A proposal to publicly open the upper section of Sunken City, on San Pedro’s southern coast and featuring spectacular ocean views, has been around for years.
Sunken City is adjacent to Point Fermin Park and the ocean-view spot’s lower part is cluttered with the remains of a burgeoning housing tract that collapsed in 1929. Remains from broken streets, curbs and slabs are frozen in time, a testament to the instability that is a natural part of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
And for years, the site has held an enduring fascination for those who ignore the warning signs and fencing, with the isolation and breathtaking views worth the risk of trespassing.
But now, a plan to open up the more stable upper portion of the site to the public with a walking path is moving through Los Angeles city departments.
Efforts to keep people out of the area have largely failed through the years.
The latest attempt, installing an 8-foot-tall iron fence around the site, has been easily breached, Los Angeles Councilmember Tim McOsker said.
“It’s ugly,” he said. “It restricts access to water, and it’s not effective.
“People are going over and under and around the fence,” added McOsker, who is shepherding the latest effort to open part of the site. “What if we were to make repairs to the upper portion — just the top, which is virtually at street level — so people could safely go in and there would be access to moms and dads and their children?”
Specific plans for a walking path and other cleanups and improvements are being explored in the proposal, which is now with the city’s engineering department, McOsker said in a phone interview this week.
Preliminary plans could be released for review as early as next year, McOsker said.
Often labeled “an attractive nuisance,” Sunken City went viral online some years ago and curiosity seekers have continued making pilgrimages to the storied site. Locally, it’s long been a late-night attraction for area youth looking for an isolated and picturesque gathering spot.
Part of the current proposal includes a redesigned and smaller gate that would open only during the daytime, from dusk to dawn, allowing people to access the upper portion of the area and enjoy the views.
McOsker envisions a “simple design” that won’t be too costly and will be easily maintained. Included in the work would be leveling the estimated 1-acre top area, removing pieces of concrete that, he said, are tripping hazards, and creating a walking trail that would travel west to east, from Point Fermin Park to the turn-out area at the southern end of Pacific Avenue overlooking the ocean.
There has been general support among area homeowners for the plan, according to McOsker and Dough Epperhart, president of the Coastal San Pedro Neighborhood Council.
“The reality is people are going in there anyway,” Eppherhart said. “It’s become this real attraction on social media.”
June Burlingame Smith, a retired college professor who has a long been active leading community groups in San Pedro and lives in the Point Fermin area, agreed that the current strategy isn’t keeping people out.
“We have to do something different,” she said. “Look at other access points along the coast: you see open access ‘at your own risk.’”
Access from the top of the property to the lower section would also be accessible from the new trail area should that be created, though McOsker said traversing onto the lower, more uneven, area would probably not be advisable.
“Engineering tells us the upper area is stable,” McOsker said, “but the lower area is likely not.”
Longer-term possibilities for the lower area, McOsker said, include taking out those slabs and rubble, and returning it to its natural state, though some argue for keeping those slabs also.
Critics of the current fencing, which attempts to cut off all access, point out that trespassers are going to the lower section now anyway — and that the state mandates coastal access.
The most recent discussions about opening Sunken City took place a decade ago, when Joe Buscaino was the District 15 councilmember.
Buscaino formally asked city parks officials in 2015 to study the possibility of legally allowing visitors into the 6-acre property next to Point Fermin Park, rather than letting trespassers breach the fence. The year before, local residents before launched a campaign to reopen the area for the first time in decades.
Attorneys supporting the move at that time also said the state obligates the city to “provide access to public treasures like Sunken City.”
“The Legislature,” those attorneys said, “weighed the competing interests of public safety and public access and came down squarely in support of public access to recreational resources.”
But the issue receded after that — until now.
As fascinating as the views are, the history of the site also continues to intrigue those who make pilgrimages to the area.
As recounted in a 2018 South Bay History column for the Daily Breeze, landowner George Peck began building bungalows on 6 acres just south of Shepard Street in the mid-1920s. The plan was to create a housing development on top of a seaside bluff — then served by the Red Car with a railway stop nearby — that would offer ocean views.
What would become a devastating landslide, however, was first detected on Jan. 2, 1929, near Shepard between Paseo Del Mar and Pacific Avenue. The movement continued for months and in May of that year, city engineers recorded a lateral movement of 8 inches and a vertical drop of 3 inches as reports began to come in. The dozen homeowners in the area reported gas and water line breaks and some moved out before they were impacted.
Many of the homeowners left on their own, and some of the houses were moved away from the area. But eventually, it all collapsed, with the remaining empty homes and infrastructure falling, along with the crumbling clifftop.
Opening it up now, McOsker said, would allow “folks to walk a trail parallel to the water and just enjoy the upper area.”