Portuguese Bend Landslide

RPV Awarded $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 recipient of $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 award ever secured by the City.

The City was named a recipient on August 28, 2023, when FEMA announced nearly $3 billion in awards 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 awards. This funding for the proposed Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project will 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 late 2024.

Appendices for Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project

• Appendix A (PDF)
• Appendix B (PDF)
• Appendix C (PDF)
• Appendix D (PDF)
• Appendix E (PDF)
• Appendix F (PDF)
• Appendix G (PDF)
• Appendix H (PDF)
• Appendix I (PDF)
• Appendix J (PDF) 

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 late 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.