Reports & Documents — PV Landslide

Official City of Rancho Palos Verdes

Land Movement Updates
The City's central landslide page: current status, survey summaries, program news, and utility links. The single most important official source.
Landslide Management Program
Background on the City's long-running management of the Portuguese Bend landslide, including the moratorium area and monitoring program.
Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project
The ~$33 million stabilization project (backed by a $23.3 million FEMA grant): project description, environmental review documents, and the EIR (final version expected 2026).
Landslide Complex Working Group notes
Notes from the weekly interagency coordination meetings — the most granular operational record available.
Voluntary Property Buyout Program
Official program page: eligibility, process, funding rounds, and status of the FEMA/Cal OES-funded home purchases.
Tax Relief and Insurance Resources
The City's guide to property tax reassessment, Misfortune & Calamity relief, and insurance considerations for affected owners.
City Council agendas, staff reports & video
Staff reports attached to landslide agenda items are often the best single written source for budgets, engineering detail, and program status.

NASA/JPL: Radar Imagery Reveals Details About L.A.-Area Landslides
Airborne UAVSAR analysis (fall 2024) measuring movement extent and direction — up to ~4 inches/week in residential areas — with imagery public on NASA's Disaster Mapping Portal.
California Geological Survey
CGS mapped the active slides and the ancient complex (including the 2007 landslide boundaries used in most maps) and covered the 2024 acceleration in its Geology News.
FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program
The funding vehicle behind the $42M (Round 1) and $10.16M (Round 2) buyouts and the $23.3M remediation grant.
California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES)
State partner on buyout funding and disaster relief for the landslide emergency.
California BOE: Palos Verdes property tax relief memo (Sept. 2024)
State Board of Equalization documentation of tax relief measures for landslide-affected properties.

Merriam (1960), "Portuguese Bend Landslide, Palos Verdes Hills, California," Journal of Geology
The classic early study of the 1956 reactivation.
"The Portuguese Bend landslide" (1989), Engineering Geology
Engineering analysis of the slide's mechanics and decades of movement history.
AGU's The Landslide Blog — Portuguese Bend coverage
Ongoing expert commentary on the complex's movement by landslide scientist Dave Petley.
USGS Landslide Hazards Program
Federal landslide science, monitoring methods, and hazard background.

Local outlets have covered the landslide continuously. These searches/tags surface their full archives:

Daily Breeze
The paper of record for the South Bay; deepest ongoing coverage.
LAist
Public-radio coverage including trail, spending, and community impacts.
ABC7 · CBS LA · NBC4 · KTLA
TV coverage of shutoffs, buyouts, and emergency actions.
Palos Verdes Patch · Random Lengths News · Palos Verdes Pulse
Hyperlocal reporting, including detailed council meeting recaps.
Wayfarers Chapel — Restoration updates
Official dismantling and relocation documentation for the National Historic Landmark.

If you have a report, study, staff memo, or historical record that belongs in this library, send it to contact@pvlandslide.com.