Rancho Palos Verdes continuing to see landslides as city works to contain damage

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. (KABC) -- Driving through Rancho Palos Verdes has become a bumpy situation as city workers scramble to repair roads that are buckling due to the land shifting.

"Every time we measure it, it's moving faster than it was the time before," said Mike Phipps, a city geologist. "It's been doing that for a year and a half."

Phipps says a majority of the houses are built on one complex large landslide that formed thousands of years ago. The land has been gradually shifting since.

However, a substantial amount of rainfall from earlier this year has resulted in trapped water, accelerating the land movement about a foot per week.

"The historical movements have been divided up into three or four main landslides," Phipps said. "The total area of all those landslides was about 380 acres, but the area that's moving now is over 680 acres, so the landside has gotten much bigger."

Nearly 100 homes have been damaged so far.

So what does this mean for homeowners and the real estate market?

"My entire career, it's never moved as much as is moving right now," said Ed Kaminsky, CEO of the Kaminsky Real Estate Group. "Certainly not in the recent past. and so it's never felt that concerning. But the fact that it's moving as much as it is right now. it is a concern."

Kaminsky says there are currently four homes for sale that fall in the danger zone.

"The issue with buying in here right now is you cannot get financing, and you cannot get insurance. So you have to pay cash and be uninsured. And so that's a pretty risky decision for someone to make, unless they're looking at a long-term opportunity for maybe it all gets fixed one day."

The city is currently working on a project to help slow down the shift, drilling down to add drains and pumps that will help get the water out from underneath the land.

The future of Rancho Palos Verdes remains uncertain, Phipps says. But the goal for now is just to slow down the land movement as quickly as possible.