City Council to Revisit Proposal to Create Third Landslide Abatement District

In 2025, the city began exploring how to go about potentially creating a new geological hazard abatement district or GHAD for the Portuguese Bend landslide. For some background, three separate government agencies are responsible for mitigating movement within RPV’s ancient landslides, which together make up the Greater Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex. While the city is responsible for landslide mitigation within city-owned open space in the Portuguese Bend landslide, in 1981, two independent agencies known as GHADs were formed, via state legislation (Beverly Act), for the purpose of landslide mitigation within the Abalone Cove and Klondike Canyon Landslides, respectively. The Abalone Cove Landslide Abatement District or ACLAD and Klondike Canyon Landslide Abatement District or KCLAD are separate from the city and are funded by assessments paid by property owners in their boundaries (with the city being the largest property owner in each as of today but not when the districts were originally formed).

In August 2025, the city council moved to initiate the process of potentially forming the third GHAD. City staff went on to issue a Request for Qualifications or RFQ from firms to prepare an engineer’s report and provide technical assistance to city staff in performing the first steps in the process of forming a new GHAD. City staff selected a top firm, which provided a fee proposal in the range of $500,000. Considering the higher-than-anticipated cost of starting the GHAD, the city council will revisit the idea at its next meeting.

On July 7, the council will consider several potential paths forward: 

• Deciding against forming a new GHAD at this time due to the high cost
• Proceeding with forming a new GHAD despite the high cost
• Dissolving ACLAD and KCLAD and forming one GHAD to cover the Abalone Cove, Klondike Canyon, and Portuguese Bend Landslides

Each option has its own potential advantages and disadvantages.

A staff report (PDF) with more information is available on the City websiteand at: https://tinyurl.com/city-council-report-RPV 

Meeting Info 

To participate in public comment during the meeting in person or virtually, complete a form at rpvca.gov/participate. Email your comments on agenda items to cc@rpvca.gov.

Time: 7 p.m., July 7

Details: Watch live on RPVtv’s YouTube channel, at rpvca.gov, or on Cox 33/FiOS 38. 

Venue: Via Zoom and at Hesse Park, in McTaggart Hall, 29301 Hawthorne Blvd, Rancho Palos Verdes