Property With A Fault Line

[Christopher Duron]

I feel that this is a series of stupid questions, but I’d like to get multiple opinions.

I am in the process of buying a piece of land located in Southern California. It is in an area where land is high valued and scarce. The problem is that it is on a steep grade and comes with a fault line. The geo report classifies it as “potentially active” and minor. The recommended set back for building is 15’. It does decrease the usability of the land but it may still be developable property. I would not finalize/close the purchase contract until all permits have been approved by the city.

I’m interested in any and all thoughts that come to mind. Some areas of interest are: is the property going to be harder to sell, what kinds of issues should I anticipate, has anyone ever dealt with this before, etc etc. Anything that comes to mind would help me tremendously.

Thanks. I look forward to hearing from the community.

[Bob Ritner]

If you already have the fault line mapped with a fault trench study, then that is one big variable out of the way. The second thing I would do is have a soils report done, where they do some borings to determine the composition and orientation of the underlying soil/bedrock. Based on this, they will opine on the developability of the site and give preliminary foundation recommendations. You do not need them to develop the full report, just preliminary recommendations based on the borings laboratory findings. This prelim report can then be given to a residential contractor that can give some very rough numbers on grading, retaining and foundations. This is where all of the big budget busters usually occur.