Apartment building near crumbling Pacifica cliff is torn down

Two big orange excavators and a work crew in yellow hats ended all speculation over the fate of one of the imperiled cliffside apartment buildings in Pacifica on Thursday, demolishing it before the Pacific Ocean could have its turn.

The two-story building at 330 Esplanade Ave. was just south of similarly situated apartment buildings at 310 and 320 Esplanade. The razed building had been vacant since its 12 units were red-tagged and ordered evacuated after a storm in 2010.

Thursday’s demolition, hashed out in recent public hearings, was undertaken by the building’s owner, Farshid Samsami of Burlingame, said Sarah Coffey, executive assistant to the Pacifica city manager. Samsami doesn’t lay claim to the other threatened structures.

All of the buildings have been closely watched in recent weeks. On Jan. 25, a wet and windy storm sent a balcony at 310 Esplanade — and part of the hillside immediately to the west of it — plunging into the ocean 80 feet below.

City inspectors then posted yellow tags on that building, allowing residents to enter their apartments only to remove possessions.

Properties along Esplanade Ave can be seen perched on the edge of an eroding cliff Dec. 23, 2015 in Pacifica, Calif. The center property is vacant. Properties along Esplanade Ave can be seen perched on the edge of an eroding cliff Dec. 23, 2015 in Pacifica, Calif. The center property is vacant. Photo: Leah Millis, San Francisco Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Leah Millis, San Francisco Chronicle Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close Apartment building near crumbling Pacifica cliff is torn down 1 / 22 Back to Gallery

At 330 Esplanade on Thursday, the giant machines were perched only a few feet from the edge, knocking down and gobbling up the wood and stucco and spitting it into a giant truck to be hauled off. Yellow cones and tape kept onlookers away.

The machines — two excavators, two dump trucks, a flatbed truck and a water tanker — had swept into the neighborhood in the morning and had largely completed their work by late afternoon.

Neighbors watch

Neighbors bemusedly watched the spectacle, then went back into their homes. The demolition was new, but the commotion was not, considering the three apartment buildings have been endangered and slipping closer to oblivion for years.

Kevin Hubbert strolled along the block with his Labradoodle, Lucy, and marveled at the speed with which the workers tore down the building. He lives directly across the street.

“I just got an ocean view, a million-dollar view,” he said with a grin.

“That building has been condemned for a long time, and I’m glad they finally pulled the trigger on it,” he said. “There have been some sketchy people living in those buildings since they got evacuated, and the police have had to chase them off. This is a relief.”

Neighbors have frequently complained about squatters and graffiti in the condemned buildings.

“It was bad,” said neighbor Tammy Johnson, who lives a block away. “It’s time these things came down.”

50 more years of view

Another neighbor, Mercy Feeny, whose own unit is 150 feet farther inland, said she wasn’t worried about the continuing decay of the cliff and the creep of the ocean.

“The Lord has given me this beautiful view, and I’d say it’s good for another 50 years, at least,” Feeny said.

Also watching the demolition was Bart Willoughby, who for years has been helping the owner of the other two apartment buildings deal with erosion. He bemoaned a failed earlier attempt to shore up the cliffside from below.

“It’s bittersweet for me,” he said. “Why would I have gone to all that trouble to save the buildings if it was just going to end up like this?”

Willoughby said scores of other apartments lie within a few hundred feet of the Esplanade cliff edge, and that the erosion shows no signs of stopping.

“The bluff is eroding very fast,” he said. “It’s only a matter of time before it’s at the city’s door. They are going to have to figure out a way to stop the erosion. If the city thinks the owners of these buildings are going to shore up these bluffs, they’re (mistaken).”

A man who identified himself as a representative of the razed building’s owner morosely watched the job and said neither he not his boss desired to talk about it.

“He feels terrible. How would you feel, seeing your whole building torn down?” said the man, who declined to give his name.

Built in 1962

The buildings were constructed in 1962, at a time when the bluff was big enough to accommodate playgrounds and even a swimming pool in the space between the apartments and the edge of the cliff.

In the intervening years, natural forces have eaten away at the cliff, and the buildings, like oversized lemmings, have appeared to creep closer and closer to their doom.

Kevin Fagan and Steve Rubenstein are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: kfagan@sfchronicle.com, srubenstein@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @KevinChron, @SteveRubeSF