Fountaingrove residents wrestle with starting over

After the October wildfires destroyed their million-dollar Fountaingrove home, Larry and Carmen Kilcullen considered buying something else instead of rebuilding.

They thought about taking their insurance payout and going to another community. They also considered buying a smaller home somewhere else in Santa Rosa.

But the Kilcullens ultimately decided that they loved their Cross Creek Road neighborhood so much that they wanted to rebuild despite the daunting task they would face.

“We just said to ourselves ‘Where else would we go?’?” said Carmen Kilcullen, a retired educator. “We love it here.”

The Kilcullens’ decision to rebuild - celebrated with a bottle of bubbly and a blessing earlier this month - has brought a welcome sign of life to a neighborhood that, nearly eight months after the fires, has just 16 homes under construction.

Their decision also runs counter to the prevailing narrative that older residents are proving less inclined to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous rebuilding costs. The assumption has been that, with fewer years left to enjoy their homes and less interest in tackling daunting task of rebuilding, many older residents of Fountaingrove would put their lots up for sale and move on.

But the Kilcullens, who are in their early 80s, were undeterred by the prospect of rebuilding. They knew it would be difficult, and it has proven so. Wrangling the project to this point - foundation work began last week and they hope to move in 10 months later - has taken every bit of energy they and their daughter, Lauren Kilcullen, could muster.

And yet Carmen Kilcullen’s a little irked by the number of her neighbors who seem to be “just sitting around” overwhelmed by it all.

“I don’t know what they are waiting for, the sky to fall?” Kilcullen said.

A number of factors tipped the scales in favor of them rebuilding. Their insurance through State Farm was excellent, thanks in part to Kilcullen or her agent keeping the policy current. The man who built the home, Rod McCannell, agreed to rebuild it for them. As chairwoman of the architectural review committee of her homeowners association, Kilcullen for years has watched others build or remodel and felt something in her would enjoy the process.

As the first people to rebuild a home in her neighborhood, Kilcullen said they may seem like an anomaly, but she predicted the pace of rebuilding will pick up soon. Her committee, the Architectural Control Committee of Fountaingrove Ranch Master Association, has recently been approving projects at a faster rate, with 33 homes signed off on to date.

“We should be seeing a lot more homes going in this summer,” she predicted.

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Water hookups may be allowed

Recovery from the October wildfires, the most destructive and deadly in state history, has been steady, but the rebuilding effort - particularly in Fountaingrove - slow.

The fires took 40 lives and burned a total of 6,190 homes in the region, more than a third of them in the city of Santa Rosa. The resulting home insurance claims have exceeded $9 billion.

Of the 266 homes in Santa Rosa that have started the permitting process, 135 have been approved, with 75 of those under construction, according to city permit data. Just nine of those are in Fountaingrove.

One of the many challenges for rebuilding in the area has been the contamination of the water system in the 184-acre portion of the neighborhood centered near Fir Crest Drive north and south of Fountain Grove Parkway.

Low water pressure in the area during the fires is now believed to have sucked chemicals from melting plastic pipes and other debris into the water mains, contaminating the water in the zone so badly that a two-year, $43 million repair looks likely.

That timetable was blasted by residents who predicted that no one would move forward with rebuilding their homes until they could be certain that the city could supply clean water to their homes.

City officials initially said that people could rebuild but, for liability reasons, they wouldn’t be allowed to live there until the water system serving their homes was completely repaired. That became a significant obstacle to people rebuilding.

Those folks were offered a glimmer of hope last week when Ben Horenstein, director of Santa Rosa Water, told the Santa Rosa City Council that a solution to the dilemma was at hand.

“We’ve landed on an approach that will allow occupancy for rebuilt homes in the advisory area in advance of the full repair and resolution of this issue,” Horenstein said.

He said the city would be “installing point-treatment where needed and where necessary” for people who manage to get their homes rebuilt in the advisory zone.

Those systems will use activated charcoal to remove any contaminants, a cost-effective treatment option, he said.

The city considered delivering potable water in tanks to newly built homes, rerouting lines from unaffected areas, or other treatment methods. It ultimately landed on the charcoal filters after talking to residents who’ve installed them, Horenstein said.

“I applaud their ingenuity,” he said, adding that they’ve helped city staff see that such systems, which cities typically have no role in, can work effectively as an interim measure.

More information is expected to be released Monday. The solution sounds similar to the carbon filtration system that Jan Verspecht, whose home was one of 13 that survived the fire in the advisory area, has installed.

Verspecht, an engineer, told the City Council last month that he’d spent $5,000 on the system for his home and that his water quality was now unrivaled.

“I can guarantee it, the water that we drink is the purest that any Santa Rosan can drink,” he said. “There is hope.”

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Fountaingrove club rebrands

While the 1,519 homes lost in Fountaingrove have been the focus of the rebuilding effort, they weren’t the only structures lost in the fires.

There was the city’s new $4 million fire station on Newgate Court; a shopping center at the intersection of Fountain Grove Parkway and Stagecoach Road anchored by the popular Sweet T’s restaurant; and the Fountaingrove Golf and Country Club, which lost several buildings.

This included the pro shop, the three-story clubhouse and a group fitness building.

“Basically, the only thing that was standing after the fires was our athletic club,” said Nancy Azevedo, sales director at the club.

While the course has been open for members since November, it has struggled with the loss of buildings and decline in membership, Azevedo said.

Before the fires there were a total of about 930 athletic, golf and club members. Since then 115 members have resigned, mostly because they’ve either moved away to be closer to family or taken a pause as they consider what to do next, Azevedo said.

Even so, the club remains strong and its members committed to rebuilding, she said.

“We are up and running,” Azedevo said. “People think that we are going under, but we are doing just fine.”

The club has waived dues for members since the fires, though after May reduced dues will be reinstated.

The club recently announced a rebranding, changing its longtime name of Fountaingrove Golf and Athletic Club to just The Fountaingrove Club. The move was done to get past the impression some had that the clubs were separate, she said.

“I really think it’s brought us all closer together,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.