Historic landslides in Rancho Palos Verdes cause irreversible damage to homes and roads as seen on May 17, 2024.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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Topline:
It’s a slow moving disaster that experts have warned against throughout the years, and yet, at every turn, developers were allowed to build, build, build, driven by buyer demand and lucrative prices in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes. The city is using more than $40 million in federal emergency disaster funds for a buyback program since most insurance doesn’t cover landslides. But the chance of property owners recouping their market values is slim as some parcels languish on real estate listings.
How we got here: According to research from the Cal State Dominguez Hills, the Portuguese Bend landslide has been moving for more than 250,000 years. But the more aggressive movement started after World War II, when the peninsula experienced a housing boom and L.A. County expanded Crenshaw Boulevard.
Land acceleration: In a report to city officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, geologists said a particularly wet winter in 1978 accelerated land movement, at one point up to 40 feet a year in the early 1980s.
Legal history: When the landslide started accelerating in 1978, city officials banned new construction in the Portuguese Bend landslide area, saying they had to “conduct extensive geological studies to determine the stability of the land.” For years, the development moratorium held, until 15 property owners sued the city in 2002 and were later allowed to build.
Where things stand today: Today, unstable land movement has left hundreds without power or gas and dozens of homes are unliveable, according to officials.
Read on ... to learn more about the history of development on the Peninsula.
Rancho Palos Verdes life is mostly idyllic and insular. Clifftop ocean views, scenic hiking trails and a thriving equine community mean residents rarely have to go “down the hill.”
But in recent years, multi-million-dollar homes perched atop oceanside bluffs in the Portuguese Bend area have started to succumb to geological forces that — despite millions of dollars and years of efforts — cannot be stopped.
In fact, those forces were accelerated by heavy rains in 2023 and 2024, pulling apart structures, cutting gas and power lines and severing roads. NASA imagery shows that land was sliding at a rate of 4 inches a week during a four-week period last year.
Portuguese Bend is clearly on borrowed time.
Land movement made a section of Narcissa Drive impassable in September.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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An aerial view of landslide damage at the corner of Dauntless Drive and Exultant Drive in the Seaview neighborhood of Rancho Palos Verdes in September.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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But people are adaptable, especially when there’s this much to lose. Residents have set up solar panels and generators. The iconic Wayfarers Chapel was meticulously disassembled so it can be moved to more stable ground. The city has increased efforts to pump groundwater away from the slide zone and will use more than $40 million in federal disaster funds to buy properties.
So how did this slow-moving disaster get to this point? Who’s responsible? And where does Rancho Palos Verdes go from here?
Workers dismantle the historic Wayfares Chapel in May after landslides shifted the terrain.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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Wayfarers Chapel was closed to the public after land movement, clearly visible on the road below the church, that followed heavy rains.
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Patrick T. Fallon
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AFP via Getty Images
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What set off the movement
According to research from Cal State Dominguez Hills, the Portuguese Bend landslide has been moving for more than 250,000 years. But the more aggressive movement started after World War II, when the peninsula experienced a housing boom.
“Sliding increased as ground water levels rose, the latter due to homeowner irrigation, and installation of pools and septic tanks,” Brendan McNulty, the professor behind the research paper, wrote. “Almost all of these houses have since been destroyed by landslide activity.”
McNulty has since retired and is not available for interviews, a spokesperson for the university told LAist.
The Portuguese Bend area seen from the air in 1955 before many houses were built.
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Howard D. Kelly
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Kelly-Holiday Mid-Century Aerial Collection / Los Angeles Public Library
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Frank Vanderlip, a banker based in New York, purchased the peninsula in 1913 with a vision of turning it into an artists colony, said Palos Verdes Historical Society President Dana Graham. But the Great Depression derailed those plans. Japanese American farmers were forcibly moved off the peninsula when President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 incarcerated thousands of Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans. When service members began returning from World War II, the peninsula became an attractive option since Vanderlip envisioned more than 50% of the area as parkland.
At the time, Graham said, the roads were mostly dirt and to build a home on the peninsula, you had to pave your own.
But in 1956, Graham said, the fragile geology keeping the bluffs relatively intact took a hit when L.A. County expanded Crenshaw Boulevard.
“ The theory was that the blasting and the digging and the movement of dirt and all that had disturbed an ancient slide that had been at equilibrium,” Graham said.
According to historical documents posted by the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, land moved roughly 22 feet from September 1956 to April 1957.
What happened next
In a report to city officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, geologists said a particularly wet winter in 1978 accelerated land movement, at one point up to 40 feet a year in the early 1980s. The city was later able to reduce that movement to 1 foot a year by installing dewatering wells, which pump water out of the ground, but the bluffs never recovered.
Drainage systems in Rancho Palos Verdes were installed in the 1980s as part of a stabilization plan.
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City of Rancho Palos Verdes
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In the geologists’ report, they said that since the landslide was reactivated in the 1950s more than 5.8 million cubic yards of sediment — or enough to fill over 200,000 football fields — had been deposited in the ocean since the land started moving in the 1950s.
Residents sue the city to develop land
When the land movement started accelerating in 1978, city officials banned new construction in the Portuguese Bend area, saying they had to “conduct extensive geological studies to determine the stability of the land.” For years, the development moratorium held, until 15 property owners sued the city in 2002, arguing that development had become too restrictive over the years.
The city’s position, city manager Ara Mihranian told LAist, was to allow improvements on homes built prior to the city’s incorporation.
Sliding land damaged homes in Rancho Palos Verdes, like this one seen in 1984, before the stabilization plan went into effect.
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City of Rancho Palos Verdes
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A trial followed, and the judge ruled in favor of the city, claiming the development moratorium was justified. But the property owners won on appeal, with the ruling stating that the moratorium was an “unconstitutional taking of property” and the city had to either allow the plaintiffs to build on their vacant lots or buy them at fair market value. This paved the way for the development now being slowly crippled and rendered uninhabitable for the landslide movement
Mihranian said three of the homes built as a result of the court ruling are now red tagged.
Where things stand today
Today, unstable land movement has left hundreds of residents without power or gas after above average rainfall over the last two winters accelerated movement in the landslide complex rendered dozens of homes unliveable, according to officials. At one point last year, land was moving up to 1 foot a week in some areas. That has since slowed with around-the-clock dewatering wells, but experts say it can’t be totally stopped.
NASA’s UAVSAR airborne radar instrument captured data in fall 2024 showing the motion of landslides on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Darker red indicates faster motion.
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NASA Earth Observatory
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Which leads to the current conundrum.
Mihranian told LAist that the long term plan is for the city to look at opportunities through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant program to buy back homes in the landslide complex.
Land movement caused a water main to break in the Portuguese Bend area last year.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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Portuguese Bend resident Gordon Leon shows where he has installed a generator at his home due to electrical service being cut off.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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As property owners wait for funding for the buyouts, others are trying the real estate market. On Zillow, a home on Vanderlip Drive is listed for more than $2 million with a note that states: “The home is offered for a fraction of its pre-movement value...and will offer a buyer a unique blend of elegance, comfort and breathtaking beauty, making it a true treasure to be loved by the next family lucky enough to call it home.”
According to the listing, the homeowners have “fought back” against the land movement by installing helical piers, or foundations screwed into the ground.
The listing agent, Charlie Raine, told LAist there's been interest in the place for its character and history. But in general, he said news of the landslides hasn't helped in generating prospects.
" We've had people who have mentioned the fact that, you know, how close is it to the landslide? And these are houses that are nowhere near the landslides," he said. "It's something that's on buyers' minds, and it certainly must have a negative effect on some people that maybe won't look in the area."
Landslide damage at the corner of Dauntless Drive and Exultant Drive in the Seaview neighborhood of Rancho Palos Verdes in September.
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Brian Feinzimer
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LAist
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Another listing for a million-dollar home in the Seaview area states: “Don’t miss this opportunity to own a slice of coastal paradise in one of Southern California’s most desirable neighborhoods. Schedule your private showing today and experience the allure of seaside living at its finest. Property located in the neighborhood impacted by LAND MOVEMENT and affected by it.”
Mihranian said the city can’t step in to halt those sales since they are privately owned parcels.
Other property owners have filed lawsuits against the city. Two filed last year allege the city of Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills, L.A. County, CalWater and the Klondike Canyon Landslide Abatement District failed to properly manage the landslide or take adequate precautionary measures ahead of wet winter seasons. The lawsuits also allege that improperly maintained water and sewer lines contributed to the recent acceleration in movement.
