Straight answers to the questions people ask most about the Palos Verdes landslide.
It's the Greater Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex — four connected landslides (Portuguese Bend, Abalone Cove, Klondike Canyon, and the Beach Club slide) covering roughly 700 acres on the south side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Rancho Palos Verdes. All four sit within a much larger ancient landslide, about two square miles, that formed tens of thousands of years ago.
The ground here is naturally primed to slide: weak, seaward-tilted layers of Altamira Shale containing bentonite clay that turns slippery when wet. The modern movement began in 1956, when fill placed during the Crenshaw Boulevard extension reactivated part of the ancient slide. The dramatic 2023–24 acceleration was driven by two consecutive record-wet winters that raised groundwater deep inside the slide mass. Water is the whole story, whatever the pipe: broken buried water lines — mains and private services snapped repeatedly by the moving ground — leaked additional water into the slide during the acceleration, which is why Cal Water relocated much of the area's water system above ground in 2024, and why the response has focused on keeping water out (winterization, fissure filling) as much as pumping it out (dewatering).
Yes, but far more slowly. Per the City's August 2026 survey, still-active areas average 0.99 inches per week — under 1 inch per week for the first time since October 2023 — and the Portuguese Bend Landslide has decelerated 92% since the deep dewatering wells began. Seaview, the Portuguese Bend Beach Club, and the Klondike Canyon Landslide show essentially no measurable movement. At the 2024 peak, parts of the slide moved several inches per week. See Maps & Data for current per-area rates.
Probably not entirely — but it can be slowed dramatically, and the evidence says it's happening. Because water is the driver, the strategy is to remove it: deep dewatering wells at the slide's toe have pumped about 566 million gallons since fall 2024 (as of September 2026), alongside hydraugers, surface drainage, and winterization. The planned ~$33 million Portuguese Bend Landslide Remediation Project aims to make that suppression permanent. Abalone Cove offers precedent: dewatering in the 1980s slowed it to a near-stop for decades.
Palos Verdes Drive South is open and maintained, though it can close temporarily for repairs. Public access is restricted in parts of the Portuguese Bend Reserve where fissures and scarps altered trails; obey posted closures — ground near fissures can be unstable even when it looks solid. Respect residents' privacy in affected neighborhoods.
Almost never. Standard California policies exclude earth movement — cracking, sinking, shifting, expanding land — and the FAIR Plan excludes landslide too. Specialty "difference-in-conditions" policies can sometimes include it; availability and cost in the slide area are challenging (in a 2024 city survey of 62 landslide-area residents, none had coverage). On September 1, 2026 the City Council approved formally asking the state to create a landslide insurance program modeled on the California Earthquake Authority / FAIR Plan — track that push in Latest Updates. Meanwhile, talk to a licensed broker, and see the Resident Guide.
No. The September 27, 2025 collapse of a ~300–400-foot section of coastal bluff off Marguerite Drive happened on the peninsula's west side, roughly 4 miles from the Greater Portuguese Bend complex, and was subsequently assessed as static. It damaged several backyards but threatened no homes, and it is not part of the 700-acre active complex, its maps, or its buyout counts. If you're researching a specific property, don't conflate the two — the City's survey maps show the actual complex boundary, and our September 2025 entry covers the Marguerite event. For every distinct slide on the peninsula — Flying Triangle, Peartree Lane, Sunken City, White Point, and more — see our Peninsula-Wide Landslides page. The peninsula's coastal bluffs can fail in isolated spots anywhere; that's a different (and much more localized) hazard than the moving landslide complex this site tracks.
The FEMA/Cal OES-funded Voluntary Property Buyout Program purchases qualifying damaged homes at fair market value (appraised as of December 1, 2022, before the acceleration), with FEMA covering 75% and owners effectively contributing 25% through a reduced payment. Applications closed November 8, 2024, with 85 eligible applications received; 22 homes were selected in Round 1 ($42M) and 5 more in Round 2 ($10.16M), and a Round 3 application ($19M, roughly 8 more homes) awaits FEMA's decision. As of mid-2026 no purchases have begun — the program sits in FEMA's pre-award phase with no announced timeline, a pace that has frustrated many owners. The delay carries real risk for those selected: homes in active foreclosure proceedings are ineligible, and LAist has reported on selected owners fighting to keep mortgages current on unlivable homes while they wait. Consultant Black & Veatch administers the program. Selected addresses are not published, to protect applicants' privacy. Track progress in Latest Updates.
The L.A. County Assessor proactively reassessed tagged properties — you should receive a Notice of Assessed Value Change and an adjusted bill without applying. You can also file Misfortune & Calamity and Decline-in-Value claims. Details in the Resident Guide.
Repair and stabilize, yes — build new, no. A city urgency ordinance (adopted September 2024 and renewed August 4, 2026 through December 31, 2028) streamlines approvals for stabilizing and re-leveling homes — leveling systems, alternative foundations such as I-beams, and temporary modular housing during repairs — measures many owners have used to keep houses livable on moving ground. Separately, Ordinance 692 (effective September 2025) permanently bans new residential construction and additions in the landslide complex, while allowing repair, restoration, and replacement within a home's existing footprint. Start with RPV Building & Safety.
It depends on your neighborhood's stability. With movement now minimal in Seaview and the Beach Club, SoCalGas has been restoring gas to Seaview homes that request it after infrastructure upgrades, and SCE evaluates re-energization as conditions allow. Check SCE's RPV page and SoCalGas's RPV page for your address.
Lloyd Wright's landmark glass chapel closed in February 2024 as land movement warped its structures, and was fully dismantled by that September — every part catalogued and stored. Its board plans to rebuild at a prospective new campus at Battery Barnes near RPV City Hall, about 1.7 miles away, with a visitors center, museum, café, and gardens. Follow the chapel's restoration page.
A mix: City general funds and emergency spending (dewatering wells, road repairs, winterization), FEMA hazard-mitigation grants ($42M + $10.16M for buyouts; a $23.3M remediation grant has been in limbo since FEMA cancelled its BRIC program in 2025, a cancellation a federal court later ruled unlawful), a one-time $5M state reimbursement (Sept. 2026), Cal OES disaster funds, and property-owner assessments within the abatement districts. The scale is enormous for a small city: $64.4 million spent from October 2022 through June 2026 per the City's financial update — about $15 million of it in FY 2025–26 alone, and projected to reach roughly $75 million by June 2027 — with FEMA emergency aid denied (under appeal), reserves projected to run out by the 2027–28 fiscal year without new help, Measure RS (a hotel-tax increase projected to raise about $2.2 million a year) on the November 3, 2026 ballot, and a $48.7 million federal grant application for the remediation project requiring a $12.1 million local match. In all, city leaders are pursuing more than $136 million in grants for long-term stabilization and trail rebuilding (as of August 2026) — against long-term stabilization needs estimated at roughly $150 million, nearly four times the city's annual operating budget. In July 2026 the Council directed staff to keep developing a possible third abatement district for Portuguese Bend — a potential standing local funding source — with a detailed cost analysis due back in September.
The City of Rancho Palos Verdes' Land Movement Updates page and City Council staff reports are the authoritative sources, backed by contractor GPS surveys. NASA/JPL and the California Geological Survey provide independent scientific measurement. This site organizes all of it — see Reports & Documents — but for time-sensitive decisions, always confirm with the official source.
Send documents, meeting notes, photos, corrections, or tips to contact@pvlandslide.com. If you live in the area, attending City Council and district meetings — and speaking during public comment — is the most direct way to shape the response.