Deadline looms for Rancho Palos Verdes buyout program

Residents affected by land movement in Rancho Palos Verdes have until Friday to submit an application for the city’s Voluntary Property Buyout program.

Officials announced the $42 million buyout program in late October for residents in neighborhoods like Seaview and Portuguese Bend. The goal is “to acquire as many properties as possible” to “minimize any imminent threats to property, especially the structural integrity," said Ara Mihranian, the Rancho Palos Verdes city manager.

How does the program work

Through the buyout program, the city and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) will purchase homes with funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Home prices will be determined by how much they were valued on Dec. 1, 2022, before land movement accelerated, destabilizing power lines and destroying properties. The city will offer 75% of the property value and the home will be converted to open space, with future development restricted.

The city had received 57 applications by end of day Wednesday. With this current round of funding, city officials anticipate buying 20 homes.

“Initially, when the dollar amount was made available to the city, your initial reaction is $42 million is a lot of money,” Mihranian said. “If you go back to October or December of 2022, before the landslide, the values are probably in a different place than they are currently, and maybe a better place, you start to realize you're not going to be able to purchase several properties.”

More money in the future for more buyouts

Funding could be available in the future, Mihranian said, for more property owners to participate in buyout programs. The city, he added, has no plan to use eminent domain to take over properties.

“The way FEMA and Cal OES is presenting this is a long term program,” he said. “And so this is one cycle of what we anticipate being many cycles in the years to come.”

Any time there is a federally declared disaster in California, the state becomes eligible for funds through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program. The current program’s funding is coming from a disaster declaration related to the heavy storms California experienced earlier this year.

In California, Mihranian said, the federal government declares at least one disaster typically every year. With that declaration, local governments are given federal funding to help rebuild.

“We think there may be a declaration for the wildfires that happened about four or five weeks ago,” he said, referring to the Airport, Line and Bridge fires that occurred in September. If that happens, he said, more funding will be available for another buyout program.

How to submit an application for the buyout program

The application can be found on the city’s website: https://www.rpvca.gov/1782/Voluntary-Property-Buyout-Program. Affected residents have until 4:30 p.m. on Friday to submit their applications via email to landmovement@rpvca.gov or in person at City Hall.

Another resource available to residents

Residents affected by the landslide are also eligible for up to $10,000 in financial grants to use toward buying generators and batteries, repairs, and shoring up landslide damage.

Money can also be used for temporary housing or storage costs.

Residents will have to submit documentation with their application for the grant showing expenses incurred. More information can be found here.

The city has already distributed $1.9 million in these grants with funding for the program coming from Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office.

How we got here

Above average rainfall over the last two winters accelerated land movement in the historic landslide complex in the Greater Portuguese Bend area of the city, upending neighborhoods.

The unstable land has also caused indefinite power and gas shutoffs for more than 200 homes in Rancho Palos Verdes and the neighboring city of Rolling Hills. The damage has prompted some residents to move out, while others have installed generators and solar panels as they fight to stay.