Amy Gallagher2025-05-05T07:41:43-07:00May 5 Dominick Beaudine2025-05-02T09:39:58-07:00May 2 Dominick Beaudine2025-05-02T08:40:53-07:00May 2 Ted Hwang2025-05-04T09:32:06-07:00April 30 Ted Hwang2025-04-30T17:06:48-07:00April 30, 2025| LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network. Rancho Palos Verdes life is mostly idyllic and insular. Clifftop ocean views, scenic hiking trails and a thriving equine community mean residents rarely have to go “down the hill.” But in recent years, multi-million-dollar homes perched atop oceanside bluffs in the Portuguese Bend area have started to succumb to geological forces that — despite millions of dollars and years of efforts — cannot be stopped. In fact, those forces were accelerated by heavy rains in 2023 and 2024, pulling apart structures, cutting gas and power lines and severing roads. NASA imagery shows that land was sliding at a rate of 4 inches a week during a four-week period last year. Portuguese Bend is clearly on borrowed time. So how did this slow-moving disaster get to this point? Who’s responsible? And where does Rancho Palos Verdes go from here? According to research from Cal State Dominguez Hills, the Portuguese Bend landslide has been moving for more than 250,000 years. But the more aggressive movement started after World War II, when the peninsula experienced a housing boom. McNulty has since retired and is not available for interviews, a spokesperson for the university told LAist. At the time, Graham said, the roads were mostly dirt and to build a home on the peninsula, you had to pave your own. But in 1956, Graham said, the fragile geology keeping the bluffs relatively intact took a hit when L.A. County expanded Crenshaw Boulevard. “ The theory was that the blasting and the digging and the movement of dirt and all that had disturbed an ancient slide that had been at equilibrium,” Graham said. According to historical documents posted by the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, land moved roughly 22 feet from September 1956 to April 1957. In a report to city officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, geologists said a particularly wet winter in 1978 accelerated land movement, at one point up to 40 feet a year in the early 1980s. The city was later able to reduce that movement to 1 foot a year by installing dewatering wells, which pump water out of the ground, but the bluffs never recovered. In the geologists’ report, they said that since the landslide was reactivated in the 1950s more than 5.8 million cubic yards of sediment — or enough to fill over 200,000 football fields — had been deposited in the ocean since the land started moving in the 1950s. When the land movement started accelerating in 1978, city officials banned new construction in the Portuguese Bend area, saying they had to “conduct extensive geological studies to determine the stability of the land.” For years, the development moratorium held, until 15 property owners sued the city in 2002, arguing that development had become too restrictive over the years. The city’s position, city manager Ara Mihranian told LAist, was to allow improvements on homes built prior to the city’s incorporation. A trial followed, and the judge ruled in favor of the city, claiming the development moratorium was justified. But the property owners won on appeal, with the ruling stating that the moratorium was an “unconstitutional taking of property” and the city had to either allow the plaintiffs to build on their vacant lots or buy them at fair market value. This paved the way for the development now being slowly crippled and rendered uninhabitable for the landslide movement Mihranian said three of the homes built as a result of the court ruling are now red tagged. Today, unstable land movement has left hundreds of residents without power or gas after above average rainfall over the last two winters accelerated movement in the landslide complex rendered dozens of homes unliveable, according to officials. At one point last year, land was moving up to 1 foot a week in some areas. That has since slowed with around-the-clock dewatering wells, but experts say it can’t be totally stopped. Mihranian told LAist that the long term plan is for the city to look at opportunities through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant program to buy back homes in the landslide complex. As property owners wait for funding for the buyouts, others are trying the real estate market. On Zillow, a home on Vanderlip Drive is listed for more than $2 million with a note that states: “The home is offered for a fraction of its pre-movement value...and will offer a buyer a unique blend of elegance, comfort and breathtaking beauty, making it a true treasure to be loved by the next family lucky enough to call it home.” According to the listing, the homeowners have “fought back” against the land movement by installing helical piers, or foundations screwed into the ground. The listing agent, Charlie Raine, told LAist there's been interest in the place for its character and history. But in general, he said news of the landslides hasn't helped in generating prospects. " We've had people who have mentioned the fact that, you know, how close is it to the landslide? And these are houses that are nowhere near the landslides," he said. "It's something that's on buyers' minds, and it certainly must have a negative effect on some people that maybe won't look in the area." Another listing for a million-dollar home in the Seaview area states: “Don’t miss this opportunity to own a slice of coastal paradise in one of Southern California’s most desirable neighborhoods. Schedule your private showing today and experience the allure of seaside living at its finest. Property located in the neighborhood impacted by LAND MOVEMENT and affected by it.” Mihranian said the city can’t step in to halt those sales since they are privately owned parcels. Other property owners have filed lawsuits against the city. Two filed last year allege the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, L.A. County, CalWater and the Klondike Canyon Landslide Abatement District failed to properly manage the landslide or take adequate precautionary measures ahead of wet winter seasons. The lawsuits also allege that improperly maintained water and sewer lines contributed to the recent acceleration in movement. A new map shows where land movement is accelerating By Austyn Gaffney and Harry Stevens Along the sparkling coast of Southern California a string of landslides creeping toward the sea has transformed the wealthy community of Rancho Palos Verdes into a disaster zone The landslides have also sped up in recent years. A month of aerial radar images taken by NASA in the fall revealed how land in the Palos Verdes Peninsula slid toward the ocean by as much as four inches each week between mid-September and mid-October. Before that, a city report showed more than a foot of weekly movement in July and August Present boundary includes areas where landslides moved faster than one centimeter per week between Sept The mass of slides in Los Angeles County, known as the Greater Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex, reactivated in 1956 after road construction destabilized the once-dormant slope. For decades, it slid just a few inches every year. But heavy rain in 2023 and early 2024 accelerated that movement, leading Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency citing “conditions of extreme peril to the safety of persons and property.” but homeowner insurance policies do not typically cover landslides A stretch of coastline where landslides meet the beach in Rancho Palos Verdes Damage in a residential area of Rancho Palos Verdes in August Mitigating such a disaster is extremely expensive the city said it will have spent more than $35 million almost 90 percent of its general fund operations budget That includes the installation of 11 wells that have worked to pump out 145 million gallons of groundwater that could further destabilize the slope The investment has yielded results: The landslide slowed by about 3 percent on average between December and February thanks to the wells and a lack of rain Slow-moving slides are common around the world where several hundred have been mapped in coastal mountain ranges these slides can grind nearly to a halt during the dry summer months before a wet winter makes them crawl again the landslide complex in Rancho Palos Verdes exhibited strange behavior when it failed to slow The best guess for why has to do with a very wet 2023 a research scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory who has studied the behavior of slow-moving landslides for well over a decade Typically triggered tens of meters underground “we know the least about what’s happening under the ground.” And it’s extremely rare for them to suddenly collapse or slide in a catastrophic way It’s unclear what triggers that kind of sudden catastrophe, said Luke McGuire, an associate professor in geomorphology at the University of Arizona. He pointed to one of the few known examples of such an event, in 2017, when the Mud Creek Landslide in Big Sur gave way after eight years of stable sliding More than 65 feet of rocks and dirt covered a quarter-mile of Highway 1 the scenic drive winding along the California coast Experts say that the city of Rancho Palos Verdes probably will not experience that kind of sudden event but the likelihood that this would go into a catastrophic movement phase is quite low,” said Dave Petley a landslide expert who collects global landslide data for the American Geophysical Union “It’s likely it’ll continue to cause substantial property damage but the risk of the thing suddenly sliding into the sea and taking everyone with it is not particularly high.” A 2019 Nature study by Dr. Handwerger showed that the Mud Creek Landslide could have been triggered by a shift from drought to record rainfall an increase in extreme rain events could cause more landslides to quicken More precipitation could also cause more landslides to emerge from hibernation into slow-moving slides “Rainfall under climate change can wake a landslide back up,” Dr adding that a vast number of dormant landslides with this potential exist across the globe Share full article206206See more on: National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationRead 206 CommentsRead 206 CommentsShare full article206206Advertisement Get the best experience and stay connected to your community with our Spectrum News app. Learn More — To help cover the escalating costs caused by land movement damage the city of Rancho Palos Verdes is exploring the possibility of making Palos Verdes Drive South a toll road The city is seeking financial help from state and federal agencies as the costs of the damage are outpacing the city’s ability to cover them.  Mayor David Bradley said the toll road is only one option being explored and is a long way off from being implemented Although county supervisors have helped with about $4.2 million worth of contributions the city has spent over $40 million in the last fiscal year responding to the emergency Welcome Mickeymickey@disney.comManage MyDisney AccountLog OutRancho Palos Verdes landslide area shifts 4 inches closer to the ocean each week 2025Stream Southern California's News Leader and Original Shows 24/7RANCHO PALOS VERDES -- A coastal community in Southern California is shifting downslope -- and closer to the Pacific Ocean -- at a rapid rate The Palos Verdes Peninsula is well-known for its landslides But radar imagery recently revealed that the Los Angeles County community is experiencing a slow-moving landslide -- averaging about 4 inches per week between Sept NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory found The landslide both expanded and accelerated last summer drawing attention to a populated region that historically had not been moving a landslide scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory It can be credited to record-breaking rainfall in Southern California in 2023 and heavy precipitation in early 2024 explaining that it was moving faster before recent imagery was collected and has since slightly slowed Little to no infrastructure was built on the portion that was previously known to be moving But the landslide is impacting hundreds of existing buildings "The speed is more than enough to put human life and infrastructure at risk," Handwerger said Some of the peninsula is part of an ancient complex of landslides that has been moving for at least the past six decades The peninsula juts into the Pacific Ocean just south of the city of Los Angeles Researchers compared airborne radar images taken at four different points of time to measure the motion of the landslides in three dimensions "That gave us more of a time series of motion," Handwerger said The region has been a big focus for scientific research due to the prominent landslide threat NASA's upcoming Landslide Climate Change Experiment will use airborne radar to study how extreme wet or dry precipitation patterns influence landslides scientists have been using satellite data to monitor the motion of the landslide Such analyses are provided to state officials to support response efforts to the landslides The threat of landslides is so persistent that the City of Rancho Palos Verdes manages a website that releases monitoring data for potential activity in the region the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services unveiled a $42 million buyout program for Rancho Palos Verdes homeowners impacted by landslides Researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California used data from an airborne radar to measure the movement of the slow-moving landslides on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County during a four-week period in the fall of 2024 land in the residential area slid toward the ocean by as much as 4 inches (10 centimeters) per week which juts into the Pacific Ocean just south of the city of Los Angeles are part of an ancient complex of landslides and has been moving for at least the past six decades affecting hundreds of buildings in local communities and the active area expanded following record-breaking rainfall in Southern California in 2023 and heavy precipitation in early 2024 and the four flights were planned to estimate the speed and direction of the landslides in three dimensions colors indicate how fast parts of the landslide complex were moving in late September and October with the darkest reds indicating the highest speeds The arrows represent the direction of horizontal motion The white solid lines are the boundaries of the active landslide area as defined in 2007 by the California Geological Survey we’re seeing that the footprint of land experiencing significant impacts has expanded and the speed is more than enough to put human life and infrastructure at risk,” said Alexander Handwerger the JPL landslide scientist who performed the analysis Handwerger is also the principal investigator for NASA’s upcoming Landslide Climate Change Experiment which will use airborne radar to study how extreme wet or dry precipitation patterns influence landslides The investigation will include flights over coastal slopes spanning the California coastline The ARIA mission is a collaboration between JPL and Caltech to leverage radar and optical remote-sensing and seismic observations for science as well as to aid in disaster response The project investigates the processes and impacts of earthquakes UAVSAR has flown thousands of radar missions around the world since 2007 studying phenomena such as glaciers and ice sheets andrew.wang@jpl.nasa.gov / jane.j.lee@jpl.nasa.gov NASA Airborne Sensor’s Wildfire Data Helps Firefighters Take Action Climate Change. NASA Takes to the Air to Study Wildflowers Earth. Next-Generation Water Satellite Maps Seafloor From Space Earth. NASA’s EZIE Launches on Mission to Study Earth’s Electrojets Earth. NASA Analysis Shows Unexpected Amount of Sea Level Rise in 2024 Earth. NASA-ISRO Mission Will Map Farmland From Planting to Harvest Earth. NASA Awards Launch Service Task Order for Mission to Study Storm Formation Technology. NASA Uses New Technology to Understand California Wildfires Earth. NASA-Led Study Pinpoints Areas Sinking, Rising Along California Coast Earth. How New NASA, India Earth Satellite NISAR Will See Earth Explore MoreImage. Image. AVIRIS-3 Sensor Captures Data on Wildfire Near Mount Vernon, Alabama Image. AVIRIS-3 Sensor Captures Data on Wildfire Near Castleberry, Alabama Image. AVIRIS-3 Sensor Captures Data on Wildfire Near Perdido, Alabama Image. Satellite Record of Sea Level Rise From 1993 to 2024 Image. NISAR in Orbit Over Northeastern India (Artist's Concept) Image. Image. NASA Radar Looks at Palos Verdes Landslides Image. Building an All-Sky Map With SPHEREx (Artist's Concept) Image. LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio Local officials have been lobbying for state emergency funding to supplement the spending the City Council approved a $48,000 annual contract with a consulting firm to amp up lobbying efforts beyond California and key in on Washington “ The whole point of us retaining you is to see if we can strengthen our ties with the federal government more than just our one representative or our two senators and see if we can help get beneficial legislation that would support the city's endeavors certainly around the landslide,” Mayor David Bradley told the new group The city ended its contract with a lobbying group in February as it did advocacy work only with the state government Bradley added that through working with state agencies “we found out that FEMA is really the source of most of the funds So the fact that we didn't have direct connection into the federal agencies was hampering us.” Bradley said the city had “very little success” working with the state and getting resources from the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services “ CalOES is the entree to the federal government in FEMA,” he said we think is gonna pay dividends in helping short circuit that as opposed to going from one bureaucracy to another bureaucracy to another bureaucracy to kind of go directly to the source of funding and make sure that we have the most compelling case possible to the federal government.” the stakes are rising as city resources and the “ability to balance routine municipal operations” have been stretched after the land movement began accelerating in October 2023 The agreement with Kiley and Associates will get Rancho Palos Verdes a dedicated lobbyist in Washington The firm will also be tasked with legislative analysis drafting letters on pending legislation and meeting with lawmakers  ”As the landslide and other major priorities and issues have come up we've realized that we need more of a presence in the federal level as well,” Catherine Jun “Especially because the landslide often involves federal agencies like FEMA and so we realized that we needed to have more of that presence in D.C.” Bradley told LAist the organization will look at applying for federal grants to help with the landslide mitigation efforts Accelerated land movement has left homes without gas and power and dozens more have been red- or yellow-tagged The city recently received $42 million in federal funding that was funneled toward a property buyout program for residents affected by the land movement the city and the CalOES will purchase homes with funding from FEMA with the goal of turning the land into open space Home prices will be determined using a formula based on how much they were valued on Dec before land movement accelerated — up to 1 foot a week at one point Get hyperlocal forecasts, radar and weather alerts. RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. — Six months ago, it was a barely noticeable crack in the foundation of Michele Smith’s home in the Portuguese Bend neighborhood. Today, that crack has widened into a gaping chasm, symbolic of the upheaval in her life. “This is how much it’s grown,” Smith said, gesturing toward the fissure. For 36 years, Smith and her husband built a life on this serene stretch of Rancho Palos Verdes, raising their children in a close-knit community with picturesque views. Now, serenity has been replaced by survival. “It is heartbreaking watching your house get torn up,” Smith said. Accelerating land movement has left Smith’s family without power for months. Desperate to save their home, they’ve spent their savings filling fissures and attempting to fortify the property. The repairs have come at a staggering cost. “I think we’re going to end up spending $200,000 to save the house,” Smith said. The family has weighed the city’s voluntary buyout program, which offers compensation to affected residents, but leaving behind decades of memories isn’t a straightforward decision. Adding to their anxiety is the upcoming rainy season, which could exacerbate the already precarious situation. “We have a fissure under the house,” Smith said. “If the fissure gets big like that, we’re done. So it’s a gamble.” Geologist Dan Steward, who assessed the Smith property, said last year’s historic rainfall was a key catalyst for the land’s instability. He warns that another season of heavy rain could have long-term consequences. “It doesn’t make them worse immediately,” Steward explained. “The effects would be, you know, two, three, four months or more in the future. Very likely.” Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank says the city is better prepared to combat land movement this year. Ten deep-dewatering wells, each extracting 800 gallons of water per minute, have been installed to reduce groundwater and slow land shifts. “Our city is going to continue to work throughout the wintertime,” Cruikshank said. “If things seem to not be working, we’ll adjust those to correct that and make them work.” For Smith, the situation remains precarious. Back at her home, she acknowledges the unpredictability of the forces at play. “I try to stay positive. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t,” she said. As the rainy season looms, Smith and her neighbors in Portuguese Bend can only hope their efforts—and the ground beneath them—hold steady. Rancho Palos Verdes is on track to spend as much as it takes to run the entire city for the year on continued efforts to shore up landslide movement that has rendered dozens of homes uninhabitable. City leaders this week approved taking $2 million from other infrastructure projects and directing it toward operating and maintaining dewatering wells in the Portuguese Bend landslide area, as well as filling fissures in Altamira Canyon. That puts the total cost at $33 million, or close to the $39 million earmarked to run the whole city for a year, officials said. Forecasters are warning of rain this weekend and land that has been parched for months — and in fire zones, stripped of vegetation that can help stave off mudflows or landslides. Since the fiscal year began on July 1, 2024, the city has spent $33 million from its reserves toward managing the landslide. That includes the dewatering wells, the winterization programs, the city-run sewer system and repairs to Palos Verdes Drive South. “We're very close to spending the same amount as our general fund for operating the entire city on responding to the landslide,” said Ara Mihranian, Rancho Palos Verdes’ city manager, at Tuesday’s meeting. City officials have until the next council meeting to look at giving a $5-million loan or grant to the Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement District, an agency that operates some of its own dewatering wells. The money can be used to install more wells that pump water from the ground. Abatement districts, Mihranian said, are exempt from certain requirements, like aligning with California Environmental Quality Act guidelines, which frees them from the kind of red tape the city faces. Rancho Palos Verdes could lose out on federal funding after President Donald Trump announced earlier this month he was canceling a grant that helps communities prepare for natural disasters. When the city first applied for the grant in 2022, they were allocated about $23 million, but that amount eventually became an initial payment of about $2.3 million, which is now in doubt. Bradley said the city hasn’t received the funds yet and doesn't think it ever will. “ We are in discussions with FEMA right now, whether that funding is still available and has been obligated to the city of Rancho Palos Verdes or that's also going to be pulled back,” he said. The mayor said the city is concerned about loss of funding from federal, state and county agencies which could put Rancho Palos Verdes “in a fiscal position that is untenable.” “The issue is that this is taking the money that we would be using for long-term solutions off the table again, and putting the city in a position where the only thing the city can do financially is the near term immediate emergency remediation tasks,” Bradley said. “We can't get ahead of it. We can't do long-term planning.” The city, he said, can only put a tarp down instead of pouring concrete. At the peak of the movement last year, Bradley said, the city had to undertake emergency tasks, including repairing a sewer line and mending cracks on Palos Verdes Drive South, the main thoroughfare through the landslide complex. While movement has slowed, emergency work continues. Earlier this week, the city had to deal with another sewer line break. These emergency measures are temporary “band-aids,” he said, and without a long term commitment the city is going to continue to bleed resources. “ We are financially in peril … a major piece of infrastructure and a major arterial road within the city of Rancho Palos Verdes is in dire risk of failing and that that would be a major impact to commerce within the South Bay and for the residents of the area,” he said. “It is well outside of the ability for a city like Rancho Palos Verdes to bear all of that financial risk and we need help from our federal, state, and county partners.” The funds earmarked for the grant program will be returned to either the Disaster Relief Fund or the U.S. Treasury. “The BRIC program was yet another example of a wasteful and ineffective FEMA program. It was more concerned with political agendas than helping Americans affected by natural disasters. Under Secretary [Kristi] Noem’s leadership, we are committed to ensuring that Americans in crisis can get the help and resources they need,” the agency said in a written statement. We now know that several storms earlier this year increased the pace of the Rancho Palos Verdes landslide, in some areas. That's despite rainfall totals being well below average for this time of year. Officials said this week that the continuing acceleration of the landslide renews concerns over what could happen when heavier rain inevitably comes in the future. The city’s geologist, Mike Phipps, told the City Council that in one area of the landslide, movement increased 17% between February and March after taking on 3.7 inches of rain. “ This movement is in direct response to the rainfall,” he said, with an important caveat: “It's in an area where we didn't really do winterization measures.” For context, the annual average rainfall for Rancho Palos Verdes is 12.32 inches, and typically the most rain falls October through March, according to Bryan Lewis, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service. This year was different. The region's rainy season didn't materialize until February, and Phipps said that underscores the need for measures like sealing fissures and improving drainage ahead of heavier storm weather. At Tuesday's City Council meeting, Councilmember George Lewis underscored the stakes. “ I find that to be actually rather terrifying because we're well below the average amount of rainfall and that was enough to trigger significant movement in an area that had been somewhat stable,” he said. “That gives me zero confidence that this is sustainable if we have an El Niño year.” City officials discovered a deeper landslide portion last year as they dealt with the consequences of two very wet winter seasons. At the time, above average rainfall was causing land to move in some places up to 1 foot a week. Mayor David Bradley reiterated that city officials are reaching out to organizations to conduct a feasibility study on the legalities, costs and traffic effects of a toll road. Land movement in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes has slowed from an unprecedented one foot a week to an average 2.7 inches as residents brace themselves for the winter rain season. City officials attribute the slowdown to dry weather spells and the city’s dewatering efforts, which have resulted in the removal of around 75 million gallons of water from within the landslide area. “ The good news is if it does rain we are now pretty well winterized as best we can be with this landslide and the resources that we have,” Mike Phipps, the city’s geologist told City Council members on Tuesday. “I'm kind of in wait and see mode with the weather and how that performs.” In August, city officials warned that the landslide was deeper and moving faster than previously thought. That slide, Phipps said, has stopped moving.  ”The movement that we are seeing is probably more likely the shallower Portuguese Bend slide, across a lot of the good portion of the area,” he said. Despite the 11 active dewatering wells, Phipps warned “we've reached this steady state where we're kind of at capacity with the dewatering system that we have in place." There is a need in the future, he added, for more wells with larger pumps that can remove more water. Above average rainfall over the past two winters have changed the topography of the area. In the Portuguese Bend Beach Club area, for example, land has bulged upward about six feet from the ocean, creating a new beach. In October, city leaders approved $4 million for temporary measures to slow down land movement during the upcoming winter season. Fissures in Altamira Canyon and Kelvin Canyon were filled with soil, as well as a bentonite seal to prevent water collecting and seeping into the ground. But officials warn in the latest report to Rancho Palos Verdes City Council members that the budget approved will not be enough to complete temporary measures in Paintbrush and Ishibashi canyons. They say it's because some of the fissures were deeper than anticipated, and land movement since the project started has created others. Print The federal government plans to give Rancho Palos Verdes $42 million to finance buyouts for the homeowners hardest hit by the ongoing landslides in the Portuguese Bend area with the properties eventually converted into lower-risk open space Applying for a buyout is voluntary; no one will be forced to sell their home to the city “This buyout program provides a viable pathway forward for our most vulnerable community members, offering the opportunity to relocate and rebuild with meaningful compensation,” Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank said in a statement. He said dozens of residents had endured unimaginable losses from the recent land movement, “with some facing the real prospect of losing their homes entirely.” California Rancho Palos Verdes allocates $10,000 grants for residents dealing with damage and utility loss due to land movement This announcement comes months after residents have pleaded for state and federal assistance amid escalating land movement that has ruined homes required almost incessant roadway repairs and forced out utility providers only a fraction of the damaged and threatened properties in the area can be approved for the buyout About 260 homes across three Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhoods have been affected by the landslide in recent months who designed and built his Portuguese Bend home on property he bought in 2014 is hoping the buyout will be available to him and his wife “What they’re offering is a lifesaver for most people although he is concerned about how much the offer would be “It’s bittersweet — it gives us a chance to save our family’s finances but you’re seeing the labor of love destroyed.” Hong estimates that his home would have been worth about $3.6 million two years ago — probably on the higher end of neighborhood property values because it’s relatively new — but he says he’ll wait and see what is offered The announcement of the buyout program follows some of the first positive news in months about the landslide. City officials reported this month that the rate of land movement had decelerated as much as 80% in some locations compared with the month prior deep dewatering wells that the city installed from August to October The wells have pumped out millions of gallons of groundwater that drives the area’s landslide movement Hong said that even if they weren’t accepted for the buyout program, the slowing land movement — which led to his home being one of about two dozen that recently regained electricity — was welcome news. “We could still ride it out, we could take our chances if this doesn’t work out,” Hong said. “Regardless, we will go ahead and put the application in.” Patty Perkinson is not ready to give up on her Rancho Palos Verdes home — despite the active landslide causing untold damage and now the loss of vital utilities who have lived in their Portuguese Bend home since 1982 “We’re pretty financially committed now.” They are weeks into a major renovation after a fissure forced apart rooms in their home they have put their home up on steel beams and adjustable supports which she feels confident can now withstand any future land movement But Reeves said she understood why some people might be ready to take a reasonable offer to leave and start over “There are people here who feel trapped,” she said “I’m excited for those who can take advantage of it.” though she notes that her home has thankfully suffered far less damage But cracks continue to show up along her walls especially now that they have installed solar power — a major investment “We couldn’t afford to move anyplace that would be anywhere comparable to this,” Hunter said “There’s no way that we would find property that was as serene as this can be — when it’s not moving And for those planning to stay or who aren’t approved for a buyout city officials said the program would not affect any ongoing landslide mitigation or winter preparedness work “The council wants no one to feel that this program that is being proposed to you is any indication that the city is walking away from any of its winterization or stabilization efforts,” said Ara Mihranian The city has installed 10 new dewatering wells and approved more than $13 million in recent weeks to prepare roads drainage systems and other infrastructure for the rainy season the city will prioritize the eight homes that have been red- or yellow-tagged — officially deemed unsafe to enter or unlivable Next on the priority list will be properties with significant damage that officials believe could soon require residents to move out consideration will be given to the about 250 additional homes that remain cut off from electricity the city will purchase the property for 75% of what an appraiser determines to have been the fair market value of the land and improvements on Dec minus some of the transaction and demolition costs Although the buyout program is historically used for property owners in flood-prone areas the California governor’s Office of Emergency Services and the city have worked together to customize it for this landslide situation Accelerating landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes have continued to upend life But residents like Gordon Leon aren’t ready to give up Properties that are acquired by the city will be converted to open space The city would be in charge of demolishing any structures or improvements and it would be deed-restricted for open space in perpetuity,” Mihranian said Interested property owners must request a property inspection from the city by Nov Another point that has tripped up some residents is that upon approval for the buyout, the property owner would be required to release the city and all other agencies of liability. That’s an issue for many who have sued or plan to sue for losses related to the land movement. Homes built on land with past landslide activity are on the market Here’s how homebuyers can assess a property’s risk to land movement Mihranian said at a town hall this week that the city was running out of money, and FEMA recently denied the majority of its $61.4-million request for reimbursements for storm- and landslide-related costs. Just this fiscal year, the city is expecting to spend $32 million in landslide-related projects, much more than it spent on them in the last two years combined. Mihranian said the city planned to appeal FEMA’s decision, and is still exploring other funding sources. Karen Garcia is a reporter on the Fast Break Desk, the team that has a pulse on breaking news at the Los Angeles Times. She was previously a reporter on the Utility Journalism Team, which focused on service journalism. Her previous stints include reporting for the San Luis Obispo New Times and KCBX Central Coast Public Radio. Grace Toohey is a reporter at the Los Angeles Times covering breaking news for the Fast Break Desk. Before joining the newsroom in 2022, she covered criminal justice issues at the Orlando Sentinel and the Advocate in Baton Rouge. Toohey is a Maryland native and proud Terp. Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map The Bascom Group purchased a 257-unit apartment complex in Rancho Palos Verdes for $127M The Irvine-based private equity firm bought the Highridge Apartments at 28125 Peacock Ridge Drive from Essex Property Trust, Commercial Observer reported Bascom plans to renovate the more than 50-year-old complex The sale price works out to $494K per unit The property is one of only three in Rancho Palos Verdes that contains more than 100 units “Highridge Apartments is located in a highly competitive market with one of the tightest vacancy rates in all of Los Angeles County,” Chad Sanderson Brokers Blake Rogers and Kevin Sheehan of JLL represented the seller. JLL's Annie Rice and Jamie Kline arranged a loan for the buyer secured by the property from AXA Investment Managers, CO reported In November, Bascom sold a 406-unit apartment complex at 2414 N. Tustin Ave. in Santa Ana for $129.2M, or $318K per unit Bascom bought the complex in 2017 for $94M You are subscribed to the Bisnow Los Angeles Newsletter or click here to copy link to clipboard We will email you a link to reset your password Upcoming regulations in the European Union require us to show this pop-up and ask you to agree to keep using Bisnow.com We want to take 15 seconds to tell you what's going on: the rumor mill on social media platforms like Nextdoor has gotten so loud that the city is now entering the chat city officials said they have not decided on the toll road but are conducting a feasibility study to be completed in the summer The public will then be able to weigh in on the pros and cons of a potential toll for a road that sees about 15,000 vehicles a day “The city has been approached by individuals who recommend a toll road be considered but no action to date has been taken on the proposal," the statement added Bradley said the city has spent more than its annual budget in the last 18 months on fixing problems within the landslide complex The city's feasibility study will look at whether implementing a toll on that road is even possible and will include a cost-benefit analysis "The city is just trying to figure out how to best finance the continuing landslide emergency and remediation," Bradley said "We have had very little support from the county a doctor living in the Miraleste neighborhood of Rancho Palos Verdes commutes on the road and calls it a “lifeline” for the community “ I'm very surprised by this conversation around toll roads for many communities in that area,” he said very inequitable and not a good idea because a lot of people rely on that road for daily functioning Passi uses the road to drop his children off at school each day the road is not as smooth anymore,” he said which would take him about an hour to drop his kids off so already it has become so difficult because of increased distance on that road,” Passi said “I cannot even imagine what would happen if we have to take an alternative route and what it would do to his medical issues.” 2025A gray whale that was tangled in some netting was set free off the Rancho Palos Verdes coast.RANCHO PALOS VERDES (KABC) -- A gray whale that was tangled in some netting was set free off the Rancho Palos Verdes coast according to the Marine Mammal Care Center The net itself was also caught on a rock crab trap that had been dragged all the way from Newport Beach which prevented the adult whale from swimming away a team of marine experts caught up with the whale and set it free Eos Nikki Noushkam’s house in Rancho Palos Verdes was solid “There was not a hairline crack,” said Noushkam a space sensing program manager who moved to the Southern California city in 2005 when the ground underneath her community began sliding toward the Pacific Ocean Rancho Palos Verdes is caught in a series of slow-moving landslides that are wreaking havoc in this coastal community—roads are buckling and some people have been forced to leave their homes “The house across the street from me had been red tagged,” Noushkam said She and others in her community are looking for answers “The uncertainty of not knowing what’s going to happen and not having a solution to this problem is what really worries me,” she said Situated roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Los Angeles, on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, Rancho Palos Verdes is known for its unobstructed views of the Pacific Ocean. But the bluffs that afford those panoramic vistas are inherently fragile—they’re made of shale, a sedimentary rock. “Shale is an extremely weak material,” said Ben Leshchinsky a civil engineer at Oregon State University in Corvallis Get the most fascinating science news stories of the week in your inbox every Friday And move it did in the 1950s, when the County of Los Angeles trucked in more than 160,000 metric tons of fill to extend Crenshaw Boulevard, a major thoroughfare. All that extra weight destabilized an area that was probably already precarious, said Joe Wartman a geotechnical engineer at the University of Washington in Seattle the ground in the Portuguese Bend neighborhood of Rancho Palos Verdes was sliding up to several centimeters per day to the west More than 150 homes were destroyed or severely damaged over the next few years Landslide activity in Rancho Palos Verdes then largely abated The aerospace industry flourished across Southern California and model homes soon dotted the city’s gently sloping hills But in recent years, there’s been a pronounced uptick in landslide activity. “It’s definitely moving much faster now than it has been in recent history,” said Alexander Handwerger a landslide scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena “Those back-to-back wet years caused the majority of this big acceleration that we’ve seen.” a geologist employed by the consulting firm Cotton and a contractor for the city of Rancho Palos Verdes City officials have been tracking ground movement in Rancho Palos Verdes using more than 120 GPS stations. Since 2007, Michael McGee a Professional Land Surveyor contracted by the city They reveal that landslide activity peaked in May and June of this year when the ground moved more than 12 inches (25 centimeters) each week “We used to measure three times per year,” McGee said “Now that it’s moving 4 or 5 feet [1.2–1.5 meters] per month we measure some of the points once a week.” “What we’re dealing with now is an area of close to 700 acres.” but getting water out of the ground is still critical crews were installing the third of five planned dewatering wells near the beach Each of those wells extends down below the deepest part of the landslide and has a pump to remove water The two existing wells are each pumping out about 130,000 gallons (nearly 500,000 liters) of water per day But because the ground is still moving relatively rapidly it’s necessary to redrill the wells each week “The land is moving so fast that a 10-inch-diameter [25-centimeter] hole is going to close off in about 7 days.” Curbing the current ground movement will be challenging That’s because the downslope portion of several of the active landslides—that is There’s accordingly no barrier in front of the sliding ground and the toe is furthermore subject to erosion by waves There’s also the sheer size of the total sliding area which has increased by roughly twofold in recent decades “What we’re dealing with now is an area of close to 700 acres [280 hectares].” To better understand where and how the ground is shifting city officials are considering proposals to survey not only the ground surface but also the nearshore seafloor using a technique known as light detection and ranging (lidar) Lidar surveys are commonly conducted from an aerial platform such as a drone or small plane Large areas can therefore be surveyed efficiently which is a strength in the case of Rancho Palos Verdes “Because of the sheer size of the landslide it’s hard to cover the whole area with GPS.” There’s also an intrinsic advantage of lidar over GPS surveying. You end up with a cloud of millions or even billions of measurements in 3D space, said Jonathan Perkins “You can measure surface displacement at very high spatial resolution.” Getting a closer look at how the ground is shifting in Rancho Palos Verdes would be valuable because of the complexity of the landsliding there It’s not just one large mass movement.” A high-resolution survey of the region could furthermore help reveal areas whose movements are connected “Often what we see with landslides of this size is that one part moves and something else moves in response.” Understanding those linkages could shed light on what’s happening deep underground could be useful to Rancho Palos Verdes officials “We’re asking for help wherever we can get it.” Sentinel-1 satellites pass over the same swath of land roughly every 6 days so this data set provides a high-temporal-resolution look at surface displacements That’s important in cases like Rancho Palos Verdes is that people could be using this to monitor landslides.” a general contractor who lives in the Seaview neighborhood of Rancho Palos Verdes Young’s electricity and gas were recently shut off but he’s hoping to remain in his house for as long as possible Young remembers seeing images compiled from interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) data from the deadly Oso, Wash., landslide that occurred in 2014 He and other residents have wondered whether similar data could be collected in their community “We’re asking for help wherever we can get it,” said Young “I’m pleading to you and your scientific readers to see how they could potentially help us.” —Katherine Kornei (@KatherineKornei) TrendingPoliticsLos AngelesAYIMBY battle could land Rancho Palos Verdes in courtLocal builder proposes 14 townhomes on bluff between million-dollar listings California housing officials are keeping an eye on Rancho Palos Verdes The coastal city known for dramatic cliffs horse trails and eye-popping home prices wants to scrap its housing element and draft a new one after Ali Vahdani applied to build 14 townhomes and two cottages on a 1.6-acre vacant lot with dramatic views of Abalone Cove and Catalina Island beyond In city planning circles it’s known simply as “Clipper Site #16.” The uproar over the project and the city’s efforts to block it has brought Rancho Palos Verdes into dubious legal territory Rand Paster & Nelson’s Dave Rand and pro-housing groups the City Council is weighing a proposal they say is illegal “The Clipper site will become synonymous with housing dysfunction,” Rand said “It’s one thing for cities to adopt restrictive zoning This is infinitely worse and more cynical.” a civil engineer and founder of Optimum Seismic made a well-timed bet on the property three years ago just as the city was drawing up its plan to increase density and make room for 647 more homes as required by the state’s Housing Element Law is a well-known figure in Rancho Palos Verdes owns real estate and contributes to local campaigns according to financial disclosures and county property records But he’s never developed housing from the ground up before The Clipper site would be his first attempt at doing so and he had a vision to make “a boutique development to be proud of.” “I’ve been working on this particular property for the past two years,” Vahdani told the city’s planning commission in October 2021 “I always had a vision of developing it to be a very nice property of course supporting the wishes of the neighborhood and working closely with the staff.” Vahdani bought the parcel in April 2022 for $2.2 million — slightly less than its tax-assessed value at the time — from Thomas and Shannon Hartman who raised their children in a home on the other side of the block The Hartmans never developed the empty lot The family opted instead to use it for Easter egg hunts and family picnics according to a source who lives in the neighborhood and spoke on the condition of anonymity the city adopted its 6th Cycle Housing Element a set of commitments it’s required to make to contribute to the state’s housing plan Rancho Palos Verdes upzoned the Hartman lot to accommodate eight more units Rancho Palos Verdes hired land use consultant Dudek to help it come up with a list of three sites that could be further upzoned to add more housing, and the City Council adopted a new zoning ordinance that did so last April Vahdani stood to profit further. According to the revised plan he can now build up to 22 homes on his property if he can find a safe way to fit them on the sloping Complicating matters is the 250-million-year-old landslide about a mile east which is causing California to slip into the sea at a rate of about one foot per week and the feeling of “living on the edge” pervades the city But builders in the area have to undertake geotechnical and soil analyses in order to get projects entitled Vahdani wasted no time filing a preliminary application last November to develop 16 homes on the site one of which would be affordable to a very low-income household and he was soon on his way to becoming a home builder on the Palos Verdes Peninsula The proposal came as a shock, since new housing is seldom proposed in Rancho Palos Verdes. The city has issued permits for a mere 14 new housing units over the past year, all of them accessory dwelling units, or small cottages built next to single-family homes, according to a city planning report published in March That lot never needed to be in there,” Shannon Hartman pleaded in a public hearing last month “It’s in a landslide area with movement all around.” The public outcry over Vahdani’s proposal mounted over four months with neighbors citing the purported risk posed by the nearby landslide the impact on their property values and the character of the neighborhood SIGN UP“This is a single-family area and we’re doing everything we can to keep that,” another resident testified last month Desperate for a way to block Vahdani’s project Rancho Palos Verdes City Council drew up a plan to go back to the drawing board and submit a new Housing Element removing Clipper Site #16 and two other sites from the plan paying a lot of consultants and architects I couldn’t believe they were going to downzone it months later.” The sudden about-face would undo years of work Submitting a new housing element would require more rounds of public review planning commission approval and another City Council vote the city also needs to withdraw its Local Coastal Program amendment and submit a new one removing the sites “The reason these sites were selected for consideration of removal was due to the number of units they would produce,” Barnes stated in an email to TRD State housing officials reviewed the changes and approved them That’s when Rand the attorney went into battle mode nonprofit law firm YIMBY Law has also stepped in to say “We’re in an interjurisdictional quagmire,” said Rand “The city put this site in the housing element They did everything to invite development on this property only to walk it back when it became politically challenging for them.” and would likely subject the city to the dreaded builder’s remedy according to Californians for Homeownership and YIMBY law The city cannot deny Vahdani’s vested rights to develop the property after he filed his preliminary application in November YIMBY Law executive director Sonja Trauss warned in a March 17 letter to the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council bars Rancho Palos Verdes from undoing the zoning ordinance it adopted last April in order to block a development “The options in front of you are to respect the efforts of your staff which led to a Housing Element and subsequent rezoning and an application consistent with those measures or to waste time and open yourselves to our lawsuit,” Trauss wrote The City Council was set to vote on taking the first step to unravel its housing element the following day much to the chagrin of Vahdani’s neighbors “There are many things the city cannot control,” Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor David Bradley conceded in the March 18 meeting “While we are very sympathetic to many things that have been said tonight there are only a limited amount of things that the city can do Sacramento has changed the housing laws in the state of California in dramatic fashion A spokesperson for the agency said in an email to TRD: “HCD does not have authority to require a city to include or exclude particular sites only to evaluate whether the sites identified by the local jurisdiction are the city must “honor the zoning that existed at the time the project application was submitted due to the application of SB 330 which was passed in 2019,” the spokesperson added Rand isn’t going anywhere. He let loose about his client’s situation on X last month “Things happen in land use that cause me to question whether CA can ever figure it out,” Rand wrote on X during a period of four weeks in the fall of 2024 is part of an ancient complex of landslides and has been moving for at least the past six decades The motion accelerated and the active area expanded following record-breaking rainfall in Southern California in 2023 and another heavy-precipitation winter in 2024 To create this visualization, the Advanced Rapid Imaging and Analysis (ARIA) team used data from four flights of NASA's Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) that took place between Sept The UAVSAR instrument was mounted to a Gulfstream III jet flown out of NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards The white solid lines are the boundaries of active landslide areas as defined in 2007 by the California Geological Survey The ARIA mission is a collaboration between JPL and Caltech, which manages JPL for NASA, to leverage radar and optical remote-sensing, GPS, and seismic observations for science as well as to aid in disaster response. The project investigates the processes and impacts of earthquakes, volcanoes, landslides, fires, subsurface fluid movement, and other natural hazards. UAVSAR has flown thousands of radar missions around the world since 2007 studying phenomena such as glaciers and ice sheets, vegetation in ecosystems, and natural hazards like earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides. News. News. News. News. News. News. News. News. News. NASA Radar Imagery Reveals Details About Los Angeles-Area Landslides Parts of the Los Angeles County peninsula “are part of an ancient complex of landslides and has been moving for at least the past six decades,” according to the news release The active area expanded after heavy rain drenched Southern California in 2023 and early last year The findings were from data collected by NASA’s Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar, an imaging radar instrument that was attached to a jet Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Rancho Palos Verdes — and Oct It comes as Southern California Edison announced in January that it’d be restoring power to specific areas in Rancho Palos Verdes and Rolling Hills Why did Newsom declare a state of emergency for Rancho Palos Verdes?Last September, Newsom declared a state of emergency for Rancho Palos Verdes in response to the accelerated land movement that disrupted many residents' utility services The loss of utility services triggered evacuation warnings for some residents Southern California Edison alerted properties within the landslide area in July 2024 that "considerable land movement" over the past 18 months put "utilities serving the area" at risk and that service could be discontinued “The ground movement affecting your neighborhood has created unsafe and hazardous conditions, which have already impacted SCE's infrastructure, causing power poles to lean and power lines to fail,” the July 30th update read “The impact on SCE's equipment caused by these hazardous conditions increases the risk of system failure In late August, a landslide collapsed a power line, leading to a small brush fire, USA TODAY reported Southern California Edison said in an update that the fire showed that they could not mitigate the public safety risk from land movement in the area the utility provider cut power to more than 200 homes and businesses Paris Barraza is a trending reporter covering California news at The Desert Sun. Reach her at pbarraza@gannett.com. Rancho Palos Verdes city officials have announced a $42 million property buyout program for residents affected by land movement that has been ravaging neighborhoods like Seaview and Portuguese Bend, cutting utilities to hundreds of homes in the process. Through the buyout program, the city and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services will purchase homes with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Home prices will be determined by how much they were valued on Dec. 1, 2022, before land movement accelerated, destabilizing power lines and destroying properties. The city will offer 75% of the property value and the home will be converted to open space, with future development restricted. If residents want to take advantage of the program, they have to act fast. Residents have until 5:30 p.m. on Nov. 4 to request a voluntary inspection from the city. The deadline to submit a buyout application is 4:30 p.m. on Nov. 8. City and Cal OES officials will then make sure the property meets FEMA’s eligibility criteria: Funding will be prioritized for properties that meet these criteria: If an application is accepted, the city anticipates closing in 45 days. Residents who accept the buyouts will have to sign a liability release and withdraw any current legal claims and lawsuits they have against the city. Shari Twidwell, who lives with her parents in the Portuguese Bend area, said they won't likely participate in the buyout program. "It sounds like the money is pretty small, given the situation and the number of homes, and I don’t think we would be considered," she said, noting that the damage to their home isn't as extensive as some of their neighbors. The family will reconsider if the city offers another program in the future, she added. Above average rainfall over the last two winters accelerated land movement in the ancient landslide complex in the Greater Portuguese Bend area. At one point, land was moving up to 1 foot a week in some areas. City officials have since announced that land movement has slowed to an average 8 inches a week. The shifting land has also changed the topography of the area: in the Portuguese Bend Beach Club area, land has bulged upward of about 6 feet from the ocean, creating a new beach. The Rancho Palos Verdes City Council on Tuesday allocated $2.8 million — more than half of a $5-million grant from Los Angeles County — for direct relief to residents in the Portuguese Bend area facing landslide damage or a loss of vital utilities — or in many cases, both “These emergency grants will deliver long-overdue immediate assistance to those whose lives have been upended by land movement and utility shutoffs helping them cover essential costs like home repairs and temporary housing,” Mayor John Cruikshank said in a statement The city will distribute up to $10,000 to families most directly affected by the land movement and the shutoffs estimated to be about 280 homes in Rancho Palos Verdes have said they are facing costs closer to $100,000 from the last few weeks’ events which left them scrambling to fortify homes’ foundations switch to off-grid solar energy and convert natural gas lines to propane “These residents are going through hell and they have shouldered the financial burden of this landslide entirely on their own,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said in a statement “$10,000 may not be enough to cover the costs of what these homeowners are facing but I think it is important to get them this help.” The funds are not extended to residents in Rolling Hills, the nearby city where about 50 residents also recently lost power and gas service because of land movement in a few neighborhoods, which sit just up the hill from the Portuguese Bend landslides. City officials on Tuesday were grateful for Hahn’s support noting that other emergency resources — such as state or federal funding — have been almost impossible to secure even as the landslide disaster has escalated “The county of Los Angeles is the only [one] that has helped us at all,” Councilmember David Bradley said Tuesday night “The city cannot continue to fund everything because we will be broke.” In the absence of outside help, city officials are trying to find ways to respond to the growing emergency despite mounting expenses — ideally, before the rainy season. Rain and runoff are known to exacerbate and accelerate the land movement, as groundwater drives the geologic shifting. “We just need to stop the darn thing from moving,” Cruikshank said. “This is a nightmare.” Officials still know little about the extent of the Portuguese Bend land movement on the Palos Verdes Peninsula City staff outlined about $26 million worth of projects that were recommended to try to mitigate land movement including efforts to keep water from entering the ground by filling fissures and improving drainage as well as projects to remove groundwater by installing additional deep wells and pumps The city typically operates on a yearly budget of less than $40 million city leaders approved $14 million for landslide emergency response and mitigation while making plans to revisit the projects soon if more money is necessary Dozens of residents testified at the City Council meeting some expressing concern about unnecessary red tape that could limit access to the $10,000 grants but most simply urging support for immediate winterization efforts and more groundwater pumping in light of the upcoming rainy season which have been pumping out 600 gallons of water a minute Initial measurements have shown that the pumping appears to have helped slow the land movement “I feel like we’re turning a page here,” Mihranian said said that overall movement had started to naturally decelerate in August for the first time in months probably because there hadn’t been rain in the last five months after the activation of the new dewatering wells several areas showed a more dramatic decrease in movement “It’s a direct impact from the dewatering well activity,” Phipps said the almost 700 acres of landslide area moved about 8 inches a week on average still a disastrous amount but down from prior months The most active spots were shifting about 11 inches per week though that measurement was down from a high of about 13 inches a week this spring Officials are hoping that slower movement could allow utility companies which have pulled out indefinitely from about 300 homes both city and county leaders have called on Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas to provide more support for residents who abruptly lost utilities most without any compensation or backup plan “These utility companies are monopolies,” Hahn wrote this week in a letter to the California Public Utilities Commission “They have profited off these residents for decades as the chosen utility providers for this region these utilities should be responsible for providing alternative sources of power to their customers on the Palos Verdes Peninsula when they choose to shut off service.” Though many residents have been dealing with the fallout of the utility shutoffs for more than a month — many already paying out of pocket for off-grid solutions — Hahn urged the commission to hold the utilities accountable Southern California Edison and Southern California Gas both contributed $50,000 to a landslide relief fund started by the Palos Verdes Rotary Club. No funds have yet been distributed, however, and Rotary officials this week said they do not yet have a plan for doing so. After several days of power shutoffs in Rancho Palos Verdes Communities affected by accelerated land movement, Gov. Gavin Newsom declares a state of emergency Hahn called those amounts insufficient, given the hundreds of homes now without power and gas. “More robust financial assistance programs are needed to support displaced residents and those suffering from indefinite service outages,” Hahn wrote in the letter. Hahn and Rancho Palos Verdes officials plan to meet with the Public Utilities Commission next week. Gabriela Ornelas, a spokesperson with Southern California Edison, said the utility is aligned with the goal of restoring power to those affected by the land movement, “provided it can be done safely.” She didn’t directly respond to Hahn’s calls for more assistance for residents but called the situation “constantly evolving.” A spokesperson for Southern California Gas didn’t respond to a request for comment. “It still is 100% their responsibility to provide power and gas. … If they lose money doing it, tough break,” said Cruikshank, who will be at the meeting. “We’re going to continue to push that. ... Our residents need to be whole.” 2025 at 3:22 pm PT.css-79elbk{position:relative;}A person's body was found on the shoreline below the cliff in the 2000 block of Paso Del Mar Friday morning CA — Police are investigating the death of a person whose body was found on the shore in Palos Verdes Estates Friday morning below the cliff in the 2000 block of Paseo del Mar according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman Saadullah Sheikh first responders determined that the individual was deceased," said Palos Verdes Estates Police Department Acting Sgt "The county coroner's office responded to the scene and is leading the investigation into the cause and manner of death The County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner's office is working to determine the person's identity in order to notify their next of kin "We appreciate the collaborative efforts of Los Angeles County coroner's office and the Los Angeles County Fire Department in assisting with this investigation," added Marino Shoreline death investigations are not entirely uncommon in Palos Verdes Estates a human leg was found on the shore by a family taking a walk That case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and it is not connected to Friday's investigation it's the treacherous cliffs that prove deadly in Palos Verdes Estates firefighters rescued a woman who fell 40 to 50 feet off a cliff in the area killing a 25-year-old man and critically injuring two women Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts. 2025A magnitude 3.2 earthquake struck off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes area Sunday evening (KABC) -- A magnitude 3.2 earthquake struck off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes area Sunday evening and it was centered about 22 miles southwest of Rancho Palos Verdes 2.9 earthquake hit the Malibu area earlier Sunday at around 3:35 a.m No damage or injuries were immediately reported WATCH | In case of an earthquake, here are the key items to keep in your emergency kit Watch today's top stories and most popular videos which provide you with features like past/future radar and customizable layers Trust us to help you plan the best day possible with the most accurate weather forecast available We recognize our responsibility to use data and technology for good We may use or share your data with our data vendors The Weather Channel is the world's most accurate forecaster according to ForecastWatch, Global and Regional Weather Forecast Accuracy Overview Filters Close filters Neighborhood All Palos Verdes Estates Rancho Palos Verdes Rolling Hills Estates Torrance Filter all Canyon Trail Park Trail Urban Trail Coastal hike More Less Price All Easy Moderate Strenuous Length All < 1 mile 1 to 5 miles > 5 miles Sort by which has damaged homes and left hundreds without power and gas service has also impacted the most popular trails on the peninsula About 13.5 miles of trails in the Portuguese Bend Filiorum and Forrestal reserves are temporarily closed “for public safety due to land movement,” says Rancho Palos Verdes spokeswoman Megan Barnes There are no plans to reopen them anytime soon The good news is, there are plenty of trails on the peninsula that remain open and safe for hiking. The peninsula has more than 1,600 acres of open space within the four cities comprising it: Rancho Palos Verdes Some of the trails aren’t well-marked or require stretches of walking on residential streets a diverse array of native plants and even geological lessons that shed light on the peninsula’s unique terrain Bill Lavoie, a long-time trail leader for the Sierra Club’s Palos Verdes-South Bay group, regularly leads weeknight conditioning hikes in the area He and his cohorts miss the unique beauty and cardio-friendly elevation gains of Portuguese Bend but they have learned to embrace other trails in the area and happily shared some of their favorites Here are five Palos Verdes Peninsula hikes that are more than just worthy substitutes for the closed trails interesting scenery and a window into a fascinating often-overlooked area of Los Angeles County Keep in mind that trails within the Palos Verdes Nature Preserve typically close between dusk and dawn daily and for at least 48 hours after a rainfall. For updates on trail conditions and closures, go to rpvca.gov/trailalerts. Lifestyle The land movement that has been ravaging Rancho Palos Verdes, cutting utilities to hundreds of homes in the process, has slowed recently but is still moving 80 times faster than in 2022, officials said Tuesday. Land movement has slowed to an average 8 inches a week, down from 12 inches in some parts of the Portuguese Bend landslide complex, even as officials prepare for the upcoming winter by allocating millions of dollars in work to prevent further rain damage. Above average rainfall over two winters has changed the topography of the area: in the Portuguese Bend Beach Club area, land has bulged upward of about 6 feet from the ocean, creating a new beach. At Tuesday’s meeting, city leaders approved $4 million for temporary measures to slow down land movement during the upcoming winter season. Fissures in Altamira Canyon and Klondike Canyon will be filled with soil, as well as a bentonite seal to prevent water collecting and seeping into the ground. City officials have said that while they cannot stop the land movement completely, they hope to slow it down. Six deep dewatering wells have been activated at the toe of the slide to remove about 600 gallons of water per minute. According to a city report, “preliminary data shows movement has slowed down at a greater rate in the area since the wells were activated.” Of the $5 million allocated by Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, officials will spend around $2.8 million toward financial grants for residents. The remaining money will go toward repairing and stabilizing public roads, the sewer system and other infrastructure damage. Around 280 residents affected by the landslide will be eligible for up to $10,000 in financial grants to use toward buying generators and batteries because of the power shut offs or repairs and shoring up landslide damage. They can also use that money for temporary housing or storage costs. Residents will have to submit documentation with their application for the grant showing expenses incurred. The city will be sharing details soon on how to apply with the Portuguese Bend Community Association, Seaview and Portuguese Bend Beach Club neighborhoods, which have suffered the heaviest damage. Residents affected by land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes have until Friday to submit an application for the city’s Voluntary Property Buyout program. Officials announced the $42 million buyout program in late October for residents in neighborhoods like Seaview and Portuguese Bend. The goal is “to acquire as many properties as possible” to “minimize any imminent threats to property, especially the structural integrity," said Ara Mihranian, the Rancho Palos Verdes city manager. Through the buyout program, the city and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) will purchase homes with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Home prices will be determined by how much they were valued on Dec. 1, 2022, before land movement accelerated, destabilizing power lines and destroying properties. The city will offer 75% of the property value and the home will be converted to open space, with future development restricted. The city had received 57 applications by end of day Wednesday. With this current round of funding, city officials anticipate buying 20 homes. “Initially, when the dollar amount was made available to the city, your initial reaction is $42 million is a lot of money,” Mihranian said. “If you go back to October or December of 2022, before the landslide, the values are probably in a different place than they are currently, and maybe a better place, you start to realize you're not going to be able to purchase several properties.” Funding could be available in the future, Mihranian said, for more property owners to participate in buyout programs. The city, he added, has no plan to use eminent domain to take over properties. “The way FEMA and Cal OES is presenting this is a long term program,” he said. “And so this is one cycle of what we anticipate being many cycles in the years to come.” In California, Mihranian said, the federal government declares at least one disaster typically every year. With that declaration, local governments are given federal funding to help rebuild. Residents affected by the landslide are also eligible for up to $10,000 in financial grants to use toward buying generators and batteries, repairs, and shoring up landslide damage. Money can also be used for temporary housing or storage costs. The city has already distributed $1.9 million in these grants with funding for the program coming from Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office. Above average rainfall over the last two winters accelerated land movement in the historic landslide complex in the Greater Portuguese Bend area of the city, upending neighborhoods. Print Human remains continue to be found on the coast around the Palos Verdes Peninsula A human body in a “state of decay” was found by a hiker Saturday on beach rocks off a trail in Rancho Palos Verdes The discovery follows recent discoveries of a human skull and bones two legs and a femur at various locations along the peninsula police and medical examiners have been unable to identify whose remains they are or a cause of death a small boat belonging to two missing fishermen was found upturned near the 800 block of Paseo Del Mar in Palos Verdes Estates a Coast Guard search was called off with the men presumed dead The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said the body found Saturday had “probably been there for months .. 2024An earlier version of this article said a body was found Sunday Nov. 18: A human skull and a human bone were found near the 300 block of Paseo Del Mar Palos Verdes Estates police searched the beach area and found more bones Monday: Fishermen who apparently ignored a small craft warning went missing amid high winds and powerful waves Wednesday: A human leg washed up on the 800 block of Paseo Del Mar, near where the abandoned boat was found Thursday: Another human leg and a femur washed up near the same place. Palos Verdes Estates police and Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said their investigations continue. Russ Mitchell is a former staff writer for the Los Angeles Times who covered energy technology and policy from a California perspective, including the state’s ambitious transition to electric vehicles. Today on AirTalk, as recent storms accelerate the Palos Verdes landslide, the city looks for solutions. Lower back pain: the bane of your (and your doctor's) existence. A new study details why lower back pain is so difficult to treat. Joining us for Food Friday are Argentinian production designers turned empanada-making restauranteurs who recently opened Fuegos in South L.A. Print Tom Keefer can only describe the last few weeks in their Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhood as a nightmare Cut off from vital utilities for more than a month while living on the active landslide whose limits have yet to be determined Keefer and his wife have seen their lives upended by the escalating emergency in ways they never could have foreseen they have found themselves struggling to safely store food and secure stable power while running repeatedly to the gas station for more ice and propane to keep their house Amid the long list of challenges now accompanying daily life in their Portuguese Bend community the predominant feelings among many residents are mounting anxiety and frustration — and even anger — over a lack of responsibility answers or assistance from anyone in charge “The sad thing is there’s been literally no help “There’s been no funding.… It’s only through helping each other that we’re making progress.” The emergency has only escalated since the Keefers and their neighbors first lost natural gas in late July. Further gas and then electricity shutoffs have cascaded across four neighborhoods in two cities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula with almost 300 homes now without electricity and 224 without gas — indefinitely Utility companies have said the ongoing land movement has made it unsafe to continue providing gas and electricity in certain areas citing concerns about infrastructure breaks potential wildfires and other hazards that may come with system failures residents of 146 homes in the Portuguese Bend neighborhood — including Keefer and his wife — lost their landline internet connections when Cox Communications disconnected its service this month “It’s scary because it’s bigger than anything anyone imagined,” said Sallie Reeves, who has been trying to figure out how to safely remain on her Portuguese Bend property despite the lack of utilities — not to mention the massive fissure that runs through her home of more than 40 years she and her husband had never seen any landslide damage on their property but she is hopeful that with more people than ever affected it could bring more attention and action to help save their beautiful corner of Los Angeles County as it continues to slide toward the ocean Yet months into the burgeoning crisis, it’s still not clear from where that help would come. Also not yet clear is the full reach and capability of this complicated complex of landslides, which officials last month determined was deeper and probably larger than previously thought perhaps explaining the unprecedented movement across areas that had never before recorded shifts which were not previously considered vulnerable to the recent landsliding help cover costs the city of Rancho Palos Verdes incurs because of the power shutoffs including the generators and fuel used to keep the sewer system running The utility companies have not offered any specific plans for bringing back service they’ve said that more shutoffs are possible — albeit as a last resort — with a SoCal Edison spokesperson calling it a “fluid situation.” Rancho Palos Verdes officials are hoping to slow the land movement with the help of five new de-watering wells they’re in the process of installing at the deepest level yet The wells aim to relieve the pressure from groundwater on the newly discovered or the surface driving the landslide failure that they don’t know how effective the pilot project will be have been scrambling to respond to the crisis while also attempting to distinguish the city’s “notably different” land movement from the experience in Rancho Palos Verdes city officials reported this month that land movement had damaged three homes and a door at the local Los Angeles County fire station and caused several fissures and water main breaks — and they are now faced with utility shutoffs my family is struggling to deal with the serious consequences the actions ordered by SoCalGas and [Edison] have caused us,” Rolling Hills Mayor Leah Mirsch said in a statement “It is devastating on many levels for all of us.” Mirsch said the city had pursued all practical courses of action to prevent or delay these shutoffs She said the city is now committed to holding the utility companies accountable and “pushing them to implement solutions that will restore services both quickly and safely.” Sallie Reeves uses a generator to power her appliances (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) All the unknowns have left many in the area living on edge For Steven Barker it’s been literal: His home in Rancho Palos Verdes’ Seaview neighborhood sits on the brink of a growing sinkhole He has lost gas service but not electricity — yet He worries about losing electricity — something he’s been told could happen at any point — but he’s mostly concerned about the effects that rain could have on the sinkhole that has shot ripples through his street and is pulling on one side of his house “We are gonna be in big trouble if water flows into that thing right there,” Barker said shaking his head at the massive cracks that span the street in front of his house Barker has asked the city and public works officials for months to address the sinkhole he hasn’t even seen [the landslide damage] federal — we need Army Corps of Engineers.” His fear about upcoming rainstorms is echoed across the communities that have been fighting the land movement for months It’s undisputed that the landslide activity is caused by increasing groundwater which officials have linked to the back-to-back years of heavy rainfall in Southern California Many residents also worry it’s been exacerbated by poor drainage and repeated water main breaks Rancho Palos Verdes’ Seaview neighborhood has lost some utility service (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) “Do you know how scared everybody is for the first rain?” Keefer’s wife “Nothing is being done to prevent a major catastrophe She said they feel abandoned, left behind to figure out a way to stop the landslide and survive off grid without help from experts, engineers or officials. She’s turned much of her energy to a community-run art auction, which aims to raise money to respond to the growing emergency and save their beloved homes. Jan Seal, who lives in a Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhood above the Portuguese Bend Reserve, said she and her husband have been closely following the landslide developments and are glad they don’t live on one of the many cliffs overlooking the slide area, though they’re not too far. “When you hear it happening in areas that didn’t have an issue, and they say this is moving faster than it ever has in the past … I think people always get nervous,” she said. For Barker and his family, it’s been weeks of taking cold showers, eating takeout and Crock-Pot meals and grappling with the impossible math of which investments — installing a large propane tank, converting gas-powered appliances, switching to solar panels — are feasible or even possible for a house on the edge of disaster. “If I lose my house … I don’t have the money to buy another,” Barker said. “Are they just gonna let the neighborhoods go and let people go homeless?” LLC ("Bascom") has acquired Highridge Apartments an irreplaceable 257-unit value-add apartment community in the highly desirable coastal community of Ranchos Palos Verdes The purchase price was $127,000,000 or $494,163 per unit Annie Rice and Jamie Kline of JLL Capital Markets arranged the debt financing for the acquisition The JLL Investment Sales team led by Blake Rogers and Kevin Sheehan represented the seller AMC will provide property management services for the community and SD-Cap will manage the planned property renovations Highridge Apartments is an institutionally owned 1972-vintage property that has undergone significant upgrades over the years including new in-unit washers and dryers and enhanced amenities Residents at Highridge Apartments enjoy a home-like living experience uncommon in the South Bay rental market The spacious units average 1,157 square feet—21% larger than the submarket average—and include 28 loft-style residences with soaring ceilings The community boasts an attractive unit mix the community is just minutes from stunning ocean views and premier shopping and dining Bascom plans to further elevate the property by renovating unit interiors to a Class "A" standard and enhancing amenities to create a more resort-style living experience Senior Vice President of Operations for Bascom strategic upgrades that will improve the resident experience while increasing the property's long-term value we are ensuring Highridge remains a top choice for residents who want space Highridge Apartments stands apart as one of only three multifamily communities with over 100 units in Rancho Palos Verdes a highly sought-after coastal enclave known for its scenic beauty The city boasts Los Angeles County's #2 ranked school district and an average annual household income of $236,000 Surrounded by multimillion-dollar homes and facing significant housing supply constraints Highridge presents a rare investment opportunity in a market with strong and sustained housing demand Chad Sanderson, Senior Principal at Bascom "Highridge Apartments is located in a highly competitive market with one of the tightest vacancy rates in all of Los Angeles County We are pleased to have brought this unique deal to a successful close." Bascom has been one of the most active apartment buyers in Southern California since its inception in 1996 partnering with institutional and private capital Bascom has acquired 96 multifamily properties and 15,948 units in Southern California with 40 of those properties and 6,092 units located in Los Angeles County "Few opportunities of scale ever arise in coastal Southern California We are excited to convert on this truly generational opportunity." Contact: Chad Sanderson / Joe Ferguson                                        [email protected]  LLC ("Fund VI" or the "Fund") LLC has retained industry veterans Noel Aguirre and Sean Lieppman of Lee & Associates to market and lease a 4,100 square feet.. Real Estate Residential Real Estate Banking & Financial Services Construction & Building Do not sell or share my personal information: RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. — As the winter quickly approaches, many residents in Rancho Palos Verdes are growing more concerned that rain will further threaten their homes. But Tuesday evening, good news came from the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council meeting, as the geologist found the land in certain parts of the region had finally stopped sliding. The city says this is thanks to 10 deep dewatering wells that are removing the water from 350 feet below ground. FEMA granted the city $42 million in a buyout program, offering qualified residents who are approved up to 75% of their home value in 2022, before the devastation.  The city said there are 85 eligible applications for these buyouts, including 20 from residents with homes that are red-tagged, or unlivable, and another 37 that are yellow-tagged. But some residents say they have no plans on vacating. For 49 years, the Twidwell family enjoyed idyllic living in the Portuguese Bend area on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The marine layer that engulfed the rest of the peninsula stayed clear of their neighborhood so the weather was always sunny. Shari Twidwell’s two best friends were also her neighbors: bikes in each other’s front yards, in and out of each other’s homes with three sets of parents. But, in the last two years, above average rainfall has led to unprecedented land movement, breaking up the neighborhood and relationships that have spanned decades. Since last October, movement of the Portuguese Bend landslide complex has been dramatic. Twidwell said when they first moved into the neighborhood 51 years ago, land in the area was moving at 2 millimeters a year. Now, city officials say it’s shifting at 1 foot a week in some places, slowly tearing apart homes, roads, and other infrastructure. “The sliding activity that has been going on that has been catastrophic is very new,” Twidwell said. “So, that's been eight months of sliding activity that has been out of this world. Totally bananas.” The movement is so bad the historic Wayfarers Chapel had to be disassembled and moved out. Some driveways now drop 6 to 10 feet from the homes they once connected to. Utility poles lean ominously. Power and gas have been shut off indefinitely for more than 200 homes. And Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency. KC King’s family bought the house next to Twidwell’s 30 days after she was born in 1974. Growing up in Palos Verdes, she said, was “special and magical.” But the magic has turned into a slow moving disaster. In the last year, the backyard has “lifted up” and started “twisting.” To get into the back of the house, she said, you have to walk up the backyard. When they cut off the gas, her mother wanted to stay. But then came the power shut-offs, prompting King to relocate the couple to where she now lives in Davis. “I think that this is all just like, whoa, it's a lot to take, especially to be uprooted from the place that you thought you were going to live out the rest of your life,” King said. For Twidwell, the land movement has caused minimal damage to the home she grew up in. But she said it’s not just about her family. “Any time that somebody says, ‘You know what, I give up. I give up. I'm done. I can't do this anymore,’ that's a loss for all of us,” she said. “It's not just that they're losing their home or the place that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives. But it's, we all lose. We lose a member of our family.” Twidwell lives with her parents. Her 88-year-old father, she said, has advanced Parkinson’s disease, macular degeneration and is blind. Her mother, a nurse, cares for her father full time while Twidwell is his backup caretaker. Twidwell herself has multiple sclerosis. Their home was remodeled 20 years ago on the condition that “everything would be flat and everything, the counters, would be accessible in case anybody was in a wheelchair,” she said. Now, the power shut offs have forced her to temporarily move her parents to a hotel. As a therapist, Twidwell said, she can’t underscore the community aspect enough, adding, “My parents are in as good a shape as they are because they have community.” She’s been exploring finding a battery for the solar panels they had previously installed. They won’t power up the entire house, but she said it will be enough for one or two rooms, a fridge and Wi-Fi up. “We're sort of taking things bit by bit because we're kind of waiting for the next shoe to drop,” Twidwell said. “How else are they going to limit us or our abilities to live here, right?” If the temporary plan works, she said she’ll look into adding more solar panels and buying a backup generator for cloudy days. But she knows it won’t be forever. Her family plans to remodel a home they own in Torrance to be ADA accessible “because we're pretty sure that once it starts to rain something else terrible will happen here.” City officials have said that while they cannot stop the land movement completely, they hope to slow it down. In June, crews began drilling holes in the ground to find where water had concentrated so they could install hydraugers to drain the ground. But when they drilled the holes, they found they were dealing with a deeper, much larger landslide. Now, city officials say they’re moving away from the hydraugers project and prioritizing deep dewatering wells. Meanwhile, all residents can do is watch their community continue to tear. “If a tornado comes through and rips up your town it takes five minutes. If a hurricane comes, it takes maybe five days. If there's an earthquake, that's instantaneous and this is something that has no end that we can put our finger on,” King said. “I don't know when the end is, it is a ridiculous thing that can never end, but the landslide feels a little bit like that.” Print The forces behind the relentless land movement plaguing Rancho Palos Verdes appear to be more complicated than originally thought — forcing the city to once again rethink how it can limit some of the mounting damage Officials confirmed a very deep and active landslide plane — previously considered dormant — during exploratory drilling this summer a discovery that has upended emergency efforts aimed at stabilizing the Portuguese Bend area “This is an unprecedented new scenario for the city which means we have to change our strategy,” Ramzi Awwad Rancho Palos Verdes’ public works director said during a City Council meeting last week The alarming situation prompted the city to shelve a long-term stabilization plan and pursue emergency efforts to slow the land movement which sits at roughly twice the depth of the previously tracked landslides further muddles any possible solution to the growing disaster Geologists believe the deeper activity is the ancient Altamira landslide complex for which movement has never before been recorded “The shallower slide does have fast movement but the deeper slide is moving much faster,” Awwad said “The priority becomes that deeper slip plane.” The discovery only exacerbates the sense of urgency. In the last few weeks, Southern California Gas Co. shut off service to 135 homes in the landslide area, citing safety concerns from the worsening land movement. Soon after, Southern California Edison warned electricity could follow “if conditions warrant.” It came as a shock when a landslide destroyed homes in Rolling Hills Estates last July But research from UCLA and NASA shows that land movement preceded the catastrophe Many Rancho Palos Verdes residents are facing existential threats to their homes — cracked foundations, leaking roofs, shifting floors — and the Los Angeles County Fire Department, which serves the Palos Verdes Peninsula, has warned it could take first responders more than six minutes to access some homes due to challenging road conditions a group of residents filed a lawsuit in state court alleging local officials — including the homeowners’ association the county and landslide abatement district — failed to properly act leading to an oversaturation of nearby hillsides that triggered the recent landslide movement the problem is bigger than our city,” said Mayor John Cruikshank City officials last week voted to move ahead with a pilot plan to drill vertical wells into the deeper landslide with the aim of pumping out groundwater — known to be the impetus for the land movement — while continuing to study the extent and characteristics of the deeper slip plane 2024An earlier version of this story said that removing groundwater reduces friction Removing groundwater does not reduce friction — it increases it but it’s clear it at one point encompassed a much larger area meaning it could potentially warp even more land has confirmed there is a much deeper landslide .. probably the ancient Altamira landslide,” said Mike Phipps “What we don’t know is whether that deeper landslide extends under the entire complex.” Historical maps of the ancient landslide complex, including one from the California Geological Survey, documented the slide’s boundary to be well north of the Portuguese Bend Reserve almost reaching Crest Road — which would include some neighborhoods off Oceanaire Drive and Valley View Road Other mapping does not include those areas, however, and Phipps noted that recent movement, or other factors, could have shifted the ancient perimeter. His team recently installed additional monitoring sites in the neighborhoods south of Crest Road, hoping to better understand the scope of current and potential movement. There’s also been some new land movement northeast of the landslide complex along Cinchring and Quail Ridge roads in Rolling Hills, an area that has never been included as part of any mapped landslide area. “It could be related, but it could be a separate landslide,” Phipps said. “We really don’t know.” The rapidly accelerating complex of landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes has created an unforeseen outcome: a new coastline as the seafloor is pushed upward He encouraged collaboration between the cities of Rolling Hills and Rancho Palos Verdes to figure out what’s happening this could be a public safety issue for Rolling Hills,” Phipps said Rolling Hills City Manager Karina Bañales said city officials have been “engaged in ongoing conversations” about the “regional land movement,” but noted that the areas probably affected are on private property Boring tests that uncovered the deeper geologic formation have so far been completed along only one edge of the Portuguese Bend landslide, which is one of four smaller slides in the area — along with Abalone Cove, Klondike Canyon and Beach Club — that probably sit atop the Altamira Complex, according to the latest report from city officials. The failure surface of the Portuguese Bend landslide was recorded around 80 to 180 feet below ground level The deeper slip plane associated with the ancient Altamira slide was measured around 245 to 345 feet below ground The California Geological Survey’s map of the ancient Portuguese Bend shows the most expansive boundary of the landslide area in yellow (California Geological Survey) The prevailing thought has been to respond to each of these smaller slides separately but Awwad and Phipps said a more unified approach is now warranted faster and more widespread Altamira slip plane that spans the other slides recent measurements from across the landslide area — from July 1 to Aug 1 — showed the overall rate of land movement had decelerated “The general rate of land movement has actually leveled off,” Phipps said “This doesn’t mean the movement has stopped The landslide is still moving three-and-a-half to four-and-a-half feet per month — but it’s not accelerating anymore.” Movement is still slightly accelerating in some areas but at much lower rates than previously reported Phipps notes that the area is still shifting about 88 times faster than it was in October 2022 when he was measuring movement on the order of inches per year And that means the problem is still a long way from being solved. are temporarily banned from a two-mile stretch in Rancho Palos Verdes Officials said they’ve yet to get a response from either. “We do need that help, but honestly I don’t know if I expect it anymore,” Cruikshank said at the City Council meeting. “Quit looking at us like as a rich community that doesn’t need help — we need help.” what is it about the land in this particular area that makes it so susceptible to slippage on a big enough scale to uproot homes and the families who live there The biggest driving force behind the landslide principal engineering geologist with the geotechnical engineering firm Cotton which is contracting with the city of Rancho Palos Verdes "We've known for a long time there's water in the landslide but what we've now discovered is that there's water underneath the landslide that's under significant and that pressure needs to be relieved," Phipps told LAist's daily news program AirTalk The primary approach to relieving that pressure Phipps said the city is exploring options like generators and solar power to try and get the dewatering wells back online Phipps said the land movement happening in Rancho Palos Verdes is called a translational landslide — this one measures over a mile long and a mile wide He says it's tending to be more uplift than lateral movement dropping vertically at the top and rising up at its toe "So what we're seeing is some uplift down in the beach area where the landslide is actually coming out the near shore zone And there's a new coastline forming in the Portuguese Bend landslide portion of the overall complex so the ground is rising up there significantly in the Portuguese Bend Club and areas west of that," he said Phipps said the shallower one is well-defined over decades of studies but it's the deeper one that's part of a larger complex that he says seems to be moving as a unit "It is a Herculean task to try to stabilize that big of a mass that's moving into the ocean and my biggest question is whether the measures that we're going to implement to try...to relieve that pressure...are going to work," he said Phipps added that there's also the issue of enduring the cost of this dewatering and pressure relief over a long period of time But he noted that it's not unprecedented to stabilize a land mass of this size You can hear Mike Phipps' full interview with LAist's AirTalk below as well as comments from Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn whose district includes Rancho Palos Verdes Print Michael Gessl’s house survived the Palisades fire that destroyed much of his neighborhood There is, at last, precipitation in the forecast for this weekend And Gessl worries about water seeping through his skylight “I don’t want all the contents of my house to get wet and soggy,” said Gessl who never evacuated and has been hunkered down inside his cold dark Pacific Palisades house since the fire started on Jan He is keeping a close watch on the charred hillside behind his home hoping old tree roots keep it from sliding when it gets wet Marianne Hunter dreads the rain because of an another ongoing disaster: the landslides on the Palos Verdes Peninsula Such is the paradox of Los Angeles County this winter: It is dangerously dry Eaton and Hughes fires and the peninsula landslides — have made people fear the effects of rain they know they desperately need If the rain doesn’t come, the fire danger will increase. If it comes too fast, it could trigger mudslides and toxic runoff in the burn scars and it could accelerate movement on the Palos Verdes Peninsula There, back-to-back wet winters triggered last year’s extreme land movement that warped roads, cracked houses and transformed landscapes. With the lubricated ground shifting, at times, nine to 12 inches a week “L.A. needs the rain, obviously. All of Southern California does. However, rain here in any excessive amount is a problem,” said Hunter, 75, whose house in Rancho Palos Verdes has not had heating since the gas was shut off last summer. the state climatologist for the California Department of Water Resources calls it a “kind of uneasy dichotomy — we need the rain but we’d really like it to come in as an overly friendly marine layer.” Most of Los Angeles County is in a severe drought, according to the U.S January would be the fifth driest since record keeping began in 1896 “You’re really kind of piling extreme on extreme here,” Anderson said A small amount of rain is forecast for the region this weekend most likely between Saturday afternoon and Monday evening a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard A half-inch of rain or less is expected across most of the county but precipitation totals could be up to 1.5 inches in the eastern San Gabriel Mountains the risk of debris flow in burned areas is low But there is a small chance a thunderstorm could emerge directly over a burn scar — a worst-case scenario that could cause problems Mayor Karen Bass issued an emergency executive order Tuesday to shore up Los Angeles burn areas and protect watersheds ahead of potential rain Mudslides damaged both lanes of Mulholland Drive in February 2024 during a very wet rainy season (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) She directed city crews to clear and remove vegetation reinforce hillsides and roads and clear debris The city will install reinforced concrete barriers and sandbags to buttress affected areas and stem the flow of toxins The city also will work to divert stormwater into the sewer system to prevent fire-contaminated runoff from flowing directly into the ocean the Eaton fire burned more than two feet into the hillsides “so there is no root system left” to hold soil and debris “We are concerned for even the lightest rain” in burned foothills areas adding that “it’ll be several years of heightened awareness and preparedness every time we get rain [and] wind.” Officials will be distributing thousands of pre-filled sandbags in the coming days has been watching the forecast with growing alarm Her rented home in Altadena burned in the Eaton fire blocked off by local authorities and the National Guard When Richey returned for the first time this week she salvaged a few personal treasures from her blackened garden: Her grandmother’s flower pot colorful glass fishing balls and wrought-iron furniture A fallen street sign and destroyed homes on Marathon Road in Altadena on Jan Chun / Los Angeles Times) “Its beautiful stuff adding: “The rain brings an urgency to getting the stuff out before its becomes a soupy mess.” Richey had checked the garden but had not yet scoured the wreckage of the house because she did not have proper protective gear 7 because she was initially worried about wind she grabbed one photo of her late mother sitting in a field of poppies — but nothing else “I’m still in shock about everything that I’ve lost Richey was desperate to comb through the house — before it gets wet On the landslide-plagued Palos Verdes Peninsula Hunter said she hoped for a gentle weekend rain not an inundation that would cause the ground to slip farther and her community’s problems to escalate once again Her house in the hard-hit Portuguese Bend neighborhood has just minor cracks from land movement She said she and her husband made “a huge investment” for solar power for their house after the electricity was cut off they sporadically use a fireplace to stay warm the land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes has slowed Local officials credit the dry winter and several newly installed deep de-watering wells, which have pumped out millions of gallons of groundwater that drives the area’s landslide movement. But as worried as she is about too much water, Hunter is equally concerned about fire. “We have a lot of foliage, a lot of trees ... a lot of dry brush,” she said. “So, there’s good in every bad. And vice versa.” Hailey Branson-Potts is a Metro reporter who joined the Los Angeles Times in 2011. She reports on a wide range of issues and people, with a special focus on communities along the coast. She grew up in the small town of Perry, Okla., and graduated from the University of Oklahoma. Sports Climate & Environment It was another blow to residents of the neighborhood, who lost gas service weeks ago. “The land movement there has created such a dangerous situation that we must make that difficult decision to disconnect power indefinitely,” said David Eisenhauer, a SoCal Edison spokesperson. More than 100 additional homes in Rancho Palos Verdes will have their power cut because of worsening landslides in the area “We never want to have to turn off power unless we absolutely must,” he said We have an obligation that’s higher than providing electric service and that obligation is safety: safety of the community and safety of our teams.” Eisenhauer declined to speculate on when or if power might be restored to the affected homes “The conditions continue to evolve,” he said The city has issued an evacuation warning for the neighborhood which means residents need to start preparing to leave “If you have animals, children, or need additional time evacuating, this is the time to leave,” the city said on the social platform X An evacuation order would mean that residents need to leave immediately “If and when we actually have to evacuate because it’s hard for our residents to be there we will work with the Sheriff’s Department to go house to house and make sure that people that do remain do so safely,” City Councilman Dave Bradley said a 52-year resident of the Portuguese Bend community prepares after Sunday’s evacuation warning Burt and many of his neighbors are not evacuating and instead are gathering supplies to continue living in their homes (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times) Recently land movement in the area has continued to be recorded at unprecedented rates: as much as a foot a week That’s created increasing challenges for residents as infrastructure damage and safety concerns escalate The homes that lost power were notified Saturday of the impending shut-off. Those residents are the same ones who had their gas service cut almost a month ago. Portuguese Bend resident Mike Hong said Saturday that he’d learned of the impending shut-off only an hour earlier. “They are giving us even less time than the gas company,” said Hong, who has been cooking with hot plates, an option that will end Sunday. “Don’t abandon us. Where’s the humanity in this?” Moving containers sit outside a home in Rancho Palos Verdes’ Portuguese Bend community, where an evacuation warning has been issued due to electricity shut-offs. (Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times) SoCal Edison had warned residents that this was a possibility after gas service was cut. Eisenhauer said there wasn’t one issue that led to this decision, but said it was made to “keep the community safe.” On Thursday, a small fire ignited near Narcissa Drive in Portuguese Bend. Eisenhauer said it started after a power line fell and sparked nearby vegetation. Though the blaze was quickly extinguished, he said the incident demonstrated the perilous state of things. “We know this is a difficult time for Rancho Palos Verdes and we’ve been looking for ways to keep the power flowing,” Eisenhauer said. “At this point land movement has created such a dangerous situation that we must make the difficult decision to disconnect power indefinitely.” Eisenhauer said there are no other immediate plans to extend the power shut-off to nearby neighborhoods also facing land movement, but said it’s a fluid situation that the utility is “monitoring constantly.” He said SoCal Edison will have a “community crew vehicle” in the neighborhood by Sunday with water and information for residents. He said the utility is not providing generators because the ground in most places is not stable enough to install them. City officials have said that losing electricity would create new safety issues, because power is key for telecommunications lines, the sewer system and the fleet of pumps that help mitigate ongoing land movement by expelling the groundwater that geologists say causes it. The neighborhood still has a working sewer system because the city installed portable generators procured by the Portuguese Bend Community Assn. to power the sewer lift system, City Manager Ara Mihranian said. Officials with California Water Service, which provides the area with water, have said they have no plans to discontinue their service, but it isn’t yet clear if that might have changed in recent days. Effectively responding to the slide will require outside assistance, Councilman Bradley said. “This is much bigger than the city itself, and without help from our partners at the county, state and federal level we can’t come up with real solutions to retard the land movement,” he said. Daniel Miller is an enterprise reporter for the Los Angeles Times, working on investigations and features. An L.A. native and UCLA graduate, he joined the staff in 2013. Roger Vincent covers commercial real estate for the Los Angeles Times. said the company is working on energizing circuits While some of the 28 homes will have power immediately restored others will have to work with the utility company for additional inspections of the electric equipment in their homes so power can be restored in the coming days The homes are located in the western area of Rancho Palos Verdes and the northernmost area of Rolling Hills Ornelas said while SCE has identified some areas to restore power to they are “continuing to explore additional solutions for other parts of the peninsula as we have been since the situation started.” Resources for residents still without power: 2025 at 4:22 pm PT.css-79elbk{position:relative;}Nearly 1,000 goats will report for duty in Palos Verdes Estates​ over the next two weeks as part of an effort to cut back vegetation to reduce fire risk CA — Nearly 1,000 goats will report for duty in Palos Verdes Estates over the next two weeks as part of an effort to cut back vegetation to reduce fire risk The 900 goats will eat weeds and other overgrown vegetation in 37 acres of parkland with a focus on hard-to-reach hillside areas inValmonte Canyon and the Palos Verdes stables the hillside between Via Boronado and Espinosa Circle and the hillside below Via Pinzon and Mirlo Gate House — zones deemed extremely high priority by Los Angeles County officials Some 400 goats got to work in Valmonte Canyon Thursday The clearing effort there could take a week and a half to complete Additional goats will be deployed elsewhere next week The brush clearance is expected to be complete by the end of the month The city of Palos Verdes Estates contracted with Fire Grazers Inc. for the goats and brush clearance services The company has done similar goat-powered work on the peninsula in the past County Supervisor Janice Hahn's office will reimburse the city for the cost of the $67,000 contract "The natural canyons and hills of the Palos Verdes Peninsula are beautiful but they put this area at greater risk for wildfires," Hahn said in a statement "Mayor Victoria Lozzi told me that her city needed help with brush clearance and I was happy to offer my office's support If you see the goats this month in Palos Verdes Estates know that they are hard at work making this community safer." The number of homes red tagged in Rancho Palos Verdes due to land movement has gone up from two to 20 after city officials began inspecting properties as part of a buyout program. The inspections also resulted in 37 properties being yellow tagged, meaning they have been moderately damaged. In October, city officials announced a $42-million property buyout program for residents affected by land movement that has been ravaging neighborhoods like Seaview and Portuguese Bend, cutting utilities to hundreds of homes in the process. As part of the program where the city was to offer homeowners 75% of the property value, residents had to submit to a voluntary inspection. Applications for the program are now closed. The city has received 85 applications with 69 inspections conducted. Sixteen homeowners did not ask for an inspection. With hundreds of homes affected by land movement, the city prioritized homes that had been red or yellow tagged for the buyout program. Ara Mihranian, the Rancho Palos Verdes city manager, previously told LAist that the funding is enough to buy around 20 homes. “If you ask us to come out and do this inspection, and in order to move you up on the top of the list, as a priority for the buyout, keep in mind, the buyout takes several months and if we red tag your property, you will then have to vacate the property,” Mihranian told LAist. “It's a mandatory, no entry and so residents need to understand that and really think about how they're going to move forward, whether they want the city to come out and do a voluntary inspection of the property.” City officials are currently reviewing applications for the buyout program with no timeline provided. Average land movement in the ancient landslide complex is now at 3.3 inches a week, down from 8 inches a week in early October. At one point, land was moving up to 1 foot a week in some areas. Above average rainfall over the last two winters accelerated land movement in the ancient landslide complex in the Greater Portuguese Bend area. City officials have met with staff from SoCalGas and SoCal Edison on restoring gas and power to residents. With land movement decreasing in some areas, SoCalEdison is looking to restore power for 16 homes on Fruit Tree Road, Plumtree Road, and Narcissa Drive. According to city officials, the gas company is not yet in a position to restore service "due to safety concerns that involve potential pipeline strain, leaks, or damage that could lead to fires or other hazardous incidents.” The city currently has nine dewatering wells extracting water from city owned land within the landslide complex, including six at the toe of the landslide complex by the Portuguese Bend Beach Club, two near Palos Verdes Drive South and one in the Abalone Cove area. The wells are extracting around 1.15 million gallons of water a day. The city is projected to spend $43.6 million through June 2025. Around 36% of that funding is coming from the city’s reserves. Print With less than 24 hours’ notice Nikki Noushkam learned Sunday that Southern California Edison was shutting off power to her home indefinitely “I have to vacate my house that I have lived [in] for almost 20 years,” Noushkam said during a special Rancho Palos Verdes City Council meeting Tuesday to discuss the latest blow to residents of the besieged community: losing electrical service due to unprecedented landslides that authorities fear could spark brush fires Noushkam is one of more than 200 homeowners in the Portuguese Bend and Seaview neighborhoods whose power was shut off by Edison over Labor Day weekend She and her neighbors are now struggling to continue performing daily tasks — cooking meals doing laundry — with no certainty when utilities will once again be switched on for good Nikki Noushkam delivers an emotional plea for action as the Seaview resident attends a special meeting to discuss power shutoffs and evacuation plans for Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhoods affected by landslides (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times) Noushkam feels frustrated and helpless as she scrambles to save her house The Palos Verdes Peninsula has been beset by coastal ground movement since the early days of home development. But the rapidly worsening conditions have raised existential questions for the city about how to help residents and how bad the landslide will get. The city’s landmark Wayfarers Chapel has been battered and had to be disassembled to save it this year Residents in the blackout zone feel isolated And those who live nearby wonder whether their homes will be the next ones to lose utilities because of the landslide At this point, the ground is moving at an average of 9 to 12 inches per week. The shutoffs are designed to reduce the risk that continual and accelerated land movements could spark a wildfire if power lines remained electrified, according to Edison officials. The potential dangers were underscored by a small fire that began near Narcissa Drive in Portuguese Bend last week when a power line fell and ignited vegetation. Gas was abruptly cut off to 135 Rancho Palos Verdes homes due to landslide movement. Now, losing electricity is a real, and dangerous, possibility. During the council’s special meeting, Edison officials said repairs and maintenance on lines in these areas have increased over the last year; however, their efforts have been “thwarted within sometimes days of making those repairs.” The ongoing land movement has made it impossible for crews to keep up with the damage, said George Mundorf, Edison’s vice president of distribution operations. Shifting earth compounded by the area’s rough terrain is also complicating the crews’ ability to inspect areas fast enough to find problems before they happen, he said. “Increasingly, [the] infrastructure is not accessible by cranes or trucks because of the road conditions and the conditions of the ground,” Mundorf said. That means that a quick resolution to the crisis is unlikely. Safety concerns for their crews and consumers prompted Edison to indefinitely shut off power for the Portuguese Bend neighborhood about a month after a gas shutoff. The city simultaneously issued an evacuation warning to the neighborhood. Higher up the hillside, just north of Portuguese Bend, power was disconnected from 34 properties for one to three weeks in the Seaview neighborhood, with 30 homes getting cut off indefinitely. Edison officials predicted that 41 other homes previously cut off from power would have it restored this week. Authorities are also considering shutting off power to the Portuguese Bend Beach Club. Edison officials said they can’t definitively say whether power will be cut, with a decision based primarily on whether land movement conditions change. Officials warned that the community should be ready for a potential shutoff at the club. New drilling in Rancho Palos Verdes has revealed that devastating land movement has been caused by a deeper slip plane — meaning a larger area could be affected “While [Edison] engineers are exploring solutions that may restore electric service the unrelenting and accelerating movement over many months has no playbook,” Mundorf said “That is why we cannot provide a time frame for power restoration in some cases.” Seaview residents are having to turn to neighbors who have electricity for assistance we’re talking about people that are sharing refrigerators and helping each other move aquariums cooking for each other and sharing laundry rooms for those of us that have power for our neighbors across the street that don’t,” Seaview resident Anne Cruz said during the council meeting City officials and residents wanted interim solutions from the utility such as neighborhood-scale generators or microgrids but Edison said it wouldn’t be safe to operate because either method needs stable ground Southern California Edison sets up a community resource center in Portuguese Bend. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times) Early Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for Rancho Palos Verdes after the risk of severe land movement disrupted utility services and prompted the evacuation warning services and financial assistance to the city as it responds to residences whose power has been shut off What the governor’s declaration does not do is provide financial assistance to affected residents Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank said he is sending a letter to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to request the emergency proclamation be expanded so financial assistance can be provided to residents the city approved an Edison retroactive permit request to install a temporary power pole at the Ladera Linda community park to provide electricity to Seaview It also extended a construction moratorium within the landslide area until October 2025 and adopted an emergency ordinance to help residents in the landslide complex to stabilize their homes and place temporary housing on the same site as their residence Following the governor’s declaration, California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta issued a consumer alert Wednesday warning residents about the risk of price gouging on housing If consumers see the cost of an item that’s more than 10% higher than the price charged before the emergency declaration, Bonta said, they are encouraged to file a complaint online. Print Trump wants to sell lots and develop homes on the property.The golf course’s original owners went bankrupt after the 18th hole slid into the ocean A mile west of Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes a sign just off Palos Verdes Drive South touts the Estates at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles where potential residents can “build your custom dream home.” Those signs sum up the promise and the peril of Trump’s clifftop, open-to-the-public golf course, which he bought from bankrupted developers in 2002 after the 18th hole slid into the ocean The club has even played a role in Trump’s New York fraud trial On Friday morning, Trump is scheduled to hold a news conference at his club in the beautiful and beleaguered city, which is under a state of emergency issued by Gov Gavin Newsom this month because of extreme land movement triggered by back-to-back rainy winters In recent weeks, hundreds of homes have had their electricity and gas cut off. Neighborhoods near the golf course are under a city-issued evacuation warning, with the fissured land moving about 9 to 12 inches a week and houses cracking and sliding off their foundations Last month, a small fire in the Portuguese Bend neighborhood, which was ignited by a power line that fell because of shifting land, underscored the danger. It is unclear whether Trump will acknowledge the ongoing catastrophe during his visit. City officials say the club is about a half mile from the active slide area. In an email, his campaign said it was “monitoring” conditions in the city. Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank said he is trying hard to get on Trump’s radar. “My hope is that when he is in town, I can get on his schedule and give him a debrief,” Cruikshank said. “It would be great to get the attention, no matter who it is.” As of Thursday afternoon, Cruikshank still had nothing lined up. Politics Former President Trump is scheduled to head fundraisers in Los Angeles and Woodside next week The latter is hosted by relatives of the wife of California Gov Trump is in California this week for a pair of high-dollar fundraisers, including a Thursday night event where tickets were going for $250,000 apiece. He is scheduled to attend a Friday afternoon fundraiser in the Bay Area — hosted, notably, by relatives of Newsom’s wife. The cost: as much as $500,000 per couple there was a dissonance between Trump’s club — where the smoothly paved parking lot was filled with Porsches Teslas and BMWs — and the disaster unfolding just outside it traffic was brought to a crawl by orange cones The two-lane road has long been a bumpy, oft-patched asphalt roller coaster. It is paralleled by an above-ground sewage line rigged with flexible pipes designed to move along with the land — but ground movement has left the road marred by cracks the sign for the Estates at Trump National Golf Club Los Angeles invites potential future residents to build luxury houses Two newly built cul-de-sacs lead to empty where Trump’s company is actively pursuing plans to build up to 23 homes has been working through an extensive list of requirements — like working with the city’s geologist to make sure irrigation does not exacerbate land movement — before it can sell and develop the lots “They’re checking them off,” she said of the requirements Trump paid $27 million for the deeply discounted property The original developers had gone bankrupt after the 18th hole fell into the Pacific during a 1999 landslide while the course was still under construction In 2015, Trump announced he would forgo his plans to build homes on 16 additional lots, instead granting an 11.5-acre conservation easement to the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy. In a news conference at the time, Trump told officials with the conservancy: “It is my great honor, and enjoy it for infinity, I guess.” Trump still owns the land, and golfers still use it as a driving range. But the move was praised by community leaders happy to preserve open space on the coastline. Donald Trump arrived at the once-glamorous Ambassador Hotel for a major announcement: Here on Los Angeles’ Wilshire Boulevard he would build the tallest building in the world Trump said the donated land was worth “much more than $25 million.” While he framed the donation as charity it was in his interest for the land to be valued as high as possible because it would have affected the size of the tax break he could claim In 2022, the New York state attorney general sued Trump, three of his children and his company, alleging they fraudulently inflated the value of the Rancho Palos Verdes club and conservation easement — along with other Trump properties across the nation In Rancho Palos Verdes, Trump has repeatedly squabbled with locals planting a row of ficus trees without authorization to block the sight of homes he thought were ugly, and battling the California Coastal Commission and the city for a decade over a 70-foot flag pole he erected without a permit During the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee this summer, his son Eric Trump told hundreds of California delegates and their guests that the club had “the most beautiful views anywhere the day after Trump’s debate with Vice President Kamala Harris the formal dining room at the club’s Cafe Pacific was mostly empty dolphins and seashells are painted on the ceiling the $25 Trump Burger comes with Thousand Island dressing on a Trump-branded brioche bun and picture windows offer resplendent views of the Pacific Ocean Inside the clubhouse store, visitors posed for photos beside $50 red MAGA hats. Framed on a clubhouse foyer was a racy 1990 Playboy magazine cover featuring Trump and Playmate Brandi Brandt, who has his tuxedo jacket wrapped around her otherwise nude body. He also displays the 2007 resolution — signed by then-Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti — congratulating him for receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame Meanwhile, Mayor Cruikshank has turned to a man even wealthier than Trump to ask for help for his troubled city: tech billionaire Elon Musk Musk’s company responded within three days and quickly set up a meeting, Cruikshank said. City officials are now evaluating proposals for solar-powered batteries and other off-the-grid options to power homes, he said. As for Palos Verdes Drive South, along with the signs warning of landslides and encouraging people to build their dream homes, there’s yet another sign: Times researcher Scott Wilson contributed to this report. A months-long landslide condition in Rancho Palos Verdes California has led to homes having their electrical and gas services cut off and Gov Gavin Newsom to proclaim a state of emergency A reporter stands near a home that collapsed due to ongoing landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes An aerial view shows a neighborhood affected by ongoing landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes An aerial view shows a neighborhood damaged by ongoing landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes Motorists drive along a section of the road affected by ongoing landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes A home severely damaged by ongoing landslides is seen in Rancho Palos Verdes Collapsed roads are covered with tarps in a neighborhood damaged by ongoing landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes A warning sign stands along a section of road affected by ongoing landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes Cracks in the street are filled with dirt in a neighborhood affected by ongoing landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes An aerial view shows a collapsed hillside due to ongoing landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes A road closure sign stands in a neighborhood affected by ongoing landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes (AP) — Nick Mardesic and his family are living off the power grid and a hot meal and shower require driving several miles to his parents’ home but rather on a scenic peninsula on the edge of Los Angeles Their power and gas were cut because worsening landslides from two years of heavy rain are threatening to tear apart scores of multimillion-dollar homes perched over the Pacific Ocean Mardesic has been fighting for months to keep his home standing Sections of his front yard have sunk about 3.5 feet (1 meter) Deep fissures snake across the walls of his house and a piece of dry wall fell from his ceiling The sidewalk and one end of his driveway have caved creating a gaping hole that has exposed an underground water pipe so he has been placing wood on a beam under the house and jacks it up he has spent about $50,000 to keep his home elevated “It’s something you see out of a movie,” he said outside the home he shares with his wife and two children “It’s almost unbelievable … just watching your house sink away.” The landslides are the latest catastrophe in California already burdened by worsening wildfires and extreme weather that has swung from heat waves to torrential rains that have caused flooding and mudslides in the past year Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on Tuesday who has lived in the community for nearly 30 years said it is good the problem has finally gotten the governor’s attention “They’ve been pressuring him for a long time and hopefully he’ll come down and actually visit us,” Carlton said but she is disappointed “there’s still no aid to the individuals.” The declaration instead opens state resources the city of Rancho Palos Verdes said it continues to urge state leaders and agencies to ask President Joe Biden to declare a federal disaster which would trigger resources and possible individual help from the Federal Emergency Management Agency the Portuguese Bend landslide in Rancho Palos Verdes was triggered with the construction of a road through the area It destroyed 140 homes at the time and the land has moved ever since But the once slow-moving landslides began to rapidly accelerate after torrential rains drenched Southern California over the past two years The land that once was sliding at an average of several inches per year is now moving between 9 to 12 inches (22.8 to 30.48 centimeters) weekly “Bicycles and motorcycles use extreme caution,” reads one sign “Rough road” and “Slide area,” read others said the average rate of movement has slightly slowed but is still about 4 feet (1.2 meters) a month we’ve kind of reached full speed and are cruising right now,” he said Some residents believe leaks are to blame for the destruction in their community They argue multiple burst water and sewer pipes that were not quickly or adequately fixed saturated the ground and contributed to the land movement The city said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation emeritus professor in geological sciences at California State University Fullerton likened the argument to the chicken or the egg dilemma “Did the landslide move and cause the pipe to break Or did the pipe break and then cause the landslide to move?” he said “It’s an extraordinarily difficult thing to prove.” Water leaks would contribute to the acceleration the city received a $23.3 million grant from FEMA for a project that officials hoped would slow the land movement by removing trapped water underground and stop rain from percolating into it in the future But crews recently discovered a deeper and wider landslide “It’s like a freight train going down the hill It’s billions of tons of earth,” Phipps said “Trying to stop that is extremely challenging.” Mayor John Cruikshank said finding funding for solutions poses challenges as does preparing for the forthcoming rainy season and we’ve got to be more resilient,” he said “We can’t always rely on old systems like above-ground wire and below-ground natural gas.” residents are left with difficult decisions Those with collapsed or severely damaged homes have had to abandon them left after their utilities were shut off indefinitely Some are relying on generators to keep the lights on and propane to cook are hoping for relocation assistance and said that without help they are stuck and unable to afford anything in Southern California’s pricey housing market Mardesic’s house was valued at about $2.3 million before the damage “What can we do but keep fixing our home and try to stay here?” said Mardesic his family plans to move into the pool house in the back that is less at risk of falling down the hillside The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy The AP is solely responsible for all content visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment The emergency declaration will allow state agencies to deploy resources and equipment to assist city and county crews with their repair work and efforts to slow the land movement A spokesperson for Southern California Edison on Monday said the power outages will impact some homes longer than others: They say 20 will be without power indefinitely and 38 will be without power for one to three weeks The rest were slated to be without power for 24 hours SoCalGas announced that it was shutting off gas service to additional 29 homes in the western Seaview area and another 25 homes in the Portuguese Bend Beach Club starting at 3 p.m The shut-offs are expected to last indefinitely The moves come as officials raised safety concerns about downed power lines Just last week a small fire and sewage spill from the movement further damaged electrical equipment Advice from the CDC if you believe someone has been electrocuted “The land movement has created a dangerous situation and Edison is deciding to disconnect to keep that community safe,” said Jim Hanggi “It is a fluid situation and we’re working on solutions to keep the power flowing but as conditions change we’ll need to adjust to keep the community safe.” The additional 105 homes facing shut-offs are in the neighboring Seaview area though there is currently no evacuation order or warning The land movement under the peninsula has been occurring for millennia at a slow pace but was reactivated and accelerated in 1956 County excavated to build an extension of Crenshaw Boulevard and dumped tons of dirt there before Rancho Palos Verdes incorporated into its own city The last two winters of heavy rain have further accelerated the ongoing landslide hundreds of families face losing their homes Gordon Leon told LAist he plans to move into a tiny home on his property and bought four generators to power it The power in his house has been shut off indefinitely Leon said he and his neighbors are just trying to "figure out how to survive.” Some Leon doesn't want to leave his neighborhood because he loves its beauty and that he gets to look at the ocean every day Many impacted residents have purchased generators so they can stay on their properties despite power outages A spokesperson for Southern California Edison told LAist that the utility is not providing generators because they feel the ground is too unstable for that to be a long-term solution told LAist on Monday that Southern California Edison should have done more earlier to transition residents off grid and prevent additional outages Cruikshank said he’s working with private energy companies — and that he has even reached out to Elon Musk — to figure out how to shift those residents off the grid longer-term “We’re hearing that our residents want to stay in their homes and we're doing everything we can to keep them in their homes,” Cruikshank said “We're going to do everything we can to push the governor and the federal government to provide them funds.” Cruikshank has called on state and federal officials to declare a state of emergency — so far LAist reached out to the governor's office for comment on Monday but did not immediately hear back Homeowners insurance typically does not cover damage from landslides nor do federal disaster assistance programs There are questions as to how realistic off-grid living is in the area and how much public funding should go to that and other efforts to keep the area habitable Southern California Edison officials said they will provide a vehicle to serve people who need to charge devices or get information That customer care vehicle will be parked on Narcissa Drive at the Pepper Wood gate 2025 at 12:48 pm PT.css-79elbk{position:relative;}Rancho Palos Verdes officials asked residents to use extra caution when driving and secure items that may be vulnerable to being carried away by the wind CA — A wind advisory went into effect today in the Palos Verdes region with city officials warning residents to take caution while driving and going outside which predicts winds up to 20 to 30 miles per hour Weather Service officials said gusts up to 50 miles per hour are also expected The advisory is in effect in much of the Los Angeles region and Oxnard Winds this powerful can make driving difficult "especially for high profile vehicles" such as motor homes and big rigs Weather Service officials added that the heavy winds could result in power outages around the region Rancho Palos Verdes city officials asked residents to secure any items that may be susceptible to being carried away by the wind "Be cautious of falling debris or tree branches," city officials added