Palos Verdes' $20M Cliff Homes Are Sliding — And Nobody Can Reach The Slide Plane

On the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County, an ancient landslide complex has been moving since 1956. It never stopped. Two wet winters in 2023 and 2024 saturated the slide mass and movement accelerated to as much as nine to twelve inches per week. SoCalGas disconnected roughly 135 homes in late July 2024. Southern California Edison cut power to about 140 homes and 53 businesses that September, after a fire on Narcissa Drive. Roads inside the zone are regraded on a schedule rather than repaired. Water lines run above ground so they can flex. Some houses sit on hydraulic jacks so owners can relevel them as the ground tilts underneath. Some structures were permitted only on the understanding that they are temporary. Here is the part that gets left out of most coverage. The slide plane is a bentonite clay layer hundreds of feet below the surface — ancient volcanic ash that lost its strength when it got wet. It cannot be excavated. It cannot be reinforced from above. Dewatering wells pull groundwater out of the mass to reduce pressure on that layer, and in a wet year the rainfall replaces what the wells remove. The intervention is not a project. It is a subscription with no cancellation option. Nobody involved did anything unreasonable. The city installed the only tool available. The utilities disconnected because lines cannot be maintained across ground moving at those rates. The ground is still moving. Sourced from the USGS, the California Geological Survey, City of Rancho Palos Verdes public records, Los Angeles County, and the California Department of Insurance. Is there a slope, a peninsula or a city you think is sitting on the same problem? Name it in the comments. That is where the next video comes from. New investigation every Tuesday. #PalosVerdes #PortugueseBend #California #Landslide #LosAngeles #RealEstate #Geology #ranchopalosverdes palos verdes,portuguese bend,rancho palos verdes,palos verdes landslide,california real estate,luxury real estate,landslide,bentonite clay,socalgas,southern california edison,los angeles county,cliff homes,coastal california,dewatering wells,abalone cove,narcissa drive,property values,california insurance,real estate documentary,unsellable america