Letters to the Editor: Why homes were built on the Rancho Palos Verdes landslide. It’s not the city’s fault

To the editor: A letter writer asserts the city of Rancho Palos Verdes should be liable for landslide damage to homes because it zoned the land for housing and issued building permits. As an attorney who has represented Rancho Palos Verdes in litigation about home construction in a landslide area, I can explain some of the legal background.

A local government that prohibits development of land, or regulates development in a way that makes development impossible or infeasible, can be sued for inverse condemnation — a claim that the government has taken the property by not allowing the owner to develop it.

The owners of 16 lots in a part of the city susceptible to landslide filed just such a lawsuit in 2002. The court of appeal concluded the city had “taken” the plaintiffs’ lots because the status of the geology at the time indicated a house would probably stand for at least 50 years.

That left the city with two alternatives: Buy the land or change the development regulations. The city changed the development regulations for those 16 lots.

A similar lawsuit filed in 2015 regarding other lots in the same area was dismissed on procedural grounds. Nevertheless, in light of the previous case, the city changed the development regulations for these properties as well.

In any event, cities are immune from liability for issuing or denying building permits, or failing to inspect or inadequately inspecting property. The city would have to do something more than issue building permits to be found liable for the impacts of the recent landslides.

June Ailin, Marina del Rey

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To the editor: I am a California-certified engineering geologist and have worked on large landslides for many decades. Residents of Rancho Palos Verdes’ landslide area need to know the adverse geologic facts.

Tragically, a heavy blanket of fill was placed on top of a known active landslide decades ago. This landslide is several hundred acres in size and has known groundwater springs and seepage. In addition, broken water pipes are accelerating it.

There are known active faults in the area. If an earthquake occurs there, this landslide could move catastrophically. There is no quick fix for this landslide.

Gov. Gavin Newsom needs to direct the California Geological Survey to write a report on this landslide. They are neutral scientists with expertise in large, active landslides. Houses within the danger area need to be carefully dismantled and vacated.

Robert Hadley Sydnor, Fair Oaks, Calif.

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To the editor: One all-important question has not been raised in the ongoing coverage of the decades-long, but now rapidly unfolding, Rancho Palos Verdes landslide — what about insurance?

Insurance companies are like canaries in coal mines. They’re highly sensitive to risks faced by the properties they insure, and if they decline to insure your home and your neighbors’, that’s a pretty clear alarm.

Many people may have been stuck in legacy properties with little alternative for housing, but for others who knew and took their chances, a major bailout by taxpayers seems unwarranted.

David Ewing, Los Angeles