The development would cause increased runoff, city officials noted at the time, which would ideally be maintained by the Los Angeles County Flood Control District. “It is recommended that all efforts be made to obtain that [flood control] district’s acceptance,” the city’s resolution from August 1976 said. “However, this should not be done if it requires installation of concrete channels through the canyon bottoms which would defeat the intent of the natural area.” And so, the drainage plan remained as outlined — failing to meet the flood control district’s requirements and leaving drainage to the purview of the development’s homeowners’ associations, the records said. California Rolling Hills Estates aims to shore up the slope that failed in July and destroyed eight homes residents fear heavy rain and renewed disaster “The stormwater directed by the county and city drainage facilities into the canyon eroded and down-cut the toe of the slope, causing it to fail in July 2023,” a group of affected homeowners alleged in the lawsuit’s updated complaint “The city and county deliberately ignored their standard because they preferred the aesthetic beauty of a natural (i.e. just hours after firefighters evacuated families City and county officials “knew or should have known that the proposed Park Community and other developments in the watershed area would significantly increase the stormwater flow in the open canyon drainage channel and that the increased stormwater flow would erode and destabilize the hillside on which plaintiffs’ homes would be built,” says the new complaint The city of Rolling Hills Estates, which concluded that extreme rains from the prior winter caused the landslide, rebutted the lawsuit’s claims. “At this point, we’re not aware of any city infrastructure or city activity that contributed to the landslide,” said Ed Richards, an attorney representing the city in the lawsuit. He declined to comment on specifics in the case because the litigation remains ongoing. From the late 1970s to early 1980s, officials monitored the development of Rolling Hills Park Villas, where a landslide has since ruined at least eight homes. Lawyers for the county and the homeowners’ associations didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment, but have denied similar allegations in previous lawsuits. Earlier this year, another group of residents whose homes were destroyed or damaged in the landslide filed a similar lawsuit, which also remains ongoing. A judge ruled earlier this month that the two cases were related and they could soon be consolidated. In that other case, the residents alleged that “due to the design and/or maintenance” of the storm water system, it failed and led to the landslide. Ken Kasdan and Scott Thomson, attorneys for that group of residents, said they hired experts who conducted on-site assessments, finding that the way water funneled into the canyon “contributed to the slope failure.” A report prepared for Rolling Hills Estates says excessive rainfall caused the landslide in July that destroyed eight homes but some residents are skeptical of the city’s findings alleging the two homeowners’ associations in the community and monitoring of the slope which resulted in the damage.” That case also remains open Before construction on this development began a city engineer in 1976 wrote to Rolling Hills Estates leaders noting that it was important “to ascertain if any consequences exist in this area as a result of subsidence similar to that which is being experienced in some of the adjacent beach areas,” which the most recent complaint said was in reference to the Portuguese Bend landslide “In spite of the risk of subsidence, [Rolling Hills Estates] insisted on draining stormwater across steep slopes into the open canyon drainage channel,” the updated complaint said. “It chose not to build concrete channels.” 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. World & Nation Subscribe for unlimited accessSite Map LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network. Gas will be turned off for 35 homes in the city of Rolling Hills starting Monday, because it is "no longer safe to continue natural gas service," SoCal Gas announced on Thursday. The shut off will be indefinite. "The movement has significantly compromised the safe operation of the natural gas pipelines serving certain areas in the Palos Verdes Peninsula," according to the statement. "Observations and assessments made by our personnel require that we discontinue service to these areas to promote the safety of the community."   The utility is not providing payment assistance to affected customers but they will not receive a gas bill for the duration of the shut off. LAist has reached out to the city of Rolling Hills for comment. Historic rainfall in Southern California accelerated the land movement with city staff saying the current rate of movement is “about 88 times faster than it was in October 2022.” According to SoCal Gas: "If your natural gas service is turned off, please do not attempt to restore service yourself, or to connect alternative fuels like propane to your natural gas meter. Doing so is unsafe. Before connecting alternative fuels like propane to your home’s natural gas plumbing, please consult a licensed professional."  "Unfortunately, we do not know when it will be safe to restore service in these areas, but will continue to evaluate our ability to serve impacted homes," SoCal Gas said in its statement, and added: "We understand this remains a difficult situation for the community." LAist takes the climate emergency seriously. And our coverage is unique because we took the time to listen to Southern Californians about their concerns. With more climate coverage than ever before, we are here for you every single day with stories that provide actionable information so you can make your everyday life better. But we cannot do this essential work without your help. We rely on donations from readers like you to stay independent, which keeps our nonprofit newsroom strong and accountable to you. At a time when the need for local journalism has never been greater, many newsrooms are facing cutbacks, including LAist. Member support – your support – is what will sustain a free press in Southern California. LAist’s mission is to be here for you, so please be here for us now with a donation to power our trusted local reporting. Step up right now and make the choice to give. Because that’s exactly what it is - a choice. But it is not a choice without consequences. If readers do not choose to step up and donate, the future of fact-based news in Southern California will not be as strong. No matter what happens in the world, LAist will remain a voice you know and trust. Print James Bellis and his mother have a concerning crack on their Rolling Hills property but without geological data from local officials they feel in the dark about the extent of land movement in their area It is a worry shared by many in Rolling Hills.‘We just want to know what’s going on so we can make decisions for our property,’ Bellis said Standing on the far left corner of the three acres he owns in Rolling Hills points to a crack he’s been monitoring in the yard since August and was about 240 feet long and an inch wide when he first noticed it — but now it runs more than 450 feet through the back of his property and in one section is almost 16 inches wide He’s worried about what this land deformation could mean for the house on the lot which he co-owns with his 80-year-old mother She lives with her two Australian shepherds in the one-story home which recently had its natural gas cut off because of land movement “We just want to know what’s going on so we can make decisions for our property,” said Bellis He has seen the devastation that has rippled through the neighborhoods in and around Portuguese Bend in Rancho Palos Verdes — just down the canyon — and wants to know what they’re up against. Yet he’s still waiting on concrete answers. then 50 homes are expected to lose electricity by Wednesday residents haven’t had a clear picture of how fast the land is moving near their homes Ann Bellis recently saw her natural gas shut off because of land movement in Rolling Hills The service was restored about two weeks later (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times) Ann Bellis was among those dealing with shutoffs living without gas (and hot water) for about two weeks before her service was restored as many of her neighbors across the street and in her community still lack both electricity and gas service I just boiled water and all that,” she said In announcing the shutoffs, SoCalGas pointed to a recent water-main break and land movement, while Edison stated a “rapid increase in fissures” meant the company “cannot mitigate the public safety risk of downed poles and wires in the area.” Rolling Hills Mayor Pro Tem Jeff Pieper acknowledged the fissures in the community but said: “It’s been like that for decades.” He was skeptical of the utility companies’ explanation for cutting services because neither shared their own geological reports; instead they relied on analyzed data (from geological surveys repair orders for damaged equipment and fire hazards) and “anecdotal observation,” Pieper said The city and most of the community “are not convinced the land is moving” at a rate that warranted utility shutoffs and he has yet to see any geological data that indicate otherwise On the city website, a page dedicated to land movement updates states that as of Oct. 1 there haven’t been any new updates, and moving forward, the city will provide new details “only when there is significant information to share.” Unpredictable and accelerated land movement prompted power shutoffs in Rancho Palos Verdes Faced with continued uncertainty residents struggle with solutions to stay in their homes Meanwhile, the Rancho Palos Verdes city geologist reported earlier this month that “creep movement” up to 0.7 inches per week has been recorded in Rolling Hills specifically around Cinchring and Quail Ridge roads affecting multiple properties — including Bellis’ home The big question — and concern — about this creeping in Rolling Hills is whether it might be linked to the devastating movement downhill around Palos Verdes Drive South, where land moved, on average, about 8 inches a week this last month, according to the geologist said at that city’s council meeting this month that he isn’t convinced that the Rolling Hills movement is directly related to the rest of the movement in the larger Altamira Canyon landslide Recent road damage caused by land movement in front of James Bellis’ home on Monday (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times) “Those landslides may be separate,” Phipps said He said he needs more data from land monitoring to understand how the different areas might be interacting Despite repeated requests from Rancho Palos Verdes its city manager said this week that Rolling Hills officials still have not agreed to sit down for a meeting to collaborate on landslide issues between the two cities Previously Rolling Hills helped monitor land movement and passed that geological information along to residents, particularly in the 1980s, when land movement in the Flying Triangle landslide area was detected by Los Angeles County geologists. At the time, there was some disagreement among residents about whether the city should assist in tackling the movement that had destroyed several homes. This time around, the city’s community association hired a geologist shortly before residents started losing utilities. By the September council meeting, though, the geologist had only 12 days of monitoring data. 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 City officials told The Times that they know of three homeowners who hired their own geologists after noticing land movement on their properties “All residents are encouraged to monitor their properties for signs of land movement and report any fissures to the association and the city,” city staff said Once Bellis discovered the crack on his property was part of a larger fissure in the road he and his mother reported it to the city and the association Bellis and his mother have discussed what they would have to do in the event the fissures get worse and additional homes risk losing gas and electric service They’ve talked about installing solar panels or replacing the house’s two older gas furnaces with an electric heat pump James Bellis looks out over the Portuguese Bend landslide area from his Rolling Hills home (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) Bellis’ grandparents purchased the land in the early 1950s and built their home got married on the property and has hosted many other family marriages there too His family remembers when neighbors faced unimaginable devastation caused by the Flying Triangle landslide that became active in 1979. At the time, geologists said the land was shifting in two dramatically different directions, eventually destroying at least a dozen homes. Records show the area again saw issues from movement in the early 1990s The Bellis’ property and the other properties affected by the recent utility shutoffs aren’t in the Flying Triangle area, but Bellis said he still found the region’s landslide history worrisome. “For the future,” Bellis said, “my big concern is how to keep the water from making this crack any worse and eroding.” 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. Why it matters: SoCal gas said in a statement that the rapidly accelerating land movement in the Portuguese Bend area — around 4.5 feet a month — in Rancho Palos Verdes has made it “unsafe to provide natural gas service.” The world soon watched as the red-roofed houses slid quickly down the hillside but new research has found that the slope was actually a “slow-moving progressive landslide” with foreboding movement that had begun as early as five months before the catastrophic event July 8 Analyzing satellite images and data to measure tiny shifts in the land well before that fateful day the team of researchers was able to gauge the slope’s velocity then use that metric to calculate — with the obvious gift of hindsight but a high degree of accuracy — when the hillside was due to collapse “Our results show that the timing of catastrophic failure of [the Rolling Hills Estates hillside] could have been estimated within a few days of actual failure,” researchers wrote in an article published this month in Geophysical Research Letters “Our findings provide further evidence that satellite remote sensing data can contribute to landslide early warning systems and can also be used to better understand the impacts of climate change on landslide hazards.” An animation showing the land movement at Peartree Lane in Rolling Hills Estates that preceded the July 2023 landslide ( Xiang Li) Experts say more research is needed to utilize this satellite monitoring for large-scale landslide detection With more testing and technology — and necessary buy-in from public officials — researchers hope this technique could provide enough advance warning to help avert “If we can record these movements to forecast the potential of the catastrophic failure, it will highly improve hazard management and forecasting,” said Xiang Li, a postdoctoral researcher with UCLA’s Joint Institute for Regional Earth System Science and Engineering and lead author of the study A complex mixture of human and geological factors means that this stunningly beautiful peninsula of seaside Southern California homes is also Using the movement data from months before the landslide the team was able to model potential future movement Their model predicted that the slope would fail July 11 — three days after the landslide actually failed Just the roof of Weber ‘Wei’ Yen’s home is visible from his street in Rolling Hills Estates. He worries over the mementos he may never get back. The study also explained the significant lag between the rains, the landslide’s initial movement and its final failure: It’s because instability can take time to build once water infiltrates the ground and creates an internal surface the top layer of land can slide on. “Formation of the sliding surface will induce some movement, while the collapse will only occur when the sliding surface is fully developed,” Li of UCLA said. “The progression can happen over hours, months or years.” The study’s findings are of little help to the residents of Peartree Lane, many of whom remain barred from reentering their homes more than a year later, even if they weren’t destroyed, due to stability or sewer issues. The researchers are hopeful, however, that the work can inform early warning systems and landslide forecasting, which could help limit such disasters in the future. Getting to that point will require further research, as the satellite analysis has proved reliable only in a handful of scenarios — the latest being in Rolling Hills Estates. “Whether it can be applied widely is questionable,” Li said. There are questions about how this technique will work in different environments around the world, on slopes dense with trees (which makes satellite imaging less accurate) and on slides that don’t have precursory movement. Geologist El Hachemi Bouali, who wasn’t involved in the research, pointed out that the study used only the land-movement velocity to predict the timing of the failure, so a more nuanced formula that takes into account factors such as geology, slope angle and recent weather may be more reliable — something he could see incorporated in the future using artificial intelligence. Still, the study’s results are promising, Bouali said. An assistant professor of geosciences for Nevada State University who has long studied landslides on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, he has no doubt that the science and technology for a reliable early warning system for landslides will continue to advance but he worries how feasible such a system would be to implement. “The biggest hurdle for an early warning system is the cost and the installation of all of the infrastructure you would need,” Bouali said you’re probably going to have an inventory of tens of thousands of individual slopes.” as the UCLA and JPL researchers note that climate change is expected to cause more frequent and intense “weather whiplash” — extreme drought followed by extreme rains — which will exacerbate landslides The long dry stretches can open cracks that let the water penetrate deeper which can lead to bigger changes in the groundwater pressure during the wet season City officials, however, continue to monitor the site and said in a statement that there has been no indication of any significant new land movement in recent months. Two separate groups of residents on Peartree Lane have filed lawsuits in Los Angeles County Superior Court, claiming that their neighborhood associations were negligent prior to the landslide, failing to adequately maintain the slope on which their homes sat. One of the cases mentions that residents noticed some cracking at the start of July 2023, but HOA representatives didn’t respond to their concerns. Attorneys for the HOAs denied the allegations against them in one of the cases, court records show. Both lawsuits are ongoing. All of the attorneys involved declined — or didn’t respond — to a request for comment from The Times. LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio SoCal Edison will shut off power indefinitely for 50 customers in the Quail Ridge area in the city of Rolling Hills starting Wednesday at 6 p.m This brings the number of residents on the Palos Verdes Peninsula without power to more than 240 Above average rainfall over two winters has led to increased land movement — destabilizing power lines SoCal Edison said in a statement that ground movement “has created unsafe and hazardous conditions” which “increases the risk of system failure fire ignition or other public safety hazards.” Newsom said his office has been working with the city of Rancho Palos Verdes to get federal money to help with capturing groundwater The emergency declaration also gives the city manpower and equipment from the state to help stabilize the area LAist has reached out to the city of Rolling Hills for comment on how they will address the growing landslide complex and how it is now affecting their residents 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 Print Utility shutoffs have again expanded on the Palos Verdes Peninsula amid worsening landslide movement After the loss of gas and electricity threw parts of Rancho Palos Verdes into turmoil dozens of residents in the adjacent city of Rolling Hills are — for the first time — facing the loss of vital utilities Affected Rolling Hills residents are set to have their gas shut off Monday afternoon The electricity shutoff will follow in about 48 hours The announcement from Southern California Edison came as around 200 other homes in the area were already without power Like many of the power shutoffs affecting the Portuguese Bend area in Rancho Palos Verdes these latest cutoffs are for an indefinite period Rolling Hills said in last week’s statement that it had asked both Southern California Gas Co and Southern California Edison to “look aggressively at engineering solutions” to provide service again as soon as possible Rolling Hills Mayor Leah Mirsch reiterated that Sunday night in a statement to The Times “The safety and well-being of our residents remains the City’s top priority,” Mirsch wrote “We are all impacted by the outages and are committed to holding the utility companies accountable — pushing them to implement solutions that will restore services both quickly and safely.” The city of Rolling Hills on Monday clarified that the local fire station and sheriff’s deputies would not be affected by the shutoffs and that officials were working to expedite permits for residents who want to install alternative power The city’s statement also said that the Rolling Hills Community Assn. a private homeowners group that includes the affected homes hired a geologist who has installed land movement monitors The association did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Times But in August after Rancho Palos Verdes officials determined that the landslide forces affecting the region were much deeper and likely more widespread than previously thought the city geologist’s team met with some Rolling Hills residents about new said last month that the new movement in Rolling Hills could be related to the larger landslide complex in Rancho Palos Verdes but it would require additional monitoring to confirm that Gas company officials said the new shutoff in Rolling Hills follows a “recent geological hazard survey and an incident with the water system.” California Water Service spokesperson Yvonne Kingman confirmed that Rolling Hills had a water main leak last week which she said was the “fourth leak we’ve experienced due to land movement in Rolling Hills in recent months.” She said the first of those leaks occurred in late July she said crews were able to repair the break quickly and that the utility has no plans to cut off its service we still plan to continue providing water service in the landslide areas both for customers’ everyday needs and for fire protection,” Kingman said in a statement “We also continue to address and repair any leaks that occur due to the land movement as quickly as possible.” She said the utility’s multifaceted leak detection system has not been affected by the electrical shutoffs and noted that many of its sensors operate on cellular service The shutoffs in Rolling Hills come days after SCE shut off power to several dozen homes in the Portuguese Bend Beach Club and western Seaview neighborhoods of Rancho Palos Verdes Power and gas were previously cut off to about 140 homes in the Portuguese Bend neighborhood When electricity is cut Wednesday to the 50 homes in Rolling Hills, there will be a total of almost 300 in the area facing an indefinite power shutoff because of the land movement declined to definitely say whether more shutoffs were expected but said cutting electricity is a last resort for the utility “We are still assessing the situation and looking for ways to provide power to these communities in a safe and reliable way,” Kumar said it all depends on the conditions — electrical equipment needs stable ground.” Some areas also have been grappling with cable and internet shutoffs and evacuation warnings— though many residents have decided to stay in their homes using generators and other off-the-grid power providers After several days of power shutoffs in Rancho Palos Verdes Communities affected by accelerated land movement Gavin Newsom declares a state of emergency Previously, officials have said power shutoffs on the shifting peninsula are intended to reduce the risk of wildfires caused by electrified wires. Last month, a power line fell and sparked near dry vegetation, igniting a small fire in the Portuguese Bend neighborhood. On Sept. 3, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for the city of Ranchos Palos Verdes. In his declaration, Newsom said land in the area had been shifting as much as a foot a week, and that land movement had significantly accelerated after the severe storms of 2023 and 2024. Paul Pringle is a Los Angeles Times reporter who specializes in investigating corruption. Sunday by the Sea, one of the Peninsula’s most celebrated fundraisers, returns to its home overlooking Lunada Bay on Sunday, April 27. Proceeds benefit Providence Hospice and Palliative Care programs, which provides 27/7 care for over 9,000 families, regardless of their ability to pay. For tickets and location, call (310) 543-3440 or visit foundation.providence.org/ca/trinitycare/events/sunday-by-the-sea Every Tuesday. Create a calendar and an alphabet book with your little ones. Designed for children ages 2-4. $60. 10 – 11:30 p.m. ArtVentures at Crafted, 112 E. 22nd Street #303, San Pedro. Register at linktr.ee/SelinaPaints Develop skills that will help you be successful in live theater and in front of a camera. Award-winning actor William August works with a small class. This is one of a series of workshops with friendly, supportive coaching that can lead to casting in productions great and small. 6 – 8 p.m. Collage: A Place for Art and Culture, 731 S. Pacific Avenue, San Pedro. More information at collageartculture.org.  Meet up with like minded early birds and do business together. 8 – 9:30 a.m. Good Stuff at Promenade Palos Verdes, 550 Deep Valley Drive, Rolling Hills Estates. $25 members, $35 future members and guests. Full breakfast served.  Register at palosverdeschamber.com An FBI Special Agent will provide information on malicious cyber fraud that threatens public safety Learn how to take the right security measures to prevent online crimes on your computer involving your personal information Celebrate National Poetry Month at the Malaga Cove Library Gallery & Garden with an inspiring evening of poetry First Thursday ArtWalks take place between Pacific Ave, Harbor Boulevard, 4th, and 9th Streets from 5:30 pm – 8:30 pm. There is plenty of metered street parking (free after 6:00 pm) and a paid parking lot at 6th and Mesa. 5:30 – 7 p.m. Information, registration SanPedroWaterfrontArtsDistrict.com Practice gentle yoga in a calming environment Torrance Sister City Association’s 9th Annual Anime Art Contest. Divisions: Middle School & High School. Categories: Hand Drawn & Digital Art. Entries must be submitted in person today, 4 – 6 p.m. Ken Miller Recreation Center, 3341 Torrance Blvd., Torrance. Winners will be announced Saturday, April 5 at 12:15 p.m. at the Bunka Sai Festival. Forms and more information at torrancesistercity.org.  Through Sunday, April 6. Japanese Cultural Festival with tasty plate lunches, sweets, arts and crafts, cultural performances, dance, music, martial arts, exhibitions, and demonstrations. 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. Ken Miller Recreation Center, 3341 Torrance Blvd. at Madrona Avenue, Torrance. Visit torrancesistercity.org/bunkasai.html Through Sunday, April 6. The beauty of succulents. For anyone who loves the beautiful and the unusual. 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. Palos Verdes Art Center, 5504 Crestridge Road, Rancho Palos Verdes. Admission and parking are free. For more information visit the South Coast Cactus and Succulent Society site at southcoastcss.org or call (310) 346-6206 From the USC Thornton School, violinist Agatha Blevin, Clarinetist Victor Martínez-Jara, and Pianist Matthew Harikian. 3 p.m. First Lutheran Church & School, 2900 W. Carson Street, Torrance. If this is your first time attending in-person, make a reservation by emailing ClassicalCrossroads@Earthlink.net and requesting to be included on the check-in list. For information call (310) 316-5574 or visit PalosVerdes.com/ClassicalCrossroads Hosted by Brenda Carsey who performs with Kid Lighting, Joseph Eid and pop-folk artist Madison Malon. The concert starts at 8 p.m. Doors open and pre-concert wine & beer tasting starts one hour before showtime. Tickets: grandvision.org or call (310) 833-4813 Peninsula Symphonic Winds with Justin Raines, conductor and Alex Singer, conductor. 3 p.m. Salvation Army, 4223 Emerald Street, Torrance. Suggested $20 donation. For more information visit pswinds.org.  Drop-in tech help and have our librarian assist with all your techy questions Paddy Hirsch give his perspective on the recent wildfire tragedy and the daunting task ahead in rebuilding our neighborhoods San Pedro used to have a popular shanty singing session, but this ended with the closure of the establishment where it took place. A port town deserves nautical music, and we’re bringing it back under the leadership of Steve Saunders. 7 – 8:30 p.m. Collage: A Place for Art and Culture, 731 S. Pacific Avenue, San Pedro. More information and events at collageartculture.org Bobbs will present the philosophical mysteries of quantum physics in a way that is understandable to any adult regardless of science or math background (or lack thereof) but would also be understood by inquisitive teens share their efforts to capture the interesting beautiful or amazing and convey its essence to others in a variety of media with 20% of all proceeds to benefit the Palos Verdes Library District Open to the public with music and refreshments Hike through a scenic 21-acre restored coastal sage scrub habitat which is home to the threatened California Gnatcatcher. Moderate to strenuous. Wear comfortable shoes and dress in layers. 9 a.m. 6270 Ocean Terrace Dr., Rancho Palos Verdes. Sign up at pvplc.org/calendar.       Celebrate Earth month with a tree themed Nature Club at White Point Nature Education Center, 1600 W. Paseo Del Mar, San Pedro. Fun tree crafts and even plant a tree in the nature preserve. Ages 3-10 years old. 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. For more information and future events visit pvplc.org The theme is “Woodstock – A Peace, Love & Music Party,” honoring Andy & Renee performing with their band Hard Rain. Dress up in your best hippie-inspired gala wear, enjoy groovy drinks, and rock the night away. 5 p.m. Palos Verdes Golf Club, 3301 Vía Campesina, Palos Verdes Estates. Tickets: grandvision.org/gathering-for-the-grand-gala/ Proceeds benefit the Grand Annex Music Hall our music education program Meet the Music and the historic Warner Grand Theatre 10 a.m. 415 Paseo del Mar, Palos Verdes Estates. Visit ncpve.org.  The Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District-Adult Education, Spring 2025 Session begins. Classes are: Line Dancing, Ma Jong. Exercise classes are Golf, Zumba, Yoga for all levels and Tai Chi. They also have English as a Second Language (ESL). Art Classes include, Water Soluble Oil Painting and Handmade Greeting Cards and more. For more information or to request a flyer, call (310) 541-7626 x66289 or visit pvpusd.net/adulted an estate and tax planning attorney at EP Wealth Advisors will discuss important estate planning strategies and effective family communication in the process A benefit to support The Children’s Center of Harbor Interfaith Services. Live comedy and magic. Live auction. 5:30 p.m. 1018 Hermosa Avenue, Hermosa Beach. $175 per person. Tickets: hisauxiliary.org/event president of the LA Chapter of the American Cetacean Society will discuss the Gray Whale Census at Point Vicente and the importance of whales to our oceans mingle and connect with businesses and service providers in Palos Verdes and the greater South Bay Read Jane Austen’s most popular titles each month and join in the discussion All leading up to the Austen’s 250th celebration This month we are reading “Sense and Sensibility:” Marianne Dashwood wears her heart on her sleeve and when she falls in love with the dashing but unsuitable John Willoughby she ignores her sister Elinor’s warning that her impulsive behavior leaves her open to gossip and innuendo Paul Givant is the frontman, songwriter and founder of the Americana folk-rock band Rose’s Pawn Shop. He tours nationally and internationally with the group at festivals, theaters and clubs. 8 p.m. The Grand Annex, 434 W. 6th Street, San Pedro. Tickets: grandvision.org/event/paul-givant/ or call (310) 833-4813 Experience the magic of timeless hits with Chris Ruggiero. Bringing his velvety voice and charismatic charm to the stage, Chris breathes new life into classics from the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. An unforgettable journey through music history for fans of all ages who love the golden era of rock and pop. 3 p.m. Tickets: PalosVerdesPerformingArts.com or call the box office (310) 544-0403 ext 221 Tues Enjoy Music in the Garden, presented by the Peninsula Committee LA Philharmonic and South Coast Botanic Garden from noon to 4 p.m. This wonderful afternoon of music will showcase young South Bay musicians, surrounded by the garden’s natural beauty. 12 – 3 p.m.  Tickets: southcoastbotanicgarden.org The legendary Harlem Wizards are bringing their jaw-dropping basketball magic to the Redondo Union High School gym. Brand new players, hilarious skits that will have you rolling with laughter. The game begins at 3 p.m. and the doors will open at 2 p.m. General admission $20. Courtside $65. Redondo High School, 1 Seahawk Way, Redondo Beach. Tickets: pretix.eu/harlemwizards/redondobeachca04-27-25-06-30pm/ Join chamber young professionals, in unstructured, casual meet ups are perfect for talking  without the pressures of the traditional business meeting.. This month we are gathering to explore the South Bay Botanic Gardens. Meet at the entrance at 9:30 a.m. 26300 Crenshaw Blvd., Palos Verdes Estates. Contact Ryan for more information contact Ryan@redondovanandstorage.com Once a month, on a select Sunday, the Garden allows visitors to bring their four-legged best friends into the beautiful 87 acres of the South Coast Botanic Garden. Whether you’re bringing your pups with you or not, be aware there will be dogs in the Garden during this time. 9:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Visit southcoastbotanicgarden.org/dog-walking-hours for tickets and to schedule your time For questions and more information call (424) 452-0920 Carl Koppelman has spent the past 15 years solving decade-old missing persons cases through his forensic artwork Hear about his investigative techniques to bring the missing home Easy Reader News & Peninsula Magazine is your trusted source for hyperlocal news and stories from the South Bay and Palos Verdes Peninsula Stay informed—get the top local stories delivered straight to your inbox Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | Legal Notices Talk to a commercial realtor about evaluating a restaurant space and you’ll always hear something about curb appeal Is it located on a street with at least moderate foot traffic so people who aren’t looking for it will still discover it Does the exterior have distinctive features that would catch the eye Is there a sign is visible to a passing car a restaurant that opened in mid-June on Deep Valley Drive Some people do visit the professional and medical offices in the area and the building’s exterior is bland and boxy like the rest of the complex but the space is on a curve so anybody who is looking to the side is liable to stray out of their lane with unfortunate consequences and their sign is not distinctive and mounted some distance from the front door That blandness evaporates the second you get inside because The Little Oliva has a pretty and distinctive interior Ornamental pottery and wicker baskets and trays line a brick-walled room with potted trees at the margins and diners have plenty of space at the widely separated tables with bright yellow a patio with tables beneath sun umbrellas is ornamented with more decorative ceramics Both are lovely environments that have the feel of a stylish Italian trattoria The menu is not about any particular region but leans on Italian and Greek favorites with a smattering of French and American items Green olives and pita bread arrive at your table during the ordering process we started with a fennel salad and a lox and caviar pizza figuring that we could each have a slice and take the half that was left over for the next day because everyone liked it so much that every bit disappeared The nicely risen medium crust was topped with tomato and cheese and baked with just enough lox that each slice had a generous piece and with a sprinkle of caviar that was just sufficient to add its distinctive fishy tang I’m certainly going to be back for more — I have my eye on the leek The fennel salad that arrived with the pizza used that vegetable sparingly but effectively Italians enjoy salads that are mostly fennel by volume but most Americans find that amount of sharp Here shreds of fennel are mixed with romaine but are moderated and balanced by the sweet cucumber and lemon dressing cumulative flavor that pairs well with rich dishes like pizzas and pastas, you may start shopping for fennel with your salad greens Greeks and Italians share the tradition of baked pastas though Italian lasagna and cannelloni are better known than Greek pastizio and lasagna Moussaka is a Greek equivalent to the latter with layers of pasta baked with layers of ground beef and eggplant and topped with Bechamel sauce with the eggplant in big chunks in some recipes and minced in others and some versions have a layer of sauteed potatoes or tomato mixed in with the meat (Since the dish was invented just over a hundred years ago there is no ancient and definitive version so chefs make what they like.) Moussaka can be very dense and moist but in the version here the eggplant is finely chopped and gently cooked and the beef sauteed without tomato and was poured over pasta late in baking so it didn’t caramelize and harden The lamb was three large chops cut from the rack and a puddle of a mild sauce that didn’t seem an essential pairing for anything else on the plate The kitchen here has the essentials of Greek cooking down — simple natural flavors subtly enhanced with spices and the smoky infusion and carmelization from the grill and the portion was generous for the modest price of $28 I really don’t have one handy for the veal Milanaise The thick slab of meat with rib attached covered most of the plate and I figured I’d be taking half of it home Our companion who had ordered the pastrami sandwich volunteered to help with it American veal has gotten better at the same time as farming conditions for the animals have improved and this was fork-tender – our helpful server provided a steak knife but I never needed it The egg and crumb breading on the chop had light seasoning and stuck to the meat rather than peeling off in sheets as sometimes happens Since this came with grilled eggplant and asparagus it could be a fine light dinner for two rather than a feast for one I mentioned the pastrami sandwich and would tell you more about that if our dinner companion hadn’t devoured it so quickly that I didn’t get a bite (He’s a growing young man.) It was on a French roll and he announced that he enjoyed it The wine selection at The Little Oliva was very small on the day we dined there because an order hadn’t arrived I called the restaurant and verified that the situation has now been remedied They were also out of the dessert we ordered but brought baklava to finish the meal One of my companions also had a coffee with cardamom which is a good choice if you enjoy some caffeine to finish A generous dinner for four at The Little Oliva ran about $50 each (and we over-ordered) It’s a modest price for a meal of this caliber served by a friendly and professional staff The Little Oliva is at 700 Deep Valley Drive in Rolling Hills Estates 2024 at 1:54 pm PT.css-79elbk{position:relative;}Residents in a Rolling Hills Estates neighborhood were displaced after a landslide claimed 12 homes in July 2023 Residents of the Palos Verdes Peninsula are now suing utilities contractors and several cities alleging negligence CA — Several Palos Verdes residents who are directly impacted by the landslides in the area have filed a lawsuit against the peninsula cities and Los Angeles County among others alleging their negligence led to the accelerating land movement the residents believe the defendants failed to properly act and that led water from several sources to combine oversaturate and accelerate the landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes “Every one of these named defendants is aware that an ancient landslide lies below these homes the public entities have commissioned multiple studies over the years on how to prevent water from entering the hillside in order to prevent a catastrophic failure the defendants have failed to implement any of these proposed mitigation measures Residents of these communities are now losing their homes due to the failure of these defendants to implement any of the proposed mitigation measures,” said Terry Bailey the residents claimed the private stormwater sewers and drains in the Rolling Hills community do not conform to industry standards and do not manage runoff sufficiently Residents said the risk of landslide acceleration was so obvious that officials must have known the danger it posed to property and yet did nothing a subcontractor for Cal Water in charge of repairing and maintaining the infrastructure caused excess water from leaks and ruptured pipes to enter the landslide "Cal Water and Doty Bros.' actions and failures to act are a substantial factor in causing the landslide to accelerate and are a substantial factor in causing Plaintiffs' damages," the lawsuit read Los Angeles County was also included in the lawsuit because residents alleged the county had a duty to warn the public about excess stormwater overwhelming the LA Flood Control System and the possibility of wastewater and sewage from the defective sewer system entering the landslide and causing health hazards as it released in the environment around their homes Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. 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Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker 2024 at 12:27 am PT.css-79elbk{position:relative;}Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Tony L Richardson ruled on Wednesday that plaintiff Daniel A Burgoyne's lawsuit allegations against Rolling Hills Covenant Church are not barred by the framework of the state's anti-SLAPP statute CA — A judge has ruled a former pastor who alleges he blew the whistle on financial malfeasance at Rolling Hills Estates church can proceed with his wrongful termination suit saying he was not convinced by the church's free-speech defense Burgoyne's lawsuit allegations against Rolling Hills Covenant Church are not barred by the framework of the state's anti-SLAPP statute which is intended to prevent people from using courts to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights Burgoyne's causes of action include defamation "Defendants fail to show plaintiff's termination was in connection with a public issue," the judge wrote Burgoyne spoke out about the church's board of elders allegedly seizing control of millions of dollars in assets and annual tithe/estate donations the RHCC hierarchy rallied against Burgoyne to avoid both scrutiny and the exposure of their involvement in activity that not only violated the law but the duties of loyalty and fiduciary responsibility to the congregation Burgoyne was slandered and defamed as well as ostracized and defamed "And a black sheep he was made to be," according to the suit which further states that Burgoyne was terminated in September 2022 church attorneys state that Burgoygne made false claims intended to damage the church and its congregation and that he ultimately resigned "Because defendants were sued only on account of their exercising their right to free speech and exercise their freedom of religion and because plaintiff's claims against this religious organization and its current and former leaders are meritless the court should grant this special motion to strike," the church lawyers argued in their court papers The same judge is mulling the church's separate motion to compel arbitration of Burgoyne's claims 2024 at 10:06 am PT.css-79elbk{position:relative;}Polls have closed in the Palos Verdes Peninsula cities CA— Election day has come and gone and residents of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Cities cast their votes for City Council and California State Assembly candidates as well as county-wide measures five candidates competed for two City Council seats Steve Perestam pulled ahead of the other candidates with 6,079 votes counted so far George Lewis and David Chura trailed close behind with 5,915 and 5,681 votes respectively Jeff Chen secured 4,480 votes so far and Michele Patrick Carbone secured 2,806 votes Two City Council seats were up for grabs with neither incumbent Dawn Murdock nor Jim Roos seeking re-election Derek Lazzaro pulled ahead of the other two candidates with 4,132 votes counted so far Craig Quinn secured 3,451 votes so far and Desiree "Dez" Myers secured 2,581 votes The Rolling Hills Estates City Council appointed candidates Velveth Schmitz Debby Stegura and Frank Zerunyan each to four-year terms and voted to cancel the Nov According to the Los Angeles County Registrar only 2,615,541 of the county's 5,736,803 registered voters' ballots had been counted as of Wednesday morning Real-Time Race Results For Palos Verdes/Los Angeles County: Nov The Registrar of Voters and Patch will update the results throughout the night as votes are tallied and the page will be refreshed for the latest updates Jump to the contest/measure of your choice in the results below Voters chose between current Democratic Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi and Republican small business owner George Barks LA County voters also weighed in on a number of ballot measures as well as the battle between incumbent George Gascón and challenger former U.S For full coverage of the election in California, click here Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon The best of Los Angeles straight to your inbox We help you navigate a myriad of possibilities Sign up for our newsletter for the best of the city By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news Sign up for our email to enjoy Los Angeles without spending a thing (as well as some options when you’re feeling flush) Our newsletter hand-delivers the best bits to your inbox Sign up to unlock our digital magazines and also receive the latest news By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. Los Angeles Located on a picturesque oceanside bluff in Ranchos Palos Verdes the all-inclusive luxury resort is the perfect place to unwind for a long weekend and experience a serene The 102-acre resort boasts a nine-hole golf course four pools (including one that’s adults-only) a fitness center that offers complimentary classes and seven unique dining concepts and you could spend a couple of nights here without leaving the property Accommodations range from the typical rooms and suites to more luxurious bungalows casitas and villas—but even in a standard king you’ll be treated to ocean views from your balcony or terrace (Long hallways ensure every resort guest has them.) Terranea could coast by on its beautiful location alone but well-considered dining concepts and a jam-packed activity calendar ensure the resort is a worthy splurge for out-of-towners and locals alike my partner and I attended a meet-and-greet with the on-site falconer relaxed in one of the spa’s poolside cabanas and took a guided early morning tour to the neighboring tide pools There’s also numerous walking trails and a small beach I took an all-levels yoga class and enjoyed a massage at the Spa at Terranea which includes a day pass to the gender-segregated soaking tubs and a tranquil adults-only pool with reservable cabanas Booking any body treatment also grants access to the Spa’s upstairs relaxation room home to one of the most stunning vantage points of the Pacific that I’ve ever seen in my life.  one of the most romantic dining destinations in all of Los Angeles The indoor-outdoor restaurant’s small patio offers panoramic ocean views and a seasonal fine dining menu with first-rate cocktails a curated wine list and a little bit of something for everyone I enjoyed the vegan-friendly cauliflower and white chocolate soup and the deconstructed old-fashioned for dessert a pan-Asian concept that serves seriously great garlic noodles the requisite fusion-style maki rolls and a whiskey miso bread pudding that’ll have you planning a return visit For more casual dining and unparalleled views at sunset an indoor-outdoor restaurant located at the water’s edge with a standout lobster roll and other straightforward fare Given Terranea’s distance from most of Los Angeles—it’s nearly a half hour drive to get back to the South Bay’s Beach Cities—the resort is more suited to travelers looking to escape the city and relax not those who are jonesing to visit all of L.A.’s major tourist attractions a single nights’ stay here is still well worth the cost of admission—but I’d highly recommend booking at least two.  NeighborhoodTerranea is in the suburb of Rancho Palos Verdes a fairly residential area with a small shopping center fairly rocky beaches and bluffs with striking views The coastal area has recently made headlines due to unprecedented land movement and subsequent red-tagging of entire neighborhoods completely seismically sound.) The resort is located about 45 minutes drive from LAX and an hour or more journey from most parts of Los Angeles San Pedro: A far-flung coastal neighborhood of Los Angeles with a recently revitalized waterfront area and other local attractions the Korean Bell of Friendship and the Sunken City Manhattan Beach: One of the most upscale cities in the South Bay complete with a walkable waterfront area full of restaurants and shops.  The Strand: The 22-mile bicycle path that spans almost the entirety of L.A.’s westward-facing coastline ends at Torrance Beach More pedestrian-friendly sections can be found in Manhattan Beach Time Out tipIf you’re booking a spa treatment and want to go all out look for treatments that include a 30-minute Balneo Soak Guests can choose between a relaxing bath in the Ocean Suite which boasts a private balcony with seaside views where a built-in fireplace offers maximum hygge factor Thanks for subscribing! Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! twitterinstagramspotifyAbout us Contact us Time Out magazine Deep-seated landslides can occur weeks or months after heavy rainfall, when water has time to percolate down to weak zones of rock, creating a landslide plane under the weight of the overlying rock and soil, according to the California Geological Survey. These types of landslides generally occur on moderately steep slopes. If you are in the market to buy a home, experts say there are a few ways to determine whether you are buying a property with a high risk of landslides. 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 Landslides are part of the natural process that erodes mountains and moves sediment to the ocean through river systems “It’s important to the basic erosion process,” said Jonathan Godt the landslide hazards program coordinator for the United States Geological Survey “Over the human lifespan, we’re just a blink of an eye in geological time, so [landslide] issues or those processes don’t penetrate our consciousness until something like the unfortunate situation in Rancho Palos Verdes happens,” he said In 2011 the California Geological Survey created a map that shows that a majority of the state’s coast is at risk of landslides Homes built decades ago on ancient landslides that were at one time dormant are “fine for periods of time [but] sometimes there are changes,” Godt said Several factors can alter a landslide’s active status but the warning signs are hard to see because they are “well beneath our feet and kind of hidden,” he said When properties in these areas are for sale it’s up to buyers to gauge the land movement risk of the property they’re interested in If the seller or their agent knows that the property is on a seismic hazard zone that is subject to strong ground shaking, soil liquefaction or landslide, the information must be disclosed, according to the state Department of Real Estate. But buyers are also responsible for conducting their own research. 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 At least two websites, Realtor.com and Redfin.com, provide information on the property’s natural disaster risk Near the bottom of the listing there’s a section that breaks down the property’s risk of flooding landslides and land movement are not factors that are disclosed Instead, potential buyers should conduct a Google search of the neighborhood alongside the words “landslide” or “natural disaster.” If there has been previous landslide activity, news articles about those problems probably will surface, said Timothy D. Stark professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois The California Department of Conservation also published a 2023 California Landslide Response report that included a page showing where deep-seated landslide activity might occur after the 2023 storms. Stark also suggested using Google Earth Pro to look at aerial images over time to look for land movement. When you look up an address or a neighborhood on Google Earth Pro, it will automatically show you the current image. To view past images, click the View tab and then Historical Imagery or click on a small clock icon above the 3D Viewer. You can then zoom in or out to change the start and end dates. As you look at the surface of the area you’re researching, Stark said to look for ground surface features such as drops in nearby hillsides or reddish areas (that have exposed or no vegetation) that indicate steep slopes — all potential signs of prior slope movement. Accelerating landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes have continued to upend life But residents like Gordon Leon aren’t ready to give up Other signs of landslide risks can be spotted with the naked eye when visiting a property you are looking to buy A sign of land movement is if the ridge at the top of the hill is flat and then has a steep curve Check the base of the hill; if the ground is heaved up Consider how close the hill or slope is to the property you’re interested in If there is sudden land movement or a landslide Other signs of past land movement in the area might include: You can also check whether land is moving by taking a photograph of the offset marked lines on the ground or a crack in the pavement and revisit the same site a week or two later to see if there’s any visible difference If you decide to make an offer for a home and start escrow a home inspector can help you determine if past land movement has affected the property Stark said home inspectors will complete a home assessment and look at the walls drywall and foundation for any types of cracks that suggest land movement Inspectors will also look at whether the walls are straight and the floor inside the home is level Inspectors can also suggest if a geotechnical engineer is needed to conduct soil samples of the home These tests can detect the behavior of the ground under varying conditions An attorney who represented Rancho Palos Verdes in a lawsuit over development says court decisions forced the city to allow building in the landslide area Natural disasters such as earthquakes, flooding and landslides typically are not covered by a general homeowners insurance policy. However, homeowners can buy a non-standard policy, called a Difference in Condition policy, that’s often used to cover earthquake damage. Jerry Becerra, president of Heffernan Barbary Insurance Services, said it’s possible to find a DIC policy covering earthquakes where the definition of earth movement is broad enough to include landslides. But he said such a policy could be pricey. “Presuming you can find a DIC earthquake policy to cover a building located in an area prone to earth movement, the pricing would reflect the exposure,” Becerra said. Underwriters rely on maps that show soil conditions, proximity to earthquake faults and other factors to determine rates, he said. If the area is known to have a lot of earth movement, he said, it’s possible no company would be willing to provide coverage. “I would not take a guess on actual pricing, but I expect it to be more than 1% of the coverage value and subject to high deductibles,” Becerra said. collapsing roofs and cracking walls along the way Officials still don’t know what caused the clear-day landslide which has forced the evacuation of 17 homes as the land has continued to shift for days Although this landslide came as a shock to residents, the Palos Verdes Peninsula is known to be prone to such movement Not far from Peartree Lane, where the homes slid along the hillside, a slow-moving slide, triggered in 1956, continues to shift land in the Portuguese Bend area. In the late 1990s, another landslide collapsed a hilltop office park in Rolling Hills Estates. California Questions mount in the wake of the land movement in Rolling Hills Estates, a city that many residents assumed was safe from such disasters. Two people were arrested Thursday morning in Rolling Hills Estates after deputies say they attempted to burglarize evacuated homes, then tried to escape into the landslide area. Five more homes on Peartree Lane in Rolling Hills Estates have been evacuated after a sewer line broke in the landslide, which had already collapsed multiple homes. Business As a Rolling Hills Estates hillside further collapses, homeowners without special coverage are unlikely to get any financial assistance from their home insurers. It probably won’t come as a shock that hilly and mountainous terrain is often susceptible to landslides. And Southern California has a lot of that. The Rolling Hills Estates City Council declared a local emergency and said residents whose homes had collapsed had their “support and sympathy.” Extreme heat. Unprecedented rain. Wildfires that rage for months. The Earth is giving us plenty of notice to change where and how we build. Multiple homes in a Rolling Hills Estates neighborhood had slid down the hillside by Tuesday as a major landslide continued to push them into a canyon. The ground is still moving in Rolling Hills Estates, more than a day after 12 homes were evacuated because of major ground slides. Homes in Rolling Hills Estates continued to move Monday morning, more than a day after 12 houses were evacuated because of a major ground shift. The cracks in the homes, which are on Peartree Lane bordering a canyon, were visible on the outside and inside. leaving Los Angeles County to continue leading the response On Monday, a spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom's Office of Emergency Services said county is probably able to handle the catastrophe on Peartree Lane on its own, the L.A. Daily News reported Meanwhile, city planning documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times show that some people raised concerns about the stability of the land during the neighborhood's construction more than 40 years ago. A geologist has not analyzed the site yet, but officials have said an expert should be at the scene by Wednesday to begin that process. Ten of homes began sliding down into a canyon on July 8. Although two of the 12 red-tagged homes had not slid down as of three days later, county Fire Chief Anthony C. Marrone said they did move. An additional 16 homes were being monitored but residents were allowed to stay. The official cause of the landslide is not known, but an obvious potential suspect is the exceptionally heavy rain that fell on California this past winter. Water percolating down through soil is known to be able to activate a slide months after the last rainfall. The Associated Press contributed to this report. Print Sepideh Razipour and her husband never thought they could afford to be homeowners but when their Rolling Hills Estates rental went up for sale they scrambled to make the townhouse their own pulling together savings and borrowing from extended family But before they made their first mortgage payment, a massive landslide upended life on Peartree Lane pulling eight neighbors’ homes down a nearby canyon and pushing others into different levels of structural purgatory but the land movement damaged crucial sewer lines utility repairs are stalled as officials worry about potential ground shifts leaving Razipour’s family of four stuck in temporary housing Sepideh Razipour owns a home across the street from the landslide that occurred on Peartree Lane in July but it’s been yellow-tagged and is still unlivable because of sewer damage (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) “What are the chances of buying a home and not being able to live in it after a week “It’s affecting every aspect of our lives.” She remains hopeful they can soon return, but concerns about a rainy winter and her street’s long-term stability loom large — even as work to shore up the slope finally begins they’ll do the winterization before the heavy rain starts,” Razipour said The city of Rolling Hills Estates reported that last winter’s excessive rains caused July’s devastating landslide although the findings were preliminary and at least two independent analyses are ongoing But residents worry that heavy rainfall could overwhelm the still unstable ground, threatening even more homes or creating new issues across the landslide-prone Palos Verdes Peninsula. “A part of our hillside is missing, so who’s to say during the rainy season if there’s more instability,” said David Zee, who also bought his house months before the slide. Zee’s house is one of four deemed structurally unsafe but not destroyed, although it now sits on the precipice of the failed slope. Eight other homes collapsed with the hillside, and five more — including Razipour’s — remain yellow-tagged and vacant because of sewer damage. “Everybody’s worried that more of the hill can come down,” said Steve Blum, an attorney who specializes in landslide litigation and is representing some of the residents on Peartree Lane. “There could definitely be expansion of the slide to affect other properties.” Meteorologists say the chances are high for an El Niño weather pattern this winter, which could bring increased rainfall across much of the Southwest. That raises the likelihood of land movement disasters, including slides, experts warn The threat is especially evident on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, where two other homes were recently red-tagged — both in Rancho Palos Verdes’ Seaview neighborhood — after residents found cracks and other structural damage The homes are not far from Portuguese Bend where the peninsula’s most dramatic landslide complex covers 240 acres Officials say its movement has accelerated in recent months An aerial view shows damaged homes on Peartree Lane in Rolling Hills Estates (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) El Hachemi Bouali an assistant professor of geosciences at Nevada State University said that “the residents of Rolling Hills Estates should be cautious.” A chain-link fence now runs along one side of Peartree Lane, blocking off the homes that were demolished or ruled unsafe and the slope that city officials say remains unstable since the July 8 collapse. The landslide moved the existing slope about 45 feet down the canyon, according to the city’s report. The city recently ordered the two homeowners associations in the gated Rolling Hills Park Villas community to implement winterization measures to mitigate stormwater runoff and erosion and halt further damage to the canyon, according to an October notice. The Rolling Hills Estates landslide in July made some homes unlivable Rancho Palos Verdes is trying to secure state and federal aid after three more slides City and county officials applied for disaster reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency earlier this month — a request still under review — but there has been little other public funding allocated for the landslide’s recovery and mitigation costs for work on the slope — which is considered private property owned by the HOAs — has fallen on homeowners everybody’s going to be involved and helping out Sepideh Razipour looks out on damaged homes beyond a fenced area in Rolling Hills Estates (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) Razipour and her husband are still paying their mortgage and property taxes on a home they cannot occupy a growing challenge with added costs from temporary housing She has no idea how they’ll afford the three $8,000 installments to the HOAs beginning in January — their share of the $4.3-million combined work for geotechnical assessments winterization construction and long-term stabilization efforts She said the city is working with Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office on a program to offer the HOAs loans for repair work. But like the FEMA funds, that remains a work in progress. It could be up to two months before geological experts evaluating the Rolling Hills Estates landslide have any preliminary answers The HOAs’ winterization work includes sealing fissures along the slope using sandbags and plastic sheeting to minimize runoff and installing a drainage pipe at the bottom of the canyon according to an HOA presentation reviewed by The Times The city’s order repeatedly notes that “workers should not be allowed near any portion of the headscarp” near the top of the landslide as the area remains unstable it is anticipated that large amounts of soil and debris will be eroded from the landslide,” the city’s community development director wrote to the homeowners associations “That erosion will remove support from the landslide and contribute to its further movement,” which could directly threaten areas to the west and north of the landslide — where homes are still standing “The failure to timely implement the measures described above and secure the landslide area from further erosion degradation and damage may result in the city seeking legal authority to perform the work itself,” the order said with plans for long-term stabilization to begin after A representative from both homeowners associations did not respond to questions from The Times Additional building records for the community, obtained from the county by The Times, also revealed other landslide issues over the last few decades — at least one of which occurred on Peartree Lane, though in a different location from this summer’s slide. However, geotechnical and geologic experts said the historical records do not necessarily pinpoint issues that could be linked to the recent Peartree Lane landslide. In 1986, a resident at 21 Peartree Lane — just west of the July slide — commissioned a geotechnical investigation after finding “cracks in the walls, tilted floors, floor cracks and separation of the patio from the townhome,” according to the report at the time. The investigation found that multiple areas of the townhome had settled about 1 inch and noted significant concerns about the steepness of the slope. The minor land movement was found to have been caused by relatively weak soil and an “oversteepened slope angle,” engineers at the time found. “The generally weak condition of the soil should have precluded the construction of the steep slope,” the report said. The authors recommended mitigation steps but noted that completely eliminating slope stability issues would probably be too costly. “It should be recognized that even though the structure condition can be improved, unless the slope is treated as well, a substandard condition will exist at the site,” according to the report, which recommended deeper foundations, better drainage and detaching the patio from the home’s foundation. Just the roof of Weber ‘Wei’ Yen’s home is visible from his street in Rolling Hills Estates He worries over the mementos he may never get back the slopes would likely be flatter and foundations would likely be somewhat heavier,” the 1986 report found calling it a “construction defect” that the topsoil was left in place below the fill and that the home was built on such a steep slope It wasn’t clear from the historical records what actions were taken at the time Attempts to contact prior and current homeowners were unsuccessful one of the HOAs hired a geotechnical firm for a “proposed slope repair” east of Hawthorne Boulevard — down the hill from where multiple homes currently stand — after a “local slope failure.” No home damage was reported but the land movement had “undermined a paved terrace swale,” the report said engineers found that nearby drainage pipes had been clogged and “caused the water to flow out of the terrace drain onto the slope in a concentrated manner,” causing the slope failure work at that site was also characterized as “remedial in nature,” and the 1992 report also noted that “the possibility of additional failures occurring on the site at the same location or at other locations cannot be ruled out.” an engineering practice professor at USC who visited Peartree Lane after the landslide reviewed the county’s historical records and found the reports “extremely alarming.” She was particularly concerned by data on the slope’s incline from the 1986 Peartree Lane report which she said should have triggered more stringent building requirements “You’re basically flirting with disaster,” she said of the steep slope. She questioned the homes’ construction, given their location near a streambed and known geologic weakness in the area. “Why weren’t these houses on deep foundations?” she said. Rolling Hills Estates has declared a local state of emergency in the wake of a landslide that sent multiple hillside houses on a slow-motion downward slide the attorney representing Peartree Lane residents said the historical reports aren’t necessarily a smoking gun for the July slide but there are other factors too — including and possibly including some man-made devices,” Blum said “We’re looking at a lot of different possibilities.” He wouldn’t elaborate and declined to comment further on what he thought caused the July landslide He said his team has hired its own geotechnical firm to review the incident In the Peartree Lane stabilization plan, the HOAs say they plan to improve slope safety with long-term remedies, which include securing 45-foot-deep caissons — boxlike structures often used in foundations — into the slope In addition to fixes on Peartree Lane, Rechenmacher said she would like the county or state — or even the nation — to better research landslide-prone areas and inform residents about the risks. She used as an example the national forecasting and warning service for rainfall-induced landslides implemented by Norway in 2013 “Why hasn’t there been a massive effort in the county of Los Angeles .. to look at all landslide-prone areas and warn homeowners?” she said The U.S. Geological Survey has recommendations for preparing for landslides, but Nevada State’s Bouali said sometimes there’s little people can do. The professor recommended that those living in areas susceptible to slides take some precautions, such as limiting excess water seeping into the ground, checking for leaking pipes and reducing irrigation. But for Jooyun Lee and her family — who have been living in hotels and Airbnbs since their townhome on Peartree Lane was yellow-tagged — they’re stuck in limbo. She returns often to check on her property, and has been glad to see there’s always work being done — by geologists, engineers or utility teams. She’s hopeful they can return home soon after repairs are completed. “Hopefully February or March, but I don’t know and [city officials] don’t know either. So I’m just waiting, my family is waiting,” Lee said. “It’s been challenging emotionally and financially, but I look at the brighter side.” She and her husband are facing a growing list of expenses from the landslide, including rental costs and the new HOA fees — but she is trying to focus on the fact that, thankfully, no one was hurt. “We want everything done quickly, but realistically, we just need patience,” she said. “One day at a time.” In a nature reserve in Rolling Hills Estates, Moorpark College Biology Professor Jana Johnson and a troop of volunteers hike through springtime mustard, on the hunt for blooms of red and yellow deerweed and rattlepod. Those plants play host to one of the world’s rarest butterflies, the Palos Verdes blue butterfly On a recent outing to turn loose new lab-bred blue butterflies into the wild and volunteers are careful not to step on any of the postage-stamp-size Johnson says it’s easy to not only miss them visually but to overlook the importance of having them around “I love Men in Black when the universe turns out to be a jewel on a cat’s collar because we really just don’t appreciate things that are not in our scale,” Johnson says “Once we start looking at a different scale A delicate Palos Verdes blue butterfly rests on a plant in a Rolling Hills Estates reserve The butterflies only live in the wild for a few days flitting through the coastal sage scrub in the spring looking like tiny purple flowers themselves and go through their life cycle all on their own Johnson’s long-term goal is to make herself superfluous “The major thing wiping out this species is just loss of habitat to development,” Johnson says It’s been “ongoing for decades and decades.” The habitat grew a little in 2022, when the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy secured an area to act as a wildlife corridor. It connects several existing preserves that overlook the Pacific Ocean The new corridor is similar to the wildlife crossing that’s going up now over the 101 freeway but instead of just for land-based animals “They’re maybe not a mountain lion or something that you see on the news but they’re just as important,” says Cris Sarabia conservation director at the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy and it’s something that we work to restore land for.” The Butterfly Project is already seeing results which models the recovery of the Palos Verdes blue butterfly estimates there are hundreds of the rare flyers on the Navy land where they were first re-discovered And they’ve been spotted in the wild at other sites Johnson likes to think of the small creatures as part of a spaceship known as planet Earth So how many rivets can you pop out before your spaceship doesn’t support your lifeform anymore?” Johnson says Whether or not humans continue to dominate the planet is going to depend on how we take care of our spaceship.” As Johnson and the volunteers release 285 butterflies “See the little blue whirlwind?” Johnson points with excitement The newly-released butterflies get to work quickly so your donation is critical to KCRW's music programming Donate by midnight tomorrow and your $100 becomes $200 for KCRW thanks to a $10,000 match by music legend Moby DOuble dollars Get the latest from KCRW in your inbox 3x a week. city planning documents obtained by The Times show Authorities are trying to determine the cause of the slide, which sent multiple homes slipping down a canyon wall In the days since, officials have said rain and groundwater could be key to understanding what caused the land to shift. A geologist hasn’t yet analyzed the site, but officials have said such an expert should be out by Wednesday to begin that process. But potential problems were flagged more than four decades ago in what eventually would become the Rolling Hills Estates neighborhood. In December 1978, when the development’s construction was more than two years along, the Rolling Hills Park Villas homeowners board became worried about the progress. “Now that the development is nearing completion, however, we as homeowners share a rapidly-mounting concern that some aspects of the development fall well short of the minimum requirements of city and county-approved plans,” two homeowners association officials wrote in a letter to the City Council and the county engineer’s office. They were worried about “improperly poured foundations and footings; inadequate gutters/downspouts; roofing problems” and “grading and drainage — low spots, standing water, soil erosion and decompaction in several areas are already causing problems with very little rainfall.” The decades-old documents didn’t indicate whether officials or developers addressed the letter, or if there was any credibility to the concerns. a spokesperson for the city of Rolling Hills Estates pointed out that many of these concerns were raised decades ago — and the records The Times reviewed are only the responsive records the city has identified the absence of continuing or similar complaints in subsequent years is noteworthy as the HOA Board certainly knew how to get the City’s attention in 1978 and the City demonstrated its responsiveness by agendizing the concerns,” he said The records show that City Council officials responded to the homeowners’ questions that month saying it referred the letter to the engineers in the county Department of Building and Safety Rolling Hills Estates in 1976 approved the permits for a new multi-unit residential development built on the hills between Hawthorne Boulevard and a small canyon Records show the construction went forward for the next decade under the watchful eye of city and county officials, who didn’t appear to flag or notice any major issues related to the area’s stability — seemingly no signs that a major landslide would later send a section of those homes falling into the canyon a few decades later Seventeen homes on Peartree Lane have been evacuated since the landslide began two weeks ago a dozen of which have been deemed unsafe to reenter sliding at least 12 feet below where they once sat along the roadway The Times reviewed more than 200 pages of planning files from the inception of the Rolling Hills Park Villas community a gated neighborhood that includes Peartree Lane All the hillside homes affected in the landslide were either townhomes or duplexes Although some of Rolling Hills Estates’ planning records referenced reports from geological engineering firms or soil testing city officials said they have no geological reports from the homes’ original development Los Angeles County’s Building and Safety Department served as the city’s building department The Times has requested soil and geological reports from the county but that request had not been fulfilled as of Monday In 1977, when grading of the undeveloped land around Peartree Lane was underway, a resident adjacent to the construction site complained about the work and said it created cracks in her walls, according to a letter from William C. Stookey, special city engineer for the project, and the developer. A grading contractor put the resident in touch with an insurance company, which came out to her home and asked her to call the city. But the engineer took issue with the fact that this implied that the city was responsible. It’s unclear what happened as a result of the letter or whether it was determined the grading created the cracks. There are no additional memos in the letters provided by the city on the matter. Not long after this, the homeowners association sent a letter stating its “rapidly-mounting concern” about the ongoing development. It requested a walk-through inspection with the city and county to point out the issues. It’s unclear whether that happened. The homeowners relied on the city and county to review and approve development plans for the townhome and condominium project they contracted to buy. It’s also not clear exactly where the HOA concerns were focused because the city had not named any of the streets at that time. Coraltree, Peartree and Country lanes were officially designated in January 1979, according to city records. In October 1980, the city had record of two drainage issues in the area. According to notes from a City Council meeting about the development, “there are sidewalks collecting water in the townhouses portion of the area,” the records said. The exact location of that pooling water wasn’t clear, nor how it was handled. Later that month, in a letter to City Hall, the then-president of Rolling Hills Park Villas Community Assn. wrote about other water-related issues. “There are at least two condominium units where poured concrete sidewalks are not properly drained and constitute a hazard and at least two common area locations where drainage has not been provided and water from sprinklers and rainfall pools and has severely damaged interiors of residences,” the homeowners board president wrote in an Oct. 27, 1980, letter. Again, the location of the drainage issues wasn’t clear, nor how they were handled. The following year, a resident of Coraltree Lane — which sits opposite Peartree Lane, off Country Lane — wrote to the developer, copying City Hall. “When I returned from Texas in October and there had been no rain, the water was seeping up through the middle bath downstairs,” the resident complained in January 1981. It also wasn’t clear whether the city or the developer responded, or how the issue was remedied. Several years later, in 1987, the city’s planning director wrote to an engineering firm asking for further review of a “water seepage” issue on Country Lane — the road from which Peartree Lane stems. He said a different engineering firm had investigated the issue and recommended “additional geotechnical study to determine necessary remedial action.” Soon after that letter, the City Council approved funds to assist with “accurate soils testing to determine the nature and source of observed water seepage within Country Lane,” according to a March 1987 motion. However, the records did not include whether the study was completed or, if it was, its results. The most dramatic landslide still affecting the Palos Verdes Peninsula is in Portuguese Bend, an area named after a Portuguese whaling operation, known for its natural beauty and native vegetation. A dormant landslide complex that shaped the south side of the peninsula for hundreds of thousands of years was reactivated 67 years ago, threatening to destroy homes and infrastructure in the hillside communities that dot the landscape. The Portuguese Bend landslide was triggered in the summer of 1956 — nearly two decades before Rancho Palos Verdes became a city — when a Los Angeles County road crew was constructing an extension of Crenshaw Boulevard that would run from Crest Road to Palos Verdes Drive South. Nathan Solis reports on breaking news with the Fast Break team at the Los Angeles Times. Firefighters and investigators were sent about 4 p.m. Saturday to Peartree Lane, where hilltop homes overlook a canyon, officials said. The community is on the southwestern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. 12:44 p.m. July 11, 2023A previous version of this story said the Rolling Hills Estates neighborhood affected by the slides is on the northern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. It is in the southwestern part of the peninsula. Cracks in the homes were visible on the inside and outside, said Los Angeles County Fire Captain Chiyoshi Hasegawa. About 16 people were evacuated, he said, and utilities were shut off to reduce the risk of fire. Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes the city, said she was notified Saturday night about the land movement and the evacuation. Residents of the affected homes “were told they had 20 minutes to get their belongings and get out,” Hahn said at a noon press conference Sunday at the site, where she was joined by Rolling Hills Estates Mayor Britt Huff and officials from the county fire and public works departments. She said a fissure, or crack in the earth’s surface, was winding its way between the affected homes. “We believe many of these homes will fall into the canyon sooner than later,” Hahn said. Rolling Hills Estates resident Bob Brown photographs the damaged home of his mother-in-law, Edna Campbell, 98, on Peartree Lane in Rolling Hills Estates on Sunday. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) City and county officials said Sunday that it is too early to speculate on what caused the ground to shift and that the matter is under investigation. They said they are monitoring other homes in the neighborhood for movement. “This neighborhood was built in 1978 and it’s been solid for 45 years,” Huff said. “So we’re very much in shock by what is happening here.” Pete Goodrich, a building official with the city, said geologists will inspect the site and decide what can be done. He said there was substantial damage to the homes. The land movement “could be due to the extensive rains that we’ve had .... but we don’t know,” Goodrich said of recent winter storms. Hahn said she could understand the fears of the affected homeowners. “I haven’t seen anything like this in my career,” she said. “To think that these homes were intact yesterday afternoon and today to hear them creaking.... These homes are going to fall.” David Zee, a former Torrance resident who said he moved into one of the 12 houses two months ago, told Hahn and the other officials that his family was devastated by what was happening. “We thought this would be our forever house,” he said. “Maybe it still will be, but I’m just concerned. I’m usually not emotional but, you know, it’s our house.” Mimi Borg has owned a home for six years across the street from one of the evacuated homes. She said her house has not been damaged, but her gas has been shut off indefinitely amid concerns that the problem could spread. On Sunday morning, she surveyed the house across the street with a Spanish-style roof that had sustained significant damage. “Last night I was out for a walk, and there was just a crack on the driveway and the wall, and now it’s 100 times worse,” she said. “We’re just hoping it doesn’t spread to us. I am worried. I have all of my stuff packed, all ready to go if they tell me to go.” Ferry Mafinezam of Canada was visiting her sister a short walk up the hill from the evacuated homes. She said she felt an earthquake in the area last week and that her sister is “concerned” her home could be damaged. “About a week ago I woke up to an earthquake just shaking the house,” Mafinezam said. “Now this morning I walked up and saw this.” Geologists are expected to survey the land to determine what will happen to the homes. The Palos Verdes Peninsula has long been prone to landslides, and the most dramatic one is affecting Portuguese Bend, an area on the south side named after a whaling operation, now known for its natural beauty and native vegetation. A dormant landslide complex has shaped the area for hundreds of thousands of years. It was reactivated 67 years ago and is threatening to destroy homes and infrastructure. The geological phenomenon has hit a 240-acre area particularly hard over the last seven decades, causing fissures to open in the earth and homes to strain, buckle and drift, sometimes onto adjacent properties. City officials are planning to mitigate the landslide before it’s too late. “Something catastrophic is imminent,” Ara Mihranian, a city planner, told The Times in March. Since being named city manager in 2019, he has made slowing the landslide a primary focus. The Portuguese Bend landslide was triggered in summer 1956 — nearly two decades before Rancho Palos Verdes became a city — when a Los Angeles County road crew was constructing an extension of Crenshaw Boulevard that would run from Crest Road to Palos Verdes Drive South. The crew dug up thousands of tons of dirt for the project and dropped it on top of the ancient landslide zone, which hadn’t moved in 4,800 years. The extension was never completed, but the weight and movement of the dirt shifted the balance of the earth enough to reactivate the slide, sending the land into a slow-motion descent toward the sea. In recent years, the landslide’s harm has been more incremental than the initial destruction in 1956 that tore up a community clubhouse and 130 area homes. City officials said the land moves sometimes horizontally, sometimes vertically. Sometimes inches, sometimes feet. Officials said it moves at a pace of roughly eight feet, in a southwesterly direction, per year. Over the last 15 years, sections of land have moved anywhere from 100 to 225 feet horizontally and dropped eight to 18 feet vertically. The most noticeable damage is dealt to Palos Verdes Drive South — the road that winds along the coastal cliffs — warping it into a crooked, hilly mess with dips that make your stomach jump. The city has to send a crew once a month to fill cracks, maintenance that costs roughly $1 million per year. Sooyun Cho stands next to her damaged home, right, on Peartree Lane in Rolling Hills Estates on Sunday. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times) Times staff writer Jack Flemming contributed to this story. Connor Sheets is an investigative and enterprise reporter at the Los Angeles Times. 2023: A previous version of this story said the Rolling Hills Estates neighborhood affected by the slides is on the northern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula It is in the southwestern part of the peninsula Residents in the small Los Angeles County city of Rolling Hills Estates are on edge and waiting for answers after a major landslide caused a dozen townhomes to begin sliding downhill The landslide was first reported Saturday leading to evacuations as some homes appeared to be visibly leaning officials said at least eight of the multimillion-dollar properties have been totally ruined as the shifting earth and gravity continue to pull the structures downhill “It’s still unclear what caused the landslide in the community, which is on the southwestern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula,” my colleagues Grace Toohey and Nathan Solis reported Tuesday the landslide is not entirely surprising to geologists who understand the makeup of the land .. A drone’s eye view of townhomes in a gated community in Rolling Hills Estates on July 10 after several began sliding down a canyon over the weekend Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) According to data from the U.S the region’s land consists of shallow marine sediments soft siliceous sedimentary mudstone and shale — many of which can shift with changes in weight load and pressure City officials expressed surprise at the destruction saying there had been no geological issues in the area in decades associate professor of environmental science at Claremont McKenna College geologic time and human time are worlds apart: We don’t understand that something in a hazard area can very easily sit there for years and appear fine by all outward appearances until suddenly the stresses that have been active all along suddenly reach their breaking point.” Landslides can be caused by natural events like earthquakes or rain It probably won’t come as a shock that hilly and mountainous terrain is often susceptible to landslides The hilly Palos Verdes Peninsula has a history of landslides, with some areas still deemed active. This map compiled by the California Department of Conservation plots dozens of active or dormant landslides recorded over the last 30 years — though officials note their inventory “is a work in progress.” This screenshot from a California Department of Conservation map shows where landslides have been recorded in the area of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. (California Department of Conservation) That map is one of two department officials say can help people discern which areas are most at risk for landslides triggered by storms or earthquakes If that first map raises your eyebrows, you really won’t like the other one, which shows the susceptibility of deep-seated landslides across California Darker red areas represent places with a higher “relative likelihood of future landsliding based solely on the intrinsic properties of a locale or site,” with previous landslides rock and soil strength and slope steepness as the key factors The map also includes burn zones from recent wildfires, which further weaken already susceptible slopes and increase the risk of landslides With climate change intensifying the extreme weather whiplash of severe fires and heavy rains, Southern California is primed to experience landslides more frequently, U.S. Geological Survey researchers found in a recent study It’s not my intention to scare you first thing in the morning Most of us probably don’t think of it much but there’s a lot happening under our feet residents and public officials will have to better prepare for as our slices of paradise become more likely to crumble away here’s what’s happening across California: Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing Some signage is causing a stir in Malibu. A state preservation agency posted signs directing visitors to a local beach, which city workers later took down. Malibu officials said the signs didn’t meet code requirements, but state workers accuse the city of intentionally trying to hide the public beaches from the public. Los Angeles Times L.A. City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto expressed regret for putting the Skid Row Housing Trust in the hands of a man who misrepresented his ability to manage the properties and care for poor tenants. Turns out that man, Mark Adams, and his associates gave at least $8,500 to her election campaign. Los Angeles Times Get our free daily crossword puzzle, sudoku, word search and arcade games in our new game center at latimes.com/games How do more sick days and family leave sound? A slate of bills being considered by state lawmakers seek to improve Californians’ work-life balance, though some opponents say the rules would overburden small businesses. CalMatters Nearly three dozen L.A. County Sheriff’s deputies won’t have to show any ink to Inspector General Max Huntsman. A judge issued an injunction blocking Huntsman’s attempt to require 35 deputies to reveal any gang tattoos they might have as part of the investigation into deputy gangs operating out of sheriff’s stations. LAist Subscribe to the Los Angeles Times. A new state law took effect this month, aimed at protecting climate-threatened Joshua trees by imposing fees to remove the iconic yuccas to build renewable energy infrastructure and housing. Some opponents of the new rules say it will stifle development and economic growth. Los Angeles Times The effects of climate change are a daily reality for farmworkers in California’s Central Valley. But the majority Latino workforce — many of them without documentation — lack protection in the face of extreme heat, wildfires and hazardous smoke, plus recent flooding that’s devastated communities. KQED Today’s California landmark is from Elyse Jankowski of Los Angeles: Beverly Hills’ highly Instagrammable Greystone Mansion A scenic view reflected in the windows of Greystone Mansion in Beverly Hills Greystone Mansion is an iconic nearly-100-year-old estate in Beverly Hills It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1976 and in 2013 was designated Beverly Hills Local Historic Landmark No and the grounds are full of Instagrammable scenes What are California’s essential landmarks? Fill out this form to send us your photos of a special spot in California — natural or human-made Tell us why it’s interesting and what makes it a symbol of life in the Golden State Please be sure to include only photos taken directly by you Your submission could be featured in a future edition of the newsletter Please let us know what we can do to make this newsletter more useful to you. Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com. Print It’s been nearly two weeks since Jooyun Lee and her family were evacuated from their Rolling Hills Estates home as their neighbors’ townhouses slid toward the bottom of the canyon she wonders: “When are they going to call us and tell us we can move back?” “We’re just waiting,” Lee said Friday. “We need more information.” Two weeks since the first set of residents were evacuated July 8, little is known about what caused the slide that destroyed at least eight homes — collapsing roofs, cracking driveways and splitting open walls — and left others nearby feeling like they’re living on the edge. And now, officials are warning that it could be up to two months before the geological experts evaluating the landslide will have any preliminary results, leaving residents to wait for answers about the landslide’s cause, the street’s future stability, any necessary mitigation — and for some, whether they can ever return home. Five more homes on Peartree Lane in Rolling Hills Estates have been evacuated after a sewer line broke in the landslide which had already collapsed multiple homes Lee is staying with her family of four in a Torrance hotel paid for with emergency funds from the city of Rolling Hills Estates which she said has been fine for the last few days “I didn’t think it was going to be this bad,” Lee said She acknowledged that she’s among the most fortunate neighbors but said it’s still hard not knowing what will come next Many homeowners and residents had been hanging their hopes on finally getting answers from a geologist hired by the homeowners association to investigate the land movement, but now they feel further in limbo. “It just makes our emotions toggle between optimistic and taking steps back,” said David Zee, whose home was deemed unsafe to enter July 8 because of foundation concerns but remains standing. We’re “just trying to put together a mosaic of how long it could potentially take. When I heard potentially eight weeks of monitoring [by the geologist] … that’s going to take us to middle of September.” He’s said he’s been trying to stay positive, but realizing how long this process could take was tough to hear. “I kind of walked away somewhat disappointed,” Zee said “But it was good information — more information is always a good thing.” But multiple residents who attended a virtual meeting with GMU representatives this week told The Times that the experts warned them it could be two months before they get preliminary results. And even then, additional testing or analysis might be necessary to draw conclusions. The management company for the neighborhood’s two homeowners associations, Scott Management, declined to comment or respond to questions from The Times on the contract. A geologist with GMU deferred questions to attorney Michael Rabkin, who also did not respond to multiple requests for comment from The Times. Zee said he’s glad the geological work is getting started, but worries about how long it will take to get any hillside supports in place, if needed. “I get the order of operations, but at the same time — how can we speed this up?” Zee said. “Our main objective is to be able to move back. What does that look like and how long does that take?” “There’s still a lot of uncertainty and unknowns,” he said. Lee said she and her family haven’t found any cracks in their home, which sits on the opposite side of the street from the collapsing hillside, so they are still planning to return once the sewer is fixed. But she said there’s no indication when that will be. She and her neighbors also have concerns about the stability of the street, after finding new cracks in the asphalt. “We are very concerned about the road,” Lee said, noting it’s the only way in and out of their cul-de-sac. We’re “just taking it day at a time and trying to adjust.” Business As a Rolling Hills Estates hillside further collapses homeowners without special coverage are unlikely to get any financial assistance from their home insurers Geological experts have said that thorough landslide evacuations take time. El Hachemi Bouali, an assistant professor of geosciences at Nevada State University who has studied land movement in the Palos Verdes peninsula said the eight-week timeline given to residents is understandable “There is a lot of work to be done to determine exactly how a landslide occurred,” Bouali said “Landslides are complicated because there are many factors at play.” He said the logical first step in the investigation would be boring into the earth to see how the ground’s layers are distributed and if any are saturated with water Multiple residents said this was how GMU’s team planned to begin work on their street “Boring far enough down will allow geologists to find the slip surface or the surface where everything above it has moved and everything below it has not moved,” Bouali said “This can help determine the landslide cause.” officials monitored the development of Rolling Hills Park Villas where a landslide has since ruined at least eight homes “The Palos Verdes peninsula has been known to be landslide-prone due to the combination of three main factors: relatively steep slopes composed of weak geologic material and seasonal precipitation events,” Bouali said He said water can further weaken the region’s weak ground which is particularly an issue on steep slopes Although landslides would exist on the Palos Verdes Peninsula with or without development and construction Bouali said “humans can exacerbate the situation,” as over-steepening slopes removing earthen material along hills or adding water from leaky pipes or irrigation can destabilize land While Peartree Lane residents await the experts’ analysis, many have wondered whether the landslide could have been prevented. The Times recently reported that during the neighborhood’s construction, residents worried about potential drainage issues, and some in recent years have said they remembered some leaking pipes or unaddressed land movement. Randy Troy, whose home has now mostly collapsed down the canyon wall, said he’s no geological expert but worries something could have been done before this slide. “This issue didn’t happen in a vacuum on July 8,” Troy said. “There were events leading up to this.” He remains hopeful the geotechnical firm can help pinpoint exactly what went wrong. The video featured in the media player above is the ABC7 Los Angeles 24/7 streaming channel Sheriff's officials spent a portion of the early afternoon searching for one suspect after two had already been apprehended. That suspect's clothing was reportedly found in trash cans in the area. According to Palos Verdes Peninsula USD, three schools were placed on lockdown including, Soleado, Silver Spur and Palos Verdes Peninsula High School. They were cleared later in the afternoon. ©2025 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Print The Palos Verdes Peninsula — a land of rolling hills jagged cliffs and sweeping views of the city and ocean — boasts some of the most beautiful terrain in Southern California It’s also long proven to be some of the most dangerous the peninsula has been plagued by an ancient landslide complex that slowly reshapes the topography destroying homes and infrastructure along the way The latest damage was dealt to Rolling Hills Estates where a major ground shift led to 12 homes being evacuated after a fissure snaked its way through the neighborhood walls collapsed and some homes were visibly leaning as the hillside upon which they were perched slowly descended into a canyon if periodic reality for much of California particularly the coastal hills of the South Bay and Orange County “This remains an active situation,” said Rolling Hills Estates Mayor Britt Huff at a city council meeting on Tuesday, adding that due to a break in a sewer main, five additional houses were ordered to evacuate earlier that day. At the meeting, the council declared a state of emergency in order to access broader resources from state and federal agencies. “No one expected this. Landslides don’t really happen in this area,” said resident Lisa Zhang. A decades-long landslide has reshaped a 240-acre part of Palos Verdes Peninsula known as Portuguese Bend Rancho Palos Verdes is mounting a plan to slow it The peninsula’s bout with landslides is well-documented in the geological record stretching back millenniums but coming to a head 67 years ago when an L.A County road crew accidentally reactivated an ancient slide complex while building an extension of Crenshaw Boulevard in Rancho Palos Verdes The crew dug up and shifted thousands of tons of dirt throwing things off balance enough to send the land in the Portuguese Bend into a super-slow-motion descent and activating a landslide That’s just one ancient landslide complex. According to El Hachemi Bouali, assistant professor of geosciences at Nevada State University who co-authored a report on the Portuguese Bend landslide complex there are areas all across the peninsula at similar risk the hills are uniquely susceptible to movement Layers of clay — bentonite and montmorillonite to be specific — are found beneath the ground it expands and lubricates the clay until it’s slippery enough for the land to ride downward with the force of gravity Water infiltrating the earth is the most common cause of landslides these types of landslides are typically triggered during a big rainy season The Palos Verdes Peninsula — like Laguna Beach and San Clemente — is packed with people irrigation systems and leaky pipes that all add water to the earth an area as hilly and craggy as the Palos Verdes Peninsula might not be expected to house roughly 65,000 people with secluded canyons to hike and ride horses in will always be attractive — especially right next to L.A.’s flat sprawl There’s no official diagnosis on what caused the landslide a geologist will study the site and draw a conclusion from there reviewing both the history of the area and any recent changes to the land But geologists and structural experts have suggested a few likely culprits: land grading rainfall or something as simple as a broken pipe The townhomes destroyed in the landslide were built in the 1970s a structural assessor with Alpha Structural much of the land was graded and reshaped to make room for buildable lots starting in the 1950s So even though lots might be relatively flat if land was moved in order to make it flat the soil might not be as compact as it should be Tourje said the record rainfall of winter and spring didn’t help but he thinks the slide was likely caused by a concentrated water source such as a broken pipe or sewer drain one line that feeds one sink of one single house can affect the soil,” he said your house is at the bottom of the canyon.” Tourje works on landslide damage every week but only comes across slides of this magnitude a few times per year These homes will have to be completely demolished,” he said such as a burst pipe or a resident’s $1,500 water bill for June he’s leaning toward rainfall as the primary culprit “My guess is that there has been a slow decrease of the slope’s resisting forces due to infiltration of precipitation into the clay layers,” Bouali said adding that even though the rain fell in the spring it might take until July for the water to flow through the layers of clay He points to California’s Landslide Susceptibility map, which shows almost the entire peninsula as highly susceptible. Given the area’s geological makeup, as well as the roughly 20-degree downward slope upon which the homes were perched, the landslide didn’t necessarily come as a surprise. Since the ‘70s, regulations have become stricter with limits on how steep builders can grade lots and requirements for more subsurface drainage systems and more compact soil. But those measures might not help if the slippery layer is 60 feet underneath all the grading and maybe several strata of bedrock, according to Tony Lee, a local geologist who has worked in the area for 30 years. Lee said most of his clients come from other areas of the peninsula where slides are more prevalent, but he’s already received multiple calls from homeowners in Rolling Hills Estates wanting to get their properties checked. Common sense might suggest that the land is uninhabitable — that building homes on terrain prone to landslides will inevitably lead to disaster. But California is a beautiful place, and Californians love looking at it. It’s the same reason that hillside homes are perched on stilts in a region that deals with devastating earthquakes. The same reason buyers flock to the fire-prone hills of Malibu or the Western Sierra or cram beach houses onto the sand as ocean levels rise. “I’ll be here until I can’t be here anymore. I’ll slide away with the land,” said Claudia Gutierrez, a longtime resident of Portuguese Bend, an area about a mile southeast of the slide site that has been dealing with landslide issues of its own. If the Rolling Hills Estates landslide is the hare, moving quickly and aggressively, then the Portuguese Bend landslide is the tortoise, with the land slowly shifting roughly eight feet per year for the last 15 years. It has caused chaos in the community, with houses sliding across property lines and roads warping into roller coasters. But according to Gutierrez, that hasn’t kept people away. “We had homes in the middle of the active landslide zone that sold for more than $2 million last year,” she said. “I’m amazed.” the peninsula offers not only great views but stellar schools rural feel compared to the bustling cities surrounding it even though they’d be able to sell their houses the peninsula has become home — even if that home is slowly slipping out from under them the landslides have never been a major concern to residents of Rolling Hills Estates “People think this was an isolated incident,” said Mingli Wang She noted that during home sales in the city sellers disclose natural hazards such as the area being high-risk for fires or a dormant earthquake zone But landslides are not part of the disclosure and she’s not concerned about the community’s safety going forward Steve Watts of Vista Sotheby’s International Realty said that landslides are never part of the conversation during a sale in the city “If your house is hanging off the edge of a cliff they’ll sometimes get a soil report to check how deep the bedrock is Watts said the gated neighborhood where the homes slid into the canyon might see a slow market in the short-term but sales will be back to normal before long Zillow puts the median home value in Rolling Hills Estates at $1.918 million, nearly double the $1.067-million mark set in 2015. Many homes in the city face Torrance, missing many of the ocean views featured elsewhere on the peninsula, but still fetch prices north of $5 million. The cheapest single-family home currently on the market is offered at $1.8 million. When Bouali, the geologist, leads classroom discussions about hazardous areas, the conversation inevitably leads to the question, “Why do people even live there?” He said it often comes down to the cost of moving. And Southern California has an additional factor: most of the region deals with some sort of natural disaster risk, whether it’s a landslide, flood, wildfire or earthquake. Pick your poison. That said, he added that he wouldn’t personally live on the peninsula. Jack Flemming covers real estate for the Los Angeles Times. He was raised in St. Louis and studied journalism at the University of Missouri. Before joining The Times as an intern in 2017, he wrote for the Columbia Missourian and Politico Europe. Lorena Iñiguez Elebee is a senior data and graphics journalist at the Los Angeles Times. The ground is still moving in Rolling Hills Estates more than a day after 12 homes were evacuated because of major ground slides Print Katie Schwartz thought she was probably overreacting But after noticing a few small cracks in her Rolling Hills Estates home she decided to call the Fire Department on Saturday to check it out their daughter and almost half of their small street on Peartree Lane were evacuated and 12 homes were red-tagged as the land beneath the picturesque neighborhood had started to shift multiple homes — including Schwartz’s — had slid down the hillside that borders the street’s southeast side dipping below what remained of their driveways some almost completely hidden from the road they previously lined 2023A previous version of this story said the Rolling Hills Estates neighborhood affected by the slides is on the northern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Marrone said his team would remain on site until the shifting ceased. “We don’t know how long these homes are going to continue to move,” he said. We’re “waiting to see what the determination is going to be.” which are on Peartree Lane bordering a canyon David Zee is still hopeful his family’s new home — where they moved just two months ago — can withstand the landslide as it remains one of the few red-tagged structures still upright said Monday afternoon as he assessed the street’s damage He and his family were told by emergency officials they had just 20 minutes to get out of their home Saturday night “It’s just amazing how quickly this all happened,” said Zee showing pictures of his neighbor’s homes standing intact just 24 hours earlier “is that nobody was hurt — all the neighbors got out safely.” As L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn toured the street again Monday, she affirmed her prior assessment that most of the homes would completely fall into the canyon. She estimated they had fallen another 20 feet since Sunday afternoon. “They’re absolutely collapsing on top of themselves, the roofs are at ground level,” Hahn said Monday. “The force of gravity is taking them. … These homeowners have lost their homes and, really, the land that the home sits on is also gone.” Hahn first visited the street late Saturday and said she could hear the “snap, crackle, pop” of shifting homes, but the movement was minor. By Sunday, the homes had fallen six to 10 feet down the ravine. Monday’s damage was “astonishing,” she said. “There’s nothing we can do, I’ve been told, to stop what’s happening,” Hahn said. “That’s why it’s wait-and-see at that point. Waiting for the homes to fall.” Hahn said her team had recommended geologists who could come out to the site, but the neighborhood’s homeowners association must hire the expert. Pete Goodrich, a building official with the city of Rolling Hills Estates, said Sunday that the land movement “could be due to the extensive rains that we’ve had ... but we don’t know.” The extent of the land fissure, or how it might further grow, is still unclear. “Even the people who didn’t fall in, are they going to have to relocate as well?” Steve Hung, 52, said Monday morning. His home was still considered safe Monday, but Hung worried about how widespread the geological issues could go. His home sits behind Peartree Lane and borders the top of the canyon. “I’m hoping we’re set back enough,” Hung said. “That’s a scary thought. ... You’re at risk of losing everything.” Landslides in Orange County continue to disrupt the coastal rail line that carries Amtrak’s Pacific Surfliner. Is it time to trade stunning views for a reliable route? Hahn helped residents who had already lost their homes to connect with the county assessor to jump-start the process of receiving a property tax waiver. She said she also reached out to Gov. Gavin Newsom about the situation Monday but hadn’t yet heard back. Rolling Hills Estates Mayor Britt Huff said the city planned to declare an emergency at its Tuesday council meeting. All the evacuated residents had found somewhere to relocate, most with relatives, Hahn said. At least two are traveling outside the country and haven’t yet returned home. “We’ve got the whole county family to help,” Hahn said. “It’s just so horrible, I’ve never seen anything like it.” The 12 evacuated homes have had gas, water and power shut off, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department, and 16 additional homes have had their gas shut off to ensure the shifting homes don’t cause a leak. Crews from Southern California Gas Co. and Southern California Edison were on the scene Monday. Firefighters and investigators who examined the land on Peartree Lane on Saturday afternoon after Schwartz’s call found damaged homes and garages. Officials said a visible fissure was winding its way between the homes that were affected. Rolling Hills Estates is on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southwestern Los Angeles County, where a big chunk of land is slowly sliding into the sea A dormant landslide complex that shaped the south side of the peninsula for hundreds of thousands of years was reactivated 67 years ago threatening to destroy homes and infrastructure in the hillside communities that dot the landscape Palos Verdes Peninsula has long been prone to landslides and the most dramatic one is affecting Portuguese Bend an area named after a Portuguese whaling operation now known for its natural beauty and native vegetation The Portuguese Bend landslide was triggered in the summer of 1956 — nearly two decades before Rancho Palos Verdes became a city — when a Los Angeles County road crew was constructing an extension of Crenshaw Boulevard that would run from Crest Road to Palos Verdes Drive South City officials in Rancho Palos Verdes — which surrounds the sliding Rolling Hills Estates neighborhood — are considering a $25-million project that would involve a series of wells to pull water out of the ground and send it into the ocean in effect drying up the lubricated landscape enough to stop the land from sliding City Manager Ara Mihranian said officials had to take action before it’s too late “Something catastrophic is imminent,” Mihranian told The Times in March. The neighborhood where the Peartree Lane homes are sliding was built in 1978, Huff said. Schwartz, the homeowner who noticed the cracks in her home, has relocated temporarily to a Redondo Beach hotel. It could be years before they get back on track, she said. “Retirement may never happen now,” she said. But it was the thought of leaving behind her community that brought tears to her eyes. “That’s the only thing I care about,” Schwartz said. “We’ll never get neighbors like that again. Whether we ever get money, or we don’t get money to buy somewhere else … we’ll never get the neighbors back.” Times staff writer Jack Flemming contributed to this report. Today on AirTalk, homes on the Palos Verdes Peninsula continue to face threats of landslides. Also on the show, how to prepare for the upcoming heat wave; the NASA project holding four volunteers on a simulated Mars; the growing demand for subtitles and closed captioning; and more. On Saturday, L.A. County firefighters responded to a call at a hillside home in Rolling Hills Estates, where the owners said they could hear creaking, see the structure tilting and cracks visibly growing. It wasn’t long after the first responders arrived that they decided to evacuate 12 homes in the area due to landslide potential. Sure enough, by Sunday, the soil beneath them gave out and the houses began to slide into Agua Amarga Canyon below. The reason for the landslide is currently under investigation, but they often happen when water’s involved. Joining us today on AirTalk is Frank Zerunyan, councilmember for the City of Rolling Hills Estates, and Jacob Margolis, science reporter at LAist . Today on AirTalk, we’re reminiscing on that summer break feeling. Listeners share their favorite summer memories growing up and how they try to recapture that nostalgia as adults. Officials had warned Brooks that his family should be ready to evacuate, depending on how the landslide continued to move. So when he found the yellow tag at his front door Tuesday afternoon, warning of a sewer main break caused by the shifting land “I’ll just work around the situation as it goes.” The five newly evacuated homes have not been structurally damaged, officials said. The cause of the landslide is still unknown But the future of the site’s stability continues to nag residents and officials, and it’s unclear when answers might come. There has still been no geologist or soil expert out to the analyze the site, which Rolling Hills Estates Mayor Britt Huff said was becoming a worry. “Everybody wants to know what happened,” Huff told The Times after the city’s council meeting Tuesday night. The ground is still moving in Rolling Hills Estates At that meeting, councilmembers voted unanimously to declare a state of emergency which they hope will free up state and federal resources for the displaced residents but it doesn’t appear to affect the process for getting landslide experts to the scene The Rolling Hills Park Villas Homeowners Assn. Huff said an association management team was in the process of “recruiting and hiring” such a specialist But she said she knew little about the process and hoped to “throw city influence” to speed up the hire “It’s made everybody on the peninsula a little anxious,” Huff said of the landslide. Palos Verdes Peninsula has been long prone to landslides, which experts say can sometimes strike unexpectedly, especially in the case of a “deep-seated” slide, which is brought on by pressure from accumulating groundwater. A resident of the neighborhood takes a picture of a house on Peartree Lane in Rolling Hills Estate, which suffered extensive damage following Saturday’s landslide. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times) On Wednesday, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn and Huff announced the creation of a $125,000 fund to “provide an option for temporary housing, food and other essentials for residents who have been ordered to evacuate their homes.” Even though many homeowners are eager for answers, a thorough geologic evaluation takes time, said Ventura County geologist Jim O’Tousa. “The first thing is public safety,” he said, “then evaluating the causes” of a slide. Before visiting a site for assessment, geologists will typically try to find old aerial photographs of the area, ideally prior to development, to see if the neighborhood was built on a preexisting landslide. Google Earth may cover the past 20 years, but finding photos from before that can be more difficult. The homes on Peartree Lane were built in 1978. Experts will also attempt to obtain records from the original land development as well as geologic maps, to extract information about the bedrock. “Trying to find those old development records can take a couple of days to a week,” O’Tousa said. The goal is to model the terrain and decide “is this a piece of an old slide that was much bigger?” After the research, a geologist looks for cracks upslope from where the homes have moved, and hikes down the hillside to look for seeping water, which can be an indicator of stability as the ground dries out, O’Tousa said. Geologists will drill holes — called borings, usually 24 inches in diameter — to collect samples and look at the “subsurface geology,” including bedrock. The samples will undergo laboratory testing for “various strength parameters to model the conditions” and to help describe the geologic structure of the bedrock. After the geotechnical evaluation, geologists will likely place measuring devices called slope inclinometers in the borings and in cracks “to help determine the rate of the movement,” O’Tousa said. If the cracks are getting larger over time, that points to a “likelihood that the landslide will enlarge.” Conversely, if no movement is detected, it could be a sign that the hillside has stabilized. In deep-seated landslides, future rainfall can continue to destabilize the hillside. O’Tousa worries that the Rolling Hills slide could be impacted by future weather, as well. Collapsed homes lie along Peartree Lane in Rolling Hills Estates after a landslide that began last week. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times) With everything facing his neighborhood and concern that it could keep getting worse, Brooks and his family — who are renters — decided to expedite their move from Peartree Lane. They had planned to leave their home of eight years at the end of the summer, but he’s now hoping to be out in a few days. “Evacuate? I’m ready to move,” Brooks said. “All of these coincidences are telling us, ‘Go, get packed, run.’” Brooks said he was told he can still access his home, even with it yellow-tagged, but no one can stay overnight without water access. He said he called the city early Wednesday hoping for an update on the sewer line fix but got no answers. “She had no idea when it would be back up,” Brooks said. So for now, Brooks, his wife and his stepson are staying at a hotel in Torrance, thankful they aren’t dealing with the worst of the landslide. Many of his neighbors had recently bought their homes and want to stay but worry about the future of the street. “This is really bad for these people,” Brooks said. Typically, homeowners insurance does not extend to landslides save for a few subsets under other clauses in California Hahn said the landslide could have been caused by excessive rainfall in Southern California raising an important question for an insurance claim: Does the Peartree Lane landslide fall under the force majeure clause or was it foreseeable and could it have been prevented “We’ve seen homeowners in different areas of California that go after their homeowner’s association because there might have been prior notice to damages,” attorney Jason Stone with the law firm Stone and Sallus said “There could be an argument that the HOA should have known of these risks,” Stone said Some residents have told The Times that they had previously alerted the HOA of cracking and other signs of potential land movement, but they said they don’t think anything was done. The management company for the Rolling Hills Park Villas Homeowners Assn., Scott Management, as well as a member of the board, declined to comment or take questions from The Times. Grace Toohey is a reporter at the Los Angeles Times covering breaking news for the Fast Break Desk she covered criminal justice issues at the Orlando Sentinel and the Advocate in Baton Rouge Toohey is a Maryland native and proud Terp Campa is a member of the Fast Break team at the Los Angeles Times having previously covered the Eastside and San Gabriel Valley he worked at several medium and small daily newspapers and has covered education He’s a proud University of Alabama (#RollTide) Cal State Fullerton and Pasadena City College alumnus Terry Castleman is a data reporter on the Fast Break Desk covering breaking news. In 2020, he was named alongside his colleagues as a Pulitzer Prize finalist in explanatory reporting. Previously, he worked at the New York Times and volunteered as a first responder for refugees arriving on the shores of Lesvos. Just off of Crenshaw Boulevard in Rolling Hills Estates offices and commercial space are poised to make way for the construction of a large mixed-use apartment complex The Brickwalk Residences, which were recently presented to the Rolling Hills Estates City Council would rise from a roughly 10.4-acre property located at 655-815 Deep Valley Drive including 55,000 square feet of offices and the 25,000-square-foot Brickwalk shopping center is slated for the construction of four new buildings featuring a combined total of 407 residential units In exchange for density bonus incentives permitting a larger development than would normally allowed by the city's zoning rules and three-bedroom dwellings to be set aside for rent by very low-income households rents for the income-restricted units would start at $1,182 per month for a one-bedroom dwelling AC Martin is designing the Brickwalk project which would include contemporary podium-type buildings standing up to eight stories in height City records list the project applicant as Rolling Hills Capital an entity affiliated with Beverly Hills-based OpenStreet Capital The project is being submitted for approvals using the vesting provisions of SB 330 consideration of a professional services arrangement to conduct CEQA review for the project is expected to occur at a later council meeting Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn / Threads / Instagram But to scientists who study the geology and climate changes behind this landslide things seem to be happening all too quickly What this means is that our understanding of the past — benchmarks that we have long used to guide our preparedness and decision-making about environmental risks — aren’t enough to prepare for the future. In an era of such rapid change, old thinking like the term “100-year flood” becomes almost meaningless. we need to rely on scientific model predictions and forecasts Regardless of whether warning signs were missed in the years and days leading up to the Rolling Hills landslide one thing is certain: There are other alarms flashing all around us one that could expose more than 400,000 people to severe flooding Addressing climate change is key to the response to our planet’s many current alarms and in the meantime we must deal with the new reality One much-needed mitigation strategy isn’t going to be too popular in California: The rapid change and increasing impacts of natural hazards can be addressed by stepping back from the most hazardous areas Homes in Rolling Hills Estates continued to move Monday morning more than a day after 12 houses were evacuated because of a major ground shift is the investment in resilience measures that allow those exposed to natural hazards to limit losses and more easily recover Our experience with earthquakes can serve as inspiration: The devastating Northridge earthquake in 1994 revealed a pattern of weaknesses in buildings that put us at risk and following major investments in structural retrofits adapting to a changing climate is going to be tough But it doesn’t have to involve a lot more scenes like we’re seeing in Rolling Hills this week We can limit the damage by taking responsible actions now 2024 at 9:19 am PT.css-79elbk{position:relative;}A downed powerline cut electricity for thousands and shuttered traffic Monday morning (Rachel Barnes/Patch)ROLLING HILLS ESTATES CA — Downed power lines cut electricity for thousands and stopped traffic in two South Bay cities Monday morning According to the Torrance Police Department Monday in the area of Hawthorne Boulevard between 244th Street and Via Valmonte The issue caused thousands of Southern California Edison customers to lose power for a brief time Hawthorne Boulevard remained closed into the late morning and residents were advised to avoid the area The duration of the lane closures was unknown Rolling Hills Road at Hawthorne Boulevard is an alternate route KTLA The Rolling Hills Covenant Church in Rolling Hills Estates started holding services outdoors Sunday morning the first since the pandemic forced closures of houses of worship and many businesses in March The church set up a tent that could hold 300 people at a time intending to follow pandemic requirements by L.A “We’re respecting other people’s space their health,” volunteer Tom Strickfaden told KTLA said it’s important to be responsible for the community “I think our church is really adamant about enforcing [rules] to make sure people are safe,” he said The church had raised $300,000 for the new tent and equipment, interim Senior Pastor Sam Evans told the Daily Breeze Meanwhile, the Grace Community Church in Sun Valley planned to defy a court order and open its doors to parishioners on Sunday Megan Telles reports for the KTLA 5 Morning News at 11 on Aug Correction: A previous version of this story stated an incorrect location for the Rolling Hills Covenant Church Δdocument.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value" ShareSaveCommentReal EstateForbes Global Properties$12.5 Million Home Sale Sets 2023 Record (So Far) For Palos Verdes PeninsulaByMary Forgione It’s a bit early in 2023 to talk about record real estate prices A 10-acre estate in Southern California’s prestigious Rolling Hills Estates recently sold for $12.5 million the highest home price on the Palos Verdes Peninsula so far in 2023 the house is positioned to take in expansive views of the coast More and panoramas of the San Gabriel Mountains The ranch-style home behind gates in Rolling Hills Estates is a sprawling hilltop property in the middle of horse country Residents have access to more than 20 miles of horseback riding and hiking trails right outside their doors The house is set atop lush canyons with expansive views of the coast and twinkling city lights along the peninsula and panoramas of the San Gabriel Mountains to the north Built in 1980 and extensively updated through the years the house has five bedrooms and seven full .. It was built in 1980 and hasn’t been on the market for 43 years The house has five bedrooms and seven full or partial bathrooms plus a pool “It’s really rare to find 10 flat acres,” Dyer says The floor plan offers more than 7,650 square feet of living space The gated community features 24-hour guards at three entrances to the city Additional amenities include community tennis and pickleball courts The property was once owned by Georgia Frontiere The home belonged to the late Frank Robinson, aeronautical engineer and founder of Robinson Helicopter Company in Torrance He designed and manufactured the popular two-seater R44 helicopter and remained a top seller for decades before it was eclipsed by newer models Robinson was known for bringing lightweight Robinson received several industry awards for his work, including being inducted into the San Diego Air & Space Hall of Fame in 2009 He retired from the now 50-year-old company in 2010 and died in November at the age of 92 The highest-priced sale on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in 2022 was $17,150,000 for a Palos Verdes Estates home Strand Hill Properties is an exclusive member of Forbes Global Properties a consumer marketplace and membership network of elite brokerages selling the world’s most luxurious homes Damaged homes are torn apart by earth movement in the Los Angeles County city of Rolling Hills Estates The dozen homes torn apart were hastily evacuated by firefighters Saturday when cracks began appearing in structures and the ground Homes in Southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula are seen torn apart by earth movement in Rolling Hills Estates A dozen homes torn apart by earth movement during the weekend are likely to fall into an adjacent canyon The homes in the Los Angeles County city of Rolling Hills Estates were hastily evacuated by firefighters Saturday when cracks began appearing in structures and the ground A partially destroyed patio caused by earth movement is seen in Southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula’s Rolling Hills Estates The Los Angeles County city of Rolling Hills Estates were hastily evacuated by firefighters Saturday when cracks began appearing in structures and the ground A patio of a house in Rolling Hills Estates is severely damaged after a landslide on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County A house in Rolling Hills Estates is severely damaged after a landslide on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County early Sunday Multiple homes were evacuated in the Los Angeles-area city after a major ground shift put them at risk of collapse (Michael Hixon/The Orange County Register via AP) A house in Rolling Hills Estates severely damaged from a landslide teeters over a densely wooded ravine on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County This photo taken with a drone shows damage from earth movement to a property in Rolling Hills Estates This photo shot with a drone shows damage from earth movement to a property in Rolling Hills Estates A television news cameraman gets ready for a live broadcast across a ravine from severely damaged homes in Rolling Hills Estates on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County The homes were hastily evacuated by firefighters Saturday when cracks began appearing in structures and the ground City employees walk past a damaged house teetering over a ravine in Rolling Hills Estates on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County A dozen homes torn apart by earth movement on Southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula during the weekend are likely to fall into an adjacent canyon The homes iwere hastily evacuated by firefighters Saturday when cracks began appearing in structures and the ground (AP) — A landslide tore apart luxury homes on Southern California’s Palos Verdes Peninsula on Monday leaving a confused jumble of collapsed roofs tilted chimneys and decks dangling over an adjacent canyon The slide in the Los Angeles County city of Rolling Hills Estates began Saturday when cracks began appearing in structures and the ground and residents were given just 20 minutes to evacuate The pace of destruction increased through the weekend and into Monday chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors crackle and pop every minute when you’re there as each home is shifting It was initially believed that all of the red-tagged homes were sliding but Assistant City Manager Alexa Davis clarified Monday afternoon that 10 were actively moving An additional 16 were being monitored but had not required evacuation But a fissure running among the homes raised suspicion that this past winter’s heavy rains may be involved “We won’t know until a geologist and a soil expert really does a post-op on this and tells us what happened,” Hahn said the initial thinking is that it was because of the heavy rains that we had last year and all that underground water has caused this Hahn said many of the displaced residents were unsure whether they were insured for such loss including one who moved in two months ago after escrow closed The county assessor was to meet with the residents to tell them they could apply for property tax waivers “My heart goes out to these people,” Hahn said “We gave them 20 minutes Saturday night to evacuate and get their things Damaging landslides have occurred previously on the Palos Verdes Peninsula which rises high above the Pacific on the county’s south coast and offers residents spectacular views of the ocean and greater Los Angeles A landslide that began in 1956 destroyed 140 homes in the Portuguese Bend area of the city of Rancho Palos Verdes The slide coincided with construction of a road through the area Among other notable earth movements on the peninsula a 2011 slide severed the blufftop ocean road near White Point in the San Pedro section of Los Angeles several months after engineers began noticing cracks and fenced off the area for study Some of the many potential factors include earthquakes and water percolating down into the earth after heavy rains Human-induced landslide factors include construction without proper grading of slopes alteration of drainage patterns and disturbances of old landslides the developers behind plans for a senior housing complex on the Palos Verdes Peninsula are finally ready to break ground a jointe venture between Chicago-based Singerman Real Estate and Darnell Capital is slated to replace a vacant office building located at 27520 Hawthorne Boulevard in Rolling Hills Estates.  The completed project would include 87 units of assisted living and memory care housing A rendering of the project depicts Peninsula Pointe as a three-story structure with a porte-cochère.  Phoenix-based Cadence Living has been tapped to operate the facility Construction financing for the development was arranged by the Senior Housing Capital Markets team at Cushman & Wakefield Peninsula Pointe is expected to open for occupants in 2022 The project that will eventually built has been in the works since at least 2015 and was downsized from an earlier iteration of the plan which called for a larger structure with 102 senior housing units