Rancho Palos Verdes has advanced with permanently ban plans for new constructions out of 715 acres of land that have been prey to a dramatic and destructive movement in the past two years.
Tuesday evening, the members of the municipal council voted unanimously to ban almost all new developments, including additions at home, throughout the landslide area, which includes around 400 houses and 130 vacant and private lots in three districts.
The modification of the city building code would however allow repairs, restoration efforts and even the replacement of existing houses, as long as the updates do not exceed the original and damaged area of the house. It also allows land owners to request an exception.
Tuesday’s vote is the first step in making the permanent a moratorium that had been in place since the land movement accelerated spectacularly almost two years ago. The change will only take place after a final approval later this month. But with overwhelming support for city leaders, it seems likely to come into force by the end of September.
Despite the well -documented problems of the landslide since October 2023, the move faces the opposition, in particular owners who live in areas that have recently stabilized. Critics and concerns have also come from landowners sitting on unlikely land, or owners who have recently been included in the designated landslide area. This designation intervened after geologists confirmed that the recent movement had widened past historical borders.
However, many other owners have declared that they support the ban.
City officials said the changes concerned security and highlighted the last two years of unprecedented landslide movement. The movement fractured the houses, distorted several roads and cut the electricity and gas service cut for hundreds. Although the area has long been known for its recurring problems with a complex of old landslides that reappeared in the 1950s, the rate and scale of the movement since October 2023 have never been recorded before.
“We are very sensitive to earth and people who are now included in this [prohibition] Zone, “said Pro Tem Paul SEO mayor at the meeting of the municipal council on Tuesday.” … But what it comes down is public security and well-being for people on this country. “
The City had promulgated a similar ban on development in the landslide zone decades ago, but it was weakened several times by prosecution and exceptions. City leaders said on Tuesday that some of the damaged houses were part of a group that fought the initial construction prohibition and obtained construction approval in the landslide area thanks to a trial in the early 2000s. At least five recently requested federal buyouts, city officials said.