City to Proceed with Formation of Third Landslide Abatement District
On July 7, the city council voted to continue the process of forming a third Geological Hazard Abatement District or GHAD in the landslide area to cover the Portuguese Bend Landslide. Although startup costs are estimated at $500,000, this approach exempts work in the Portuguese Bend Landslide from California Environmental Quality Act or CEQA requirements, which can add many hundreds of thousands of dollars in cost and potentially years in additional time, resulting in a net savings despite the cost of forming and administering a third GHAD. Furthermore, a GHAD provides certain immunity from liability associated with abating a geologic hazard.
City staff will now negotiate a fee with a consulting firm to assist with the formation of the third GHAD and bring a professional services agreement to the city council for approval consideration, tentatively scheduled for September 2026. This is the first step in forming a new GHAD and additional direction from the city council, as well as public input, will be needed as the process progresses.
Voluntary Property Buyout Program Update
In October 2024, the City of Rancho Palos Verdes, the Federal Emergency Management Agency or FEMA, and the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services or CalOES announced a voluntary buyout program for property owners in the Greater Portuguese Bend landslide area whose homes have been damaged or threatened by land movement. The voluntary property buyout program is intended to help eligible homeowners relocate to safer areas by offering a fair market value for their properties based on pre-disaster appraisals. Properties acquired by the city through this program will be permanently converted to open space and deed-restricted, protecting the community from future redevelopment risks in these vulnerable areas. The city received 85 eligible applications, selecting 22 homes for Round 1. Now, the city has selected five more homes for Round 2.
If you have not been contacted by the city about completing an appraisal, this means your property is not among the 27 currently being considered for buyouts and will not advance in Round 1 or Round 2 of program funding. However, all remaining eligible applications will be considered for any future rounds of program funding or if there are applicants of the 27 who choose to withdraw, maintaining their order of priority based on factors such as safety concerns, structural condition, and utility statuses.
The city has hired a consultant, Black & Veatch, to administer the buyout program. If you are among the 27 selected for Round 1 and Round 2, you should have received an email last week regarding the next steps with Black & Veatch.
As a reminder, the buyout program is funded by FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Grant Program or HMGP. While the city has been selected for a $42 million HMGP grant for Round 1 and a $10.16 million HMGP grant for Round 2, the city cannot proceed with purchasing homes until it is officially awarded both grants by FEMA. The city has been working closely with CalOES and FEMA to provide them with the necessary information needed for FEMA’s review, responding to the most recent Requests for Information or RFIs in May. The city indicated it’s hopeful that the funding will be awarded soon, although it does not have a timeline at this point.