Centex Homes is hoping the third time's the charm. This week it produced a preliminary design concept for a new retaining wall to replace one that collapsed in January in a Northwest Side neighborhood — which in 2007 replaced one that was not “performing to expectations.”

But homeowners say they are weary after two months of stress and uncertainty and are still on the fence about whether to trust that this latest fix will last.

The builder and developer of Rivermist and The Hills of Rivermist told the city it plans a wall 1,700 feet long. The new wall will be built in front of the existing retaining wall, and will include reinforced concrete piers driven 10 to 30 feet into the ground and reinforced concrete panels between the piers, Centex said in a news release.

The company will give the city formal engineering plans by April 30. It expects construction to take four to six months and cost $4 million to $5 million.

“It looks like it's going to be a substantial wall,” said Roderick Sanchez, director of the city's Planning and Development Services Department.

Sanchez had told the builder it would need to rebuild the wall entirely, and that the existing wall could not be part of any design solution. “They're looking to do what we've asked,” Sanchez said. “We're not going to accept any part of that wall as the solution.”

The ground shifted and a large retaining wall collapsed on a steep slope in the neighborhood Jan. 24. Since then, the city suspended the certificates of occupancy for 27 homes, and many of the homeowners have been living in hotels, apartments and rental homes with limited access to their properties.

The wall that failed is known as a “gravity wall,” and is a stone-and-mortar structure that relies on its own weight to remain stable. The city has said it wasn't built to the design engineer's specifications, but Centex has said the wall and slope failed because of “deep soil movement.”

Earlier this week, the city approved the builder's plans to stabilize the hillside. That plan includes using 100 reinforcing pins, which are 30 feet long, to keep the hillside from moving more.

Centex has made buyback offers to 20 homeowners in The Hills of Rivermist who live along the top of the slope, as well as to the owners of the seven homes in the Rivermist neighborhood whose homes sit just below the spot where the wall split open and crumbled.

The Rivermist retaining wall is actually two structures — one large wall that's about 20 feet high that sits on the upper part of the hillside — and a second, smaller wall at the bottom of the slope. Both new walls will be built to the same higher design specifications.

And what might become of those 27 homes if they are sold back to the builder?

Centex cannot say. “We're going to have to work with the city and the residents to determine the best answer to that question,” said spokeswoman Caryn Klebba. “I don't have an answer.”

The buyback offer covers the purchase price, closing costs, moving expenses, home improvements and incidental expenses, as well as some attorney fees.

Kris Becker, who owns a home at the top of the slope, said the offer is generally good, but does not address the stress homeowners have experienced.

She has not decided whether to sell her home back to Centex, but said the upheaval of living away from home is wearing on her, and she feels pressured to make a decision soon. If possible, she would like to have the option of basically swapping her house for another in a different neighborhood built by Pulte Homes, the parent company of Centex.

The last two months have not been easy. Becker and her daughter, 5, lived with her parents for three weeks before moving into an apartment, which was burglarized four days later. Becker lost her laptop, jewelry and a portable DVD player, among other items. Then they moved into a hotel, and this weekend might move into a different apartment.

“I almost feel like a black cloud is following me around,” Becker said. “It really is stressful. It's tiring.”

She has not seen the wall design concept, but said she has long-term concerns about returning to her home.

“I believe they'll do a good wall because they've got the whole world watching them,” Becker said. “It's not the house and the wall I'm worried about. It's the land that they built it on. What if 10 or 20 years from now something happens? What's to keep the land from moving again?”

Residents expect to have a meeting with city officials and Centex on Tuesday.

Karen Maxwell, who lives across the street from 20 of the evacuated houses, isn't convinced a new wall is the solution. “This is going to be the third wall, and we're supposed to believe them again?”
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