Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project & Background

This webpage contains information about the Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project. For updates on land movement, visit rpvca.gov/landmovement.

February 20, 2024 City Council Landslide Update

In February 2023, the City of Rancho Palos Verdes released a draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) studying potential environmental impacts of the proposed Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project, a major public works project designed to significantly slow the landslide and prevent further damage to roads, utilities, and homes.

One unusually wet year later, we are seeing that damage happen in real time. Movement in the Portuguese Bend, Abalone Cove, and Klondike Canyon landslides (referred to as “the landslide complex”) has accelerated by a factor of three to four times in just the past few months compared to the entire previous year. The movement is expanding beyond the boundaries of the historically mapped landslides.

While the City continues to work on short-term measures, the long-term Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project remains in the EIR process and has not yet been approved for construction. In August 2023, in response to public feedback on the Draft EIR, the City Council decided to explore making changes to the project to reduce environmental impacts to native habitat. This added time to the EIR process, delaying the anticipated release of the final EIR to September 2024. After the final EIR is released, the City Council will need to certify it and approve final design and construction documents before the project can go through permitting and construction, which is expected to start in 2025.

Recognizing the growing urgency of the need to reduce the land movement as soon as possible, on February 20, 2024, the City Council voted to urge Gov. Newsom to declare a state of emergency to expedite critical landslide remediation efforts and to request President Biden declare a federal disaster to potentially make federal funding and assistance available. The Council also directed City staff to complete the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) and final engineering for the proposed long-term Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project based on its original concept design, and to return with an update at the March 19, 2024 meeting. With this approach, the City expects to move up the project’s Final EIR release date to May 2024 instead of September 2024. This alternative approach could still allow the City to make changes to the project based on a concurrent analysis of options to reduce environmental impacts.

The California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) subsequently determined that the City is able to utilize the current February 4, 2024 State of Emergency issued by Gov. Newsom to implement immediate emergency measures to help reduce further damage to the landslide area, including:

The installation of additional drainage systems and wells to extract groundwater and
Other measures that would prevent surface water from adding to the saturation.

What does this mean for the City and the Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project?

Now that the City has received clarity from the state, Staff is determining what immediate emergency measures can be implemented, with the goal of starting work by the end of March or early April. This involves meeting with government agencies such as L.A. County OEM, Cal OES, the California Coastal Commission, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, to name a few, regarding next steps, including how permitting and environmental review requirements can be bypassed under the existing state of emergency. Those conversations are ongoing, and updates will be provided in the coming weeks. If the Governor requests a federal disaster be declared in response to February’s storms, federal assistance and funding could become available as part of the City’s response and recovery, including stabilizing the landslide.

City Staff continues to work toward completion of the long-term Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project’s Final EIR, which is expected to go before the City Council this spring. Staff will provide an update on the Final EIR at the next regular City Council meeting on March 19, 2024, when the City’s local emergency declaration will be considered for extension. Stay tuned for meeting information.

RPV Selected for $23.33 Million FEMA Grant for Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project

The City of Rancho Palos Verdes is honored and grateful to be selected as a candidate for a $23.33 million from FEMA’s Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program to slow the Portuguese Bend Landslide, one of the largest continuously active landslides in the U.S. This is the largest grant amount ever considered for the City.

The City's proposed Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project was selected for further review by FEMA on August 28, 2023, when FEMA announced nearly $3 billion in selections to help communities across the country build resilience against extreme weather events and proactively reduce natural hazard risks, including $1.8 billion in BRIC program funding. This funding for the proposed Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project would help make it possible for the City to drastically reduce land movement in the 240-acre landslide, which has significantly damaged homes, utilities, and infrastructure for nearly seven decades. To complete the estimated $33 million project, the City will work to identify funding opportunities for about $10 million needed in non-federal matching funds.

In addition to FEMA, the City thanks Cal OES, Hagerty Consulting, Hout Engineering, and Lisa Scola of Scola & Associates for their work on the City’s grant application. We also thank elected representatives who have lent their support to the City’s efforts to address the landslide, including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Ted Lieu., California Sen. Ben Allen, Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, California Sen. Steven Bradford, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn, and L.A. County Assessor Jeff Prang, as well as neighboring agencies on the Peninsula.

Learn more by reading a press release (PDF).

Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project Update

On August 15, 2023, the City Council received an update on the proposed Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project. The Council voted to proceed with final engineering plans while determining if modifications can be made to the project design based on public feedback on the project's Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR), including potentially:

Minimizing or eliminating the flow-reduction area
Reducing drainage swales footprint and maximizing the ability to support native habitat
Relocating hydrauger batteries to more easily accessible areas and minimizing impacts on native habitat
Providing construction and maintenance logistics details

A Final EIR could be released in late 2024.

Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project Draft EIR

The City of Rancho Palos Verdes released the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) (PDF) for the Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project on February 9, 2023. The public review and comment period ended on April 14, 2023. The consultant is now reviewing the comments, responding to them and making final revisions to the report. A Final EIR will go before the City Council for certification at a future meeting, likely in spring 2024.

Appendices for Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project

About the Draft EIR

Prepared by environmental consulting firm LSA Associates, the Draft EIR is part of a state-required review process that studies how proposed major construction projects could affect the environment and what can be done to mitigate those effects. EIRs are meant to inform decision-makers and the public of any impacts before a project can be built. The Draft EIR for the Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project studied potential impacts across the following categories: aesthetics, air quality, biological resources, cultural resources, energy, geology and soils, greenhouse gas emissions, hazards and hazardous materials, hydrology and water quality, land use and planning, noise, recreation, transportation, tribal cultural resources, utilities and service systems, and wildfire.

The Draft EIR found that the project would have no significant impacts in any of these areas, but that it could have less than significant impacts associated with construction, including temporary loss of habitat for sensitive species. These impacts would be mitigated through avoidance and minimization methods, habitat restoration, and close biological monitoring, with approval from state and federal wildlife agencies. The habitat loss resulting from the project was anticipated and accounted for in the City’s Natural Communities Conservation Plan/Habitat Conservation Plan (NCCP/HCP), which allows the loss of habitat for certain City projects, provided that avoidance and minimization measures for sensitive habitats and species are implemented. The habitat loss accounted for in the NCCP/HCP is offset by the creation of the City’s 1,500-acre Palos Verdes Nature Preserve. The Preserve and the perpetual preservation and restoration of protected habitat essentially serve as the mitigation for permanent impacts associated with these City projects, including the landslide project.

A public hearing to present the Draft EIR findings and solicit feedback was held during the City Council meeting on March 21, 2023. Following the end of the the public review period on April 14, 2023, the consultant is now reviewing the comments, responding to them and making final revisions to the report. A Final EIR will go before the City Council for certification at a future meeting, likely in spring 2024. Certifying the EIR does not mean the City would or would not proceed with project construction.

Questions about the Draft EIR may be directed to the Public Works Department at publicworks@rpvca.gov.