City Takes Next Steps In Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, CA — The City of Rancho Palos Verdes will receive an update on the next steps for the Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project at next week's City Council meeting.

The draft Environmental Impact Report was released in February and received a mixed reaction from the community. In the report, the city outlined its goal to slow the land movement by preventing rainwater from entering the landslide complex.

"The project contemplated is intended to prevent something catastrophic from happening. We know the landslide has been moving since 1956 and it hasn't stopped," said City Manager Ara Mihranian.

After its publication, the city received 45 comment letters on the Draft EIR covering various topics including concerns about native plants, water collection and construction logistics. For the purpose of the project, the city said comments about funding, increasing the coverage area of the project and reusing extracted water were decided to be irrelevant, officials said.

Next Tuesday's meeting will have Council Members consider whether to proceed with the final engineering plans and determine if modifications can be made to the project based on public feedback. If the project is revised, the final EIR could be released in mid-2024, according to the city.

In an additional, separate agenda item, the Council will explore the possibility of using additional technologies to better monitor the land movement in the greater landslide complex.

The meeting will be held at 7 p.m. at Hesse Park as well as streamed live on the city's website.