Rolling Hills Estates declares local emergency, residents consider post-landslide future

The land movement that destroyed 12 homes in a Rolling Hills Estates neighborhood this weekend — and has continued sending 10 of those buildings sliding toward a canyon — has slowed, officials said Tuesday, July 11, the same day the City Council declared a local state of emergency.

The shifting land, meanwhile, also broke a sewer line, forcing five additional homes on Peartree Lane to be evacuated, though the earth under those homes is not moving, officials said.

Still, the stark reality of the tragedy, as well as its ongoing fallout, belied the placid and suburban normalcy to which the Rolling Hills Park Villas outwardly returned on Tuesday. Residents took out their garbage. They walked their dogs. They made runs to the grocery store.

Even the mail arrived.

But normal doesn’t really exist on Peartree Lane.

Instead, a dozen homes are cracking and crumbling. Most will become rubble. Their owners face an uncertain future. And even those whose homes are safe are now confronting the uncomfortable reality of living among the hills and canyons and known landslide areas that comprise the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

And while the shifting earth has slowed, it hasn’t stopped.

“The situation on Peartree Lane remains very active,” Jessica Slawson, a management analyst for Rolling Hills Estates, said during the Tuesday night City Council meeting, “and requires ongoing response from the city, our local fire (department) and large utility companies and other resources in tackling emergencies to further support the affected residents and community.”

The shifting land, for example, apparently caused a sewer line break, forcing more residents to leave on Tuesday, raising the total number of evacuated homes to 17. Workers scrambled to repair the sewer line, said Assistant City Manager Alexa Davis.

The City Council, for its part, unanimously declared a local emergency Tuesday night, allowing Rolling Hills Estates to request financial support from the State Office of Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to a staff report.

But RHE has no idea how much it will cost to help the 16 residents whose homes were destroyed.

The “evolving nature of the situation” means a lot remains unknown, according to a city staff report.

And further belying the neighborhood’s attempt at normalcy was the undercurrent of concern from those whose homes were untouched by the landslide.

Some folks wondered whether the earth under Coraltree Lane, just down the road from Peartree, or under Rancho Palos Verdes’s Pepper Tree Lane  — across the same ravine as Peartree — could also give way, sundering even more homes. And that’s not even mentioning the hundreds of other high-end houses built on cliffs throughout the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

“I’m just concerned that it’s all moving,” said resident Paul Ginsburg.

Ginsberg stood about a block away from the red-tagged homes on Tuesday, having wandered 1.5 blocks from his Coraltree Lane townhouse because of something he saw on the television news.

When he bought his house 23 years ago, Ginsburg recalled, albeit vaguely, he had to sign some sort of document from an outside firm that showed his and other buildings were near an earthquake/landslide area. But, the retired attorney said, he wasn’t all that worried.

His unit, after all, was across the street and not near the edge of the canyon at all.

Now, however, a creeping uneasiness has set in.

“We should be safe,” Ginsburg said. “But you never know. My feeling is that if the landslide continued, we might lose something, too.”

For Hae Young Cho, though, that uneasiness has given way to dread.

On Thursday, Cho said, she started noticing cracks in her driveway — at 37 Peartree Lane.

She didn’t think much of it at first, though.

Rather, as she went about her day, surrounded by her beloved paintings of nature and with a partial ocean view from a kitchen window, she thought of the cracks as nothing more than a nuisance.

But upon further inspection, Cho said, she noticed a “little gap in the ground.” And in crept the uneasiness.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God, it’s some kind of earthquake,’” Cho said via phone on Tuesday. “Is this a fault line here?”

Still, she tried to push that fear aside.

Then, on Saturday morning, Cho said, she noticed a water pipe leaking outside in her garden. She didn’t think the leak was related to the driveway cracking. So again, she went about her business, keeping an appointment with a friend.

But a neighbor called her, complaining the leak was getting bigger. So she asked her daughter and son-in-law to have a look.

“And then someone called the fire department,” Cho said.

Her daughter told her to come home.

Once there, a neighbor said she needed to pack her car. She did. The Los Angeles County Fire Department came and told them to evacuate.

Cho packed a bit and left — but then wanted to go back.

“No,” a firefighter said.

And now, as of Tuesday, Cho’s two-bedroom unit, along with neighboring 35 and 39 Peartree Lane, has slid at least 10 feet into the canyon.

Cho, on Tuesday, was on her way to Peartree Lane to hopefully pick up her mail. She didn’t know if officials would let her in. She’s had to rely on TV news to get updates on what was once her haven of tranquility.

What she sees on television is unreal, she said. The garage side of her home, where she’s lived for about eight years, is tilted around 33 degrees — and is likely to slide down into the canyon.

“It’s terrible and sad,” Cho said. “I had a lot of memories in that house.”

She planned to live the rest of her life there, she said — on a bucolic, peaceful Peninsula hill.

But no more.

“It’s over,” Cho said. “I don’t know what to do.”

Cho is well cared for, however. She’s staying with her daughter in Rancho Palos Verdes. And even though she’s lost her independence and her life’s belongings, she’s grasping for any hope.

Government officials are among those trying to provide some hope to residents.

At a pair of Monday evening meetings, for example, Peartree residents learned about property tax relief

Damaged property can be reappraised in its current condition, according to Antonio Vazquez, chair of the California State Board of Equalization. And property taxes already paid for the year can be refunded to property owners, he said in a press release.

The state is working with residents who, in the rush to evacuate over the weekend, may not have tax records with them, Vazquez said.

To qualify for property tax relief, homeowners must file a claim within a year and the loss estimate must be at least $10,000 of current market value.

As for future tax payments, owners can apply for a deferral on the next installment without penalties or interest, but only if Gov. Gavin Newsom declares a state of emergency. That declaration can now happen, since Rolling Hills Estates has declared its own emergency, according to a city staff report.

Property tax relief, though, is just one of many worries for residents.

There are also questions about what insurance will or will not cover.

Cho and Ginsburg both referenced a “master” fire insurance policy the Rolling Hills Park Villas homeowner’s association has taken out on behalf of all residents there.

Cho’s understanding, she said, was the HOA’s insurance covered the exterior. She only needed to insure her belongings.

About 30 anxious residents had many questions for city, county and HOA officials at one of the Monday night meetings, Cho said.

HOA representatives declined to comment.

But the association, Cho said, has hired a geologist to look into the cause of the landslide.

That investigation is expected within a couple of weeks, she said.

Residents were told there’s a slim possibility — if the land settles — they could go back into their homes to retrieve belongings, Cho added.

But at least one city official was skeptical about that.

“It would be extremely difficult to imagine such a thing,” Councilmember Frank Zerunyan said, “given the shambles that each building is in.”

If she’s able to go back, Cho said, she’d grab some documents she forgot, her golf clubs and some of her art.

When she purchased her townhouse in 2015, Cho said, she had no idea it might be a landslide area. She was attracted to the lush ravine and the sense of being surrounded by nature.

“I love that canyon’s beauty,” Cho said. “I really enjoyed that nature.”

Nature, it seems, had other ideas.