Rancho Palos Verdes is leading the charge to create a landslide insurance program

Rancho Palos Verdes is leading the charge to create a new landslide insurance option for homeowners.

The effort brings together a coalition of city and county governments who say they need financial relief as they address ongoing issues like coastal erosion.

RPV's problems

A portion of Rancho Palos Verdes sits on an ancient landslide. For decades, land movement was minimal. But above-average rainfall in 2022 and 2023 rapidly accelerated the slip — up to 1 foot per week in some places — prompting Southern California Edison and SoCalGas to shut off utilities for hundreds of residents.

Roughly three years after above-average rainfall fueled a devastating landslide in Rancho Palos Verdes, the landscape has become almost unrecognizable. Around 20 homes, ripped apart by the land movement, have been red-tagged, meaning they can’t be lived in. Dozens have been yellow-tagged.

Landslide damage has closed dozens of trails in the Portuguese Bend area of Rancho Palos Verdes on April 04, 2026.

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Brian Feinzimer

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LAist

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The city’s eventual plan is to buy back some of these homes and turn them into open space, but trying to slow the landslide has pushed the city to the financial brink, with Rancho Palos Verdes spending on landslide mitigation as much as it takes to run the whole city.

Meanwhile, homeowners have had to put their savings — including their retirement — back into homes to repair landslide damage. Insurance companies haven’t helped. Generally, homeowners insurance does not cover landslides that aren’t caused by earthquakes.

In 2024, Rancho Palos Verdes surveyed residents who lived in the landslide area about their insurance coverage. None of the residents surveyed had insurance that covered landslides.

Other solutions haven’t panned out

An assembly bill to allow the governor to declare a state of emergency for landslides that aren’t caused by earthquakes, AB 986, failed.

RPV also dabbled with creating a joint powers authority where two or more public agencies come together to combine resources to coordinate services. Examples include clean power alliances like the Orange County Power Authority, and the California Community Housing Agency. But, under California law, JPAs cannot provide insurance options to private property owners.

Why the new effort matters

Rancho Palos Verdes is not the only city grappling with lack of landslide insurance for its residents. Cities mostly along the coast including Dana Point, Malibu, Laguna Beach and San Clemente have dealt with infrastructure damage due to coastal erosion over the years. San Clemente, a beach town reliant on foot traffic, has had to close public access to some of its beaches due to increased coastal erosion. Recurring landslides in the city have also disrupted coastal rail service.

Some counties including Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Diego also voiced their support for measures like the failed AB 986.

So what's the proposed solution?

Rancho Palos Verdes hopes to push state legislators to create a program similar to the California Earthquake Authority and the California FAIR Plan.

The state legislature created the California Earthquake Authority to provide optional earthquake insurance after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which resulted in $20 billion in residential damages. Only half of the damages were covered by insurance. The CEA is a nonprofit that is managed by the state but privately funded through insurance premiums and represents about two-thirds of the residential earthquake market in California, according to Rancho Palos Verdes city staff.

The California Fair Plan was created in 1968 to offer insurance plans for homeowners who have trouble getting private insurance in areas that are prone to wildfires. It has grown to about 610,000 policies as of June 2025, a 154% increase since September 2021, as other insurance companies have canceled or stopped issuing new policies in California, citing growing wildfire risk. The plan is run by insurers who do business in the state but is not publicly managed.

Rancho Palos Verdes officials will be reaching out to other affected cities and counties to drum up support. They then plan to reach out to state legislators and the insurance commissioner by the end of the year.