COMMUNITY NOTICE
(11/17/2023)
Was a busy week. City council meeting on Tuesday, Stakeholders meeting on Wednesday, and CHOA meeting on Wednesday. Brief updates:
City Council Meeting:
- Review of city staff report. (See SRA website as PDF is posted there).
- City council voted to renew the emergency declaration. Briefly implications
- There will be building moratorium in place as a part of this. Community members asked for modification of the moratorium to allow for planning to continue and for some exceptions. City council and staff will be looking at these requests. Will be reassessment at the December 19 meeting.
- There was a presentation by city geologist Mike Phipps from Cotton Shire. He reviewed the boundaries of the ancient landslide, the Portuguese Bend Landslide, Abalone Cove Landslide, Klondike Canyon, and the Flying Triangle. He noted historical movements and recent movements. Bottom line is the bottom of the landslide has moved quite a bit over the past 40 years and there is now expansion of the landslide areas North, West, and slightly East as areas behind the foot of the landslide are now moving at increasing speed. There has been accelerating rates of movement over the past 8 years with a marked increase since the rains of last winter. Land movement currently is at rates higher than1980, and 2005 which were the prior worst years. While he supports measures to drain and impede water from entering the slippery layers, he stated that there really is nothing that will impact land movement in the short term. We will be posting link to the city council meeting on the SRA website. All are encourage to view the session on the landslide. For all City Council actions from the meeting, watch video at rpvca.gov/agendas. Item 3 of the general session.
- Review of all the activities of the city, utilities, landslide abatement districts was made.
- Urgency of well drilling was emphasized by the city and by residents of Seaview who were present. High levels of concern of pace of action were represented and heard by the city council.
- City is working actively to fill fissured and plug cracks in the preserve and in Seaview.
- Much discussion about identifying source of water from the top of the canyon. There was acknowledgement of need for alternative drainage of water away from the canyons, but as yet no clear plan for how to do this.
- Seaview residents were present in large number to comment. Requests for urgent actions from KCLAD were voiced. City acknowledged these and will communicate with state officials to see how they can help to move forward urgent projects.
Landslide Stakeholders Meeting
- Discussion of the Mike Phipps presentation for clarity. It was emphasized that the actions needed in each of the 3 major land movement areas is different due to the geology. A request was made for a plan of action that would cross all 3 landslide zones with agreement by the geologists on priority of actions. There was not a direct response to this, but the matter will be brought forward again. All agreed that more dewatering wells were needed and all did agree that these needed to be located near the foot of the landslide for maximal effect. The city has overall responsibility for the Portuguese Bend landslide which is what the FEMA grant will be funding. Unfortunately, action in the Portuguese Bend landslide cannot be done until final release of the funds occurs. This is still underway and estimates are that it may be a few years until they can act. In the interim the city is exploring how to do some projects such as drain cleanouts and repairs as “maintenance” projects which will not put the overall grant at risk.
- There is ongoing discussion with the county emergency officials to prepare a request to FEMA for funding of projects related to the landslide. There was a national state of emergency related to last winter’s rains and the city is well positioned to apply for funding support for city, landslide abatement district projects to stem land movement. Unfortunately, this is not available to residents. That having been said, the county and city emergency officials are exploring ways for individual citizens to receive some help. More on this topic in the future.
- Cal water is continuing its project for pipe elevation in Seaview, Narcissa Dr and Portuguese Bend communities. PB is complete. Seaview stage 1 along Dauntless and Exultant is expected to be completed early in December. Second stage will be Admirable. A third project along Exultant is in the planning stage with a permit due to be submitted very soon to the city.
- There have been many trail closures in the preserve area. The land is becoming very unstable with many cliffs now at risk of collapse. The city asks all to stay out of the preserve and observe the trail closed signs.
- The city will be reaching out to owners of the red tagged homes and vacant homes in the landslide area to ask them to cover fissures on their property. The city cannot enter individual property to do this work.
- LA county was asked to reinspect the main sewer lines along Dauntless due to ongoing movement. They will do this quickly. Laterals are the responsibility of homeowners.
- SCE will be inspecting the leaning pole on Exultant on the 17th. Power to all utility lines in the preserve has been cut off and they have plans in place to remove 39-40 poles
- KCLAD. Still looking for driller for new well for Dauntless. Final permits, not yet complete. Ongoing cleaning of storm drains. Query made by Seaview residents for more urgency to get drilling going. Geologist for KCLAD felt that the few wells being planned were enough based upon past 40 years. Steve Cummins reported that Beach well was pumping about 1 M Gal/Year. Query was made as to what target we should be looking for. ACLAD representatives said cannot know. Pumping would not keep up with big rains so need to focus on preventing water from entering. No clear plan for how to do this.
- ACLAD continuing with plans to add 4 more wells.
Council of Home Owners Association (CHOA)
- Large portion of the meeting devoted to review of the landslide. Ara did point out that the Portuguese Bend area is under the control of the city of RPV which is why they went after the FEMA grant. Separate from ACLAD and KCLAD districts.
- New Captain for Lomita Station. Captain Kimberly Guerrero. She has just started. She is receptive to coming to visit residents’ associations and HOA’s. She achieved position through competitive interview process that Ara participated in.
- UCLA South Bay leader Steve Yu spoke. Campus will be enrolling students for fall 2024. Initial size will be smaller than the 1000 students that Marymount had. 3-4 key programs will be based there. They are looking for ways to integrate with the community.
- Our Neighborhood voices initiative has been pushed back to 2026. There is a need to raise funding for obtaining petition signatures. The city is nearing completion of its revised plan for the state. Getting this done before the deadline is important to avoid the builders remedy that would allow developers to put in developments without city approval or regulations being applied.
- Ladera Linda is expected to open in December. City will be announcing ribbon cutting ceremony.