The Brief

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.

Alysa Liu’s comeback at this year’s Olympics — and her stunning gold medal win — has rocked the world of figure skating, making headlines due to her joy while performing and her commitment to mental health on and off the ice.

Though she primarily trained in Oakland, Liu, who’s also a psychology student at the UCLA, has used a facility in Lakewood as one of her home bases away from home. The 20-year-old started training there as she came back from retirement and prepared to take the gold medal (not that that was necessarily her goal, to hear her tell it).

It’s part of a long history for the Rinks-Lakewood ICE, which has also hosted many champions and Olympians over the years, including Mariah Bell, Nathan Chen, Ashley Wagner and Adam Rippon, and counts prominent figure skaters among their staff.

“ We're not unfamiliar with Olympic ties,” Overett said, though he also clarified, “that does not in any way diminish the fun and the coolness [of Liu’s win].”

Lakewood ICE’s place in this year’s Olympics

Working with her coaches remotely, Liu started to drill down on perfecting her skating while also attending classes at UCLA. And though she moved on to her home base at Oakland Ice Center as the Olympic training started to ramp up, the staff who worked with her at Lakewood ICE kept cheering her on.

Braden Overett, the skating manager at Lakewood ICE, said that he loves highlighting the Olympic connections at the rink, which may not be obvious to everyone who skates there.

“It's always fun just to connect the dots, right?” Overett said. “It's like going to a restaurant and then you find out later it's your favorite actor's restaurant.”

Ashleigh Ellis runs the nonprofit Unity Ice Academy, which focuses on increasing access to figure skating for kids of all backgrounds at Lakewood ICE.

“ That's just very much how the skating world is. It's very small, you never know who you're going to run into at any time,” Ellis said. “ Could you imagine just being on the ice with a national champion and Olympic skater of any sort? It's just so inspiring for the kids to see that and be within the vicinity of that.”

And Liu wasn’t the only 2026 Olympic figure skater who's used the facility. Li Yu-Hsiang, the Taiwanese national champion who represented Chinese Taipei in Milan this year, also trains in Lakewood.

The rink’s coaches

The small world of skating means that even novice skaters can take classes from world-class skaters: 1976 Olympic silver medalist Dianne de Leeuw teaches there, as do national medalists (and future Olympic contenders) Starr Andrews and Josephine Lee.

 ”To get to see them and to get to share ice with them just has a layer of magic that you can't replace and you can't get anywhere else,” Overett said. “ You see the turnover of generations, and it brings in a huge element of history.”

What Liu’s win means for the skating world

Ellis is already using Liu’s example to stress the importance of mental health to the kids and families she works with, like one parent who was worrying about her child taking two weeks off skating due to pneumonia.

“I was like, ‘Alysa Liu took two plus years off and she just won the Olympic gold. Do not worry about it this two weeks,’” she said.

A bipartisan bill aimed at protecting pets during disasters has been introduced in Congress, with a Southern California representative citing the rescue efforts of local organizations during last year’s L.A.-area fires.

The PETSAFE Act of 2026 — which stands for Providing Essential Temporary Shelter Assistance For Emergencies — would expand the use of emergency management funds so local governments can plan for evacuations that move animals to safety, as well as provide veterinary care and rescue equipment during disasters.

Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) helped introduce the bill earlier this month with several House of Representatives colleagues, including Republican Rep. Brian Mast of Florida and Democrat Rep. Dina Titus of Nevada.

Chu, who represents Pasadena and Altadena in the 28th Congressional District, said when the Eaton Fire tore through her district, many families delayed evacuations because they couldn’t bear to leave their pets behind.

She told LAist she’ll never forget seeing the cats, dogs and other animals with burned feet and singed fur who were being cared for by Pasadena Humane in the aftermath.

“But to think, if there is even one more thing we could do to keep our precious pets safe, wouldn't we want to do that?” Chu said. “So this PETSAFE Act could go a long way towards making sure that our loved pets can indeed survive a disaster.”

About the bill

Pasadena Humane teams looked for pets and wildlife in Eaton burn zones, dropping off food and water along the way.

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Courtesy Pasadena Humane

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The PETSAFE Act now has been referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. The bill would amend the Emergency Management Performance Grant program to increase the federal cost share for certain animal-related preparedness activities from 50% to 90%.

Supporters say this would lower barriers and make it more affordable for communities to roll out emergency protection plans for people and pets.

Specifically, the PETSAFE Act would allow state, local and tribal governments to use grant money awarded by FEMA toward pet supplies, crates, veterinary equipment, emergency generators and training, among others.

Pet owners whose homes are under disaster-related evacuation orders can be faced with an “impossible choice” — leaving their pets behind or staying home with them, which risks the owner’s own safety and complicates rescue efforts for first responders, according to Chu’s office.

The bill aims to address the challenges pet owners and first responders face without authorizing new federal spending, according to Mast’s office.

How we got here 

Chu said local shelters, including Pasadena Humane, and communities across California stepped up to care for all kinds of animals during the Eaton Fire, which ignited in January 2025.

Pasadena Humane helped more than 1,500 pets and wildlife during the fire and in the aftermath by providing shelter, medical care and emergency resources.

A horse was housed in the organization’s garage when Chris Ramon, Pasadena Humane’s president and CEO, ran into its owner walking down Raymond Avenue for miles.

“Part of me likes to think that this won’t happen again,” Ramon told LAist last month. “But the realist in me realizes … disaster preparedness is something that just is an ongoing conversation for us at Pasadena Humane.”

Chu also cited the work of the ASPCA, which helped more than 530 animals during the Eaton Fire, including goats, parakeets, pigs and a gecko, according to the organization.

She said local organizations did “tremendous” work and “lovingly cared for” the rush of animals affected by the fire.

“But what we would want to do is to make sure that there is an even better system for animal evacuation and ways to ensure that pets could be safe,” Chu said, adding that would relieve the burden on places like Pasadena Humane.

Other laws aiming to protect pets

This is not the first time last year’s fires have led to new legislation focused on protecting pets during emergencies.

A new state law known as the FOUND Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, was inspired by Oreo the Pomeranian, who reunited with its Pacific Palisades owner in an emotional, viral video during the Palisades Fire.

The law requires cities and counties to include procedures for rescuing pets during mandatory evacuations in their next emergency plans, which need to be updated every five years to qualify for FEMA assistance.