Around 400 feet of coastal bluff in Rancho Palos Verdes plummets toward the ocean

Rancho Palos Verdes officials say 400 feet of coastal bluff that fell toward the ocean on Saturday night is not related to the land movement that's been ripping part of the city apart for years.

The bluff dropped approximately 60 feet toward the ocean. But Megan Barnes, a spokesperson for the city, told LAist there was no damage to public property, no injuries and no structural damage to the four homes affected. There is significant soil damage to their backyards, though.

The cause of the incident on Marguerite Drive is still being investigated, she added.

City Manager Ara Mihranian said that while there are no public sanctioned or approved trails leading down to the shoreline from that bluff top, there is an unauthorized trail that leads fishermen down to that area. The L.A. County Fire Department has closed off the area out of an abundance of caution.

Read more: Rancho Palos Verdes homes continue to slide into the ocean, but the destruction could have been avoided

According to Barnes, this landslide is not connected to the larger Portuguese Bend landslide around 4 miles away.

“It is totally separate, not connected,” she said.

What’s next?

The new landslide is being treated as “static” movement, Barnes said, but the city’s geology team will continue to monitor for movement.

The landslide is being treated as an “isolated separate incident” and the city is not seeking an emergency declaration as it has in the past, she said.

Mayor David Bradley told LAist,  "We're recommending that the homeowners go get a geotechnical engineer to assess their backyards and their property to assure that there's not gonna be any other movement."

Are other blufftop homes at risk?

There's always concern for bluff top homes that there could be scarfing off of some of the bluffs, Bradley said, because some erosion is to be expected.

Those homes are usually "set back a significantly larger distance than usual, just to protect against some of this type of geologic movement when the cliff face sloughs off and has an erosion," he said.

Mihranian added that state building codes require the distance.

What’s the backstory?

Land movement in the Portuguese Bend area has increased in Rancho Palos Verdes in recent years, triggered by above average rainfall since 2022.

Those landslides have left around 20 homes uninhabitable and forced dozens of people off the grid, stripped of power, gas and internet services.

Responding to the destruction has been a huge financial drain on the city, which spent $48 million on the landslide complex from October 2022 until June of this year. The city has allocated another $18.6 million to spend toward repairs and shoring up the land movement for this fiscal year.

For context, the city's annual budget is around $40 million.

What’s the city’s next move?

The city recently greenlit a comprehensive study to look at how stormwater flows into the landslide complex — and if that water can be redirected elsewhere. The ground in the landslide area is made of bentonite clay that slips and slides when wet.

It comes after Rancho Palos Verdes officials banned new construction in the area. City officials have told LAist the eventual plan is to buy out existing homes in the landslide complex and convert it to open space. There is a buyout plan in motion currently for about 20 homes.