Rolling Hills Responds to Public Utility Shut-Offs

City Clarifies Distinctions and Unique Circumstances of Land Movement

ROLLING HILLS (Sept. 19, 2024): The City of Rolling Hills recognizes the distress created by recent gas and electricity shut-offs throughout the Palos Verdes Peninsula due to land movement. On Sept. 18, 51 Rolling Hills homes lost power and on Sept. 16, 37 homes lost natural gas service. Though land movement has affected the city and neighbors along the Peninsula, the situation within Rolling Hills is notably different.

The city is taking this opportunity to clarify its distinct circumstances. Rolling Hills is a gated community that operates independently of the surrounding cities, including Rolling Hills Estates, which is a different city. Rolling Hills is not only governed by its City Council, but also by the Rolling Hills Community Association or RHCA, which oversees much of the local infrastructure within the city. The RHCA manages roadways, gates and other vital systems in this private community while the city regulates the zoning and building processes for homeowners.

To date, Rolling Hills has experienced only minor damage to its infrastructure from land movement. Three residents have reported potential land movement on their properties, which geologists are currently monitoring, while RHCA, with help from the city, is assessing recent road fissures and structural concerns, though their causes are not yet confirmed. Despite the limited impacts, the land movement is such that the utility providers, SoCal Gas and Southern California Edison, have indicated that they can no longer safely continue service to these 37 and 51 respective homes.

Public safety is top priority, and city officials continue to advocate that SoCal Gas and Southern California Edison look aggressively at engineering solutions to sustain utility services to households while ensuring public safety. As our residents face utility shut-offs with less than a week of notice, the city is working to expedite permitting to support the installation of alternative power solutions for residents who choose to do so.

This includes the temporary installation of generators, solar power systems and storage sheds for needed supplies.

“Since the beginning of this crisis, the City has pursued all practical courses of action to prevent these shut offs, or at the very least delay them to allow the residents a reasonable amount of time to take the appropriate actions to enable them to remain in their homes. Unfortunately, these actions have been unsuccessful, but we remain committed to holding the utility companies accountable and pushing them to implement solutions that will restore services both quickly and safely,” said Rolling Hills Mayor Leah Mirsch.

Map of the City of Rolling Hills; https://cms5.revize.com/revize/rollinghillsca/Residents/About%20Rolling%20Hills/Rolling%20Hills%20City%20Map.PDF