Trouble in east county

Napa County is a special world all its own: Rugged, beautiful, isolated. Unfortunately, the isolation is now haunting people in one corner of Pope Valley, a residential neighborhood on Putah Creek called Berryessa Estates.

Berryessa Estates residents have been dealt a lousy hand that leaves some vulnerable to foreclosure on their homes.

It all starts with the isolation, but in fact several factors have led the residents of Berryessa Estates to their predicament: Strict, but beneficial, environmental regulations; the big bill ($15,000 per property owner over 30 years) for water and wastewater treatment repairs that came after years of neglect and a $400,000 fine by the state; and the shaky economic times.

Today, more than 11 percent of Berryessa Estates property owners are having trouble paying their assessment for the systems run by the Lake Berryessa Residential Improvement District.

If they don’t? County officials say the law requires LBRID to move toward “judicial foreclosure” on delinquent properties. Those property owners who haven’t paid their assessments by Oct. 1 are at risk.

While the law might require the district to take action, the situation doesn’t benefit anyone. Clearly, the property owners will lose if foreclosure proceedings begin; LBRID doesn’t want to take anyone’s property; and foreclosed-on owners don’t tend to make their sewer and water payments — which shows LBRID itself may not be out of the weeds for a few years.

County officials say they are seeking options short of foreclosure proceedings. One suggestion stems from the fact that owners have less flexibility to pay their assessment bill than they do their property tax bill. If they can pay the assessment by Oct. 1 while they seek delays or incur penalties on their tax bills, they can at least extend the period in which they can work out of a financial jam.

It would be better still if the county can help identify a grant or lending source to further minimize the risk to homeowners.

From the homeowner’s perspective, this dilemma feels like punishment for doing the right thing.

Agreeing last year to pay for major upgrades that would put their community into compliance with state environmental regulations and ensure the safety of their water supply, they now find the government sniffing around their door for failure to pay the substantial bill.

In Thursday’s Register, Napa County Supervisor Diane Dillon suggested it might have been a mistake for local officials to approve the remote residential neighborhood in the first place. That may be the case. If so, Berryessa Estates is not the only mistake out there. Rural outposts in other parts of the state are facing similar problems.

But no one can turn the clock back at Berryessa Estates. The homes are there, the improvements to the water and wastewater systems are nearly in place, stability is around the bend -- as long as people aren’t forced by hardship to abandon their beautiful corner of Pope Valley.

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