Rancho Palos Verdes Asks For State Of Emergency Declaration As Rainfall Accelerates Land Movement

The recent deluge of rain brought on by a series of atmospheric rivers has accelerated land movement in Palos Verdes Peninsula, where dozens of homes are at risk of being destroyed and a historic landmark has been closed to the public.

The Rancho Palos Verdes City Council on Tuesday night voted unanimously to formally ask Gov. Gavin Newsom to declare a state of emergency in the city. That came a day after L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes the area, called on Newsom to provide state support for the Portuguese Bend landslide complex area.

The area has seen anywhere from than 1.7  to more than 2.8 inches of rain since Monday — and that's on top of the 6 inches brought about by a series of storms earlier this month. Increased land movement has become an increasing issue in the since 2018. At least 150 slides have been been documented in the region that’s home to multimillion-dollar homes and scenic trails.

What emergency declarations would do

In a statement released late Tuesday, Rancho Palos Verdes Mayor John Cruikshank, said an "emergency declaration by Gov. Newsom could help the City expedite remediation efforts to slow the movement as quickly as possible.”

“While we know we cannot completely stop the landslide in our community, we have spent years
identifying peer-reviewed engineering strategies to greatly slow its movement," said Cruikshank, who is one of two challengers to Hahn for her seat on the Board of Supervisors. "Now, we need
the state’s help in making their implementation a reality.”

He's referring to plans drawn up under the Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project.

By declaring the state of emergency, city officials said, it would allow them to bypass state permit requirements for repair efforts and expedite work. At Tuesday evening’s meeting the council also unanimously voted to ask Newsom to ask President Joe Biden to declare the area as a federal disaster zone, opening it up for federal funding.

City officials called the landslide complex, the “largest landslide in North America” and “the most active landslide.”

The facts on the ground

Landslide conditions continue on the Palos Verdes peninsula on Tuesday as heavy rains were expected to continue throughout the day.

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Yusra Farzan

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LAist

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“I saw a lot of fresh cracks in the ground across pavements, and just in the earth and a number of places that show me that the landslide is actively moving,” Mike Phipps, a city geologist said this week. “Because there's been so much movement, I'm expecting that the landslide — the impacts are going to be seen probably in a shorter period of time."

That's because more cracks in the earth mean more avenues for water to seep into already saturated ground, he added.

What residents are saying and seeing

Nikki Noushkam lives in the Seaview neighborhood of Rancho Palos Verdes, across the street from a home that’s already been red tagged. Outside her home, red and orange street signs declare road closures. Fissures in the street are covered with tarps. Every time it rains, Noushkam said, she lines her home with sandbags.

“We try to make sure that we don't allow water to accumulate in areas, that's basically all that we can do,” she said. “Once the water gets inside the fissures, (that's) where the problem starts happening and the land movements starts happening.”

Earlier this month, Rancho Palos Verdes extended a local emergency declaration in the landslide complex area, putting applications for construction permits on hold.

The recent storms have also “significantly compromised” trails in the area, resulting in closures in the Palos Verdes Nature Preserve. Some trails have been closed since last year because of damage from the shifting hillsides.

A city spokesperson said park rangers will assess conditions at the preserve 48 hours after the current rain has stopped to determine whether to reopen.

About Wayfarers Chapel

Wayfarers Chapel, also known as "The Glass Church," is closed due to shifting and sliding land after heavy rains in Rancho Palos Verdes.

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Patrick T. Fallon

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AFP via Getty Images

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Last week, Wayfarers Chapel, which opened on a bluff in Rancho Palos Verdes in 1951, closed to the public, citing "accelerated land movement in our local area."

The closure of the chapel and its grounds comes just two months after the property was declared a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.

Church officials, who called the decision devastating, now say that stabilizing the 3 1/2 acre property will be expensive and time consuming.

• Read more: Historic Wayfarers Chapel Has Closed To The Public