San Clemente officials are open to joining a coalition with other coastal cities that are facing similar landslide threats and bluff failures.
Rancho Palos Verdes city leaders contacted the city about participating in a coalition that could lobby for legislation to address landslides as emergencies that would qualify for state disaster assistance.
The coalition comes as a response to several landslides in the Southern California region in recent years, with San Clemente facing four separate incidents in the past five years that threatened homes, buildings and shut down the coastal rail line for weeks at a time.
The idea is to partner with other coastal cities like Rancho Palos Verdes, facing millions of dollars in damages, but also Laguna Beach, Dana Point and a few San Diego towns that live with landslide threats, said City Manager Andy Hall.
Legislation to include landslides as a qualifying event for disaster assistance was passed last year, but the bill was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, Hall said.
“We are just trying to get together as a coalition to make sure that legislation goes forward,” Hall said. “When there’s a fire, the state gives you money for restitution. How come you can get it for fire and floods, but not landslides?”
Without the California Emergency Services Act, or CESA, San Clemente can not seek financial assistance from the state for impacts from recent landslides, including when the hillside below Casa Romantica, a city-owned historic property, gave way in 2023. The property suffered severe damage, costing the city upwards $8.5 million. The landslide also affected the tracks below.
Previously, in 2021, the rail line was shut down in the southern end of the city for months following track damage from both a landslide on the inland side and the ocean battering the tracks.
Landslides in the North Beach area, one in 2023 and another in 2024, threatened homes and shut down the rail line for weeks. In the 2024 landslide, the popular Mariposa Bridge was destroyed — the Orange County Transportation Authority is currently building a $7.2 million wall at that point to hold back debris.
The councilmembers agreed this week to have City Hall staff communicate with Rancho Palos Verdes officials. That town has been suffering ongoing land movement from what’s known as the Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex, which is nearly 700 acres in size.
Millions of dollars in damage to homes and the city’s infrastructure and utilities has occurred. The historic Wayfarers Chapel was dismantled in February 2024 because of land movement.
Hall said this is also an opportunity for coastal city leaders to learn from each other on issues such as how to fix a slope and create drainage in hillsides, or ways to address sewer work that needs to be repaired.
Repairs to the hillside below Casa Romantica are considered the “gold standard,” he added. “We did it the right way, it’s going to be safe forever.”
In Rancho Palos Verdes, because homeowners can’t get landslide insurance and there has been limited governmental assistance, some have simply had to abandon their homes, Hall noted.
“They can’t live in them, and can’t afford to rebuild them,” he said. “There has to be a better way to deal with landslides.”