and relocated here from Denver is 2003. Christi, 39, works as an insurance agent in Glenwood. Nelson, 37, is an intelligence analyst for Northrop Grumman in Bellevue. They have a son, 13, and a daughter, 11. After falling in love with Glenwood's small-town quaintness and reputation for good schools, they chose to build a custom home in Mills County. The county, one of metro Omaha's fastest-growing, also is part of one of Iowa's most unusual geologic features, the Loess Hills. The hills, which cut a swath through western Iowa, were formed by windblown glacial dust over thousands of years. The Leidel house is in Park Place Acres, an upscale development of 60 acreages north of Glenwood that dates to the late 1990s. At that time, Mills County had few regulations governing housing development. In 2006, Mills County became one of the last western Iowa counties to adopt zoning. The area's topography and the permeability of the soil provide habitat for an interesting variety of plants and animals. It also makes it a risky place for large housing developments, said John Thomas, an Oakland, Iowa, geologist. Developers, builders and local officials must exercise good judgment when deciding where homes can be built on Loess Hills soil and whether too many houses would cause erosion problems over time, Thomas said. Click to Enlarge Nails pulled from walls in the master bedroom of the Leidels' house come out rusty from water damage. To this day, Mills County does not issue building permits, although the county plans to adopt a building code. The proposed rules - in the works for months and expected to get a final vote in March - would require building permits and inspections for residential and commercial projects, county officials said Friday. Plans for the new code are unrelated to the Leidel case, they said. Major structural problems in new homes within the Loess Hills region are not unheard of, officials said. In Pottawattamie County, Council Bluffs condemned two homes along Jim Brown Parkway after the hillside behind those homes collapsed. A third home, near the Mall of the Bluffs, developed huge cracks throughout the structure before Council Bluffs condemned it. The Leidel house is believed to be the first with such structural problems in Mills County, county officials said. After part of their backyard slid into the creek bed last summer, the Leidels contacted county officials. Within months, cracks exposed gaping holes, and the home was declared unsafe. Click to Enlarge Water runoff from the road has carved a line in the Leidels' property downhill to the creek. Pieces of their backyard are sloughing off into the creek bed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency paid the family about $5,000 for temporary shelter. FEMA provided no other compensation because the problem wasn't a result of a natural disaster, such as a tornado. The Leidels' homeowners insurance policy denied their claim to pay for a new house. Earth movement isn't covered by their policy. So now the Leidels are arguing that their builder and developer should compensate them for their troubles. "Basically, our house should never have been built there," said Nelson Leidel. "That should have been a drainage area." A letter from their attorney, William Bianco, has demanded $2.8 million - enough to not only cover the property loss but also to help pay for a lake to mitigate future erosion in the area. Subdivision developer Jim Hughes said his insurance adjusters are still reviewing Bianco's letter, and a decision has not been made whether to offer a settlement or force the homeowners to file a lawsuit. His son, Mark Hughes, who built the home - and lives only three doors away from the Leidels - denies that any fault rests with him or his father. "They are seeking $2.8 million from someone, and I don't have that," Mark Hughes said. "We did excellent work on their home, and they are looking for someone to pay for it." He and Jim Hughes, owner of Jim Hughes Real Estate, say the Leidels should be pressing their own insurance company to cover their losses. "It's a bad deal," Jim Hughes said, "and I sympathize with the owners. It's an unfortunate happening, but you never know with Mother Nature. . . . "They have got a beautiful home there. I wish there was something I could do. You would not expect this to happen, but it did." Mark Hughes said he did not conduct soil samples on the subdivision lots because there was no reason to suspect that the ground was unsuitable for housing. He said his own yard, with a shed at the edge, has not had erosion. "How do I, as a builder, cause their backyard to erode?" he asked. The county's proposed building permit process would not require soil sampling, Mills County Board member Ron Kohn said. Thomas, the geologist, said he's not surprised by the Leidels' erosion problems. "Building one house out there on Loess Hills soil is not going to make a big problem," he said. "In Mills County, they have developments. If you have got 60 homes, you are going to have a lot of runoff and a lot of erosion." Another homeowner, Mike Malone, told the County Board last month about significant soil erosion problems he is experiencing. His lot sits at the opposite end of the subdivision from the Leidels' empty house. Malone said that professional engineers inspected his yard and estimated that it could cost $20,000 to $40,000 to stop soil erosion from causing more damage. So far, none of the erosion has damaged his home, Malone said. "I know if I don't do something, I will have a bigger problem over time," he said. Still, County Board member Kohn said he thought the Leidels' experience was "a real fluke." "I'm hoping it is," he said. Kohn said the county may want to hire outside soil experts to determine the extent of soil erosion problems. With their dispute far from resolved, the Leidels find themselves in financial straits. They pay $1,350 per month, plus utilities, to rent a temporary home in Glenwood. Meanwhile, they must continue to make monthly payments on their 30-year, adjustable-rate mortgage for the house they can't live in. To help pay lawyer fees and living expenses, Christi hocked her wedding ring. Nelson sold his prized hunting rifles. The couple said they have cashed out retirement and savings accounts. They sold household items at garage sales. If the Leidels don't prevail in getting compensation, they fear defaulting on their mortgage and ending up in bankruptcy. If that occurs, Nelson Leidel could lose the government security clearance he needs to hold his job. "We don't want to give up," Christi Leidel said. "How am I supposed to stomach this? My family is suffering." • Published Monday January 12, 2009 Advice for building in Iowa's Loess Hills Thinking about building a home in the Loess Hills region? Rich Maaske, urban conservationist for Iowa's Division of Soil Conservation in western Iowa, and John Thomas, a geologist for the Golden Hills Resource Conservation and Development in Oakland, Iowa, offer some tips: • Examine where you want to build. Low-impact, small-density developments are better than high-density ones. Realize that any large development can change the hydrology of the Loess Hills soil. Development can increase the likelihood of runoff. • Consider hiring someone to survey the soil. There are different types of loess soil, depending on the location, and some types can easily erode during major storms and extremely wet periods. • Visit with the local soil and water conservation district to get advice and suggestions on whether locations are suitable for homebuilding. Be careful about building near gullies or near steep slopes, where soil saturation will cause erosion. Because water runs downhill, be aware of the drainage area, land use and slope. Study the neighboring properties. How do neighbors address storm water runoff from their land? • Examine the work of the builder and developer. Have previously built homes encountered any problems? If you build, use landscaping to thwart high-velocity storm-water runoff from your property. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask] Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/