Abalone Cove Slide Bonds Get Go-Ahead

At an old-fashioned town hall meeting Thursday night, the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council cleared the way for Los Angeles County to issue $10 million in bonds for landslide abatement work in the Abalone Cove area.

The council, acting as the city’s redevelopment agency, approved a list of technical conditions that allows the complex financing plan to proceed. The bonds will be repaid through increased property values in the redevelopment area around Abalone Cove.

Some residents of the landslide area have opposed the plan because it calls for the bonds to be guaranteed by liens placed against their properties. The County Board of Supervisors still must approve the proposal, which grew out of the 1987 settlement of a lawsuit against the county by slide-area homeowners who claimed that excessive water runoff had damaged their homes.

The supervisors are expected to vote on the matter Nov. 29.

Thursday’s town hall meeting at the Ladera Linda Community Center was called to answer questions by homeowners, some of whom said they were worried that they might have to pay off the liens. The liens are computed according to the size of the property and the structures on it. For example, a 2,300-square-foot house on a quarter-acre lot would have a $26,668 lien placed against it.

But city officials said the bonds can be paid off as the properties are sold and their assessed values are raised to reflect market values. The officials added that the slide stabilization program itself should boost home values. The additional property tax revenue that higher values will generate will be used by the redevelopment agency to pay the principal and interest on the bonds.

“We are very confident that no property owner will have to dip into their jeans to pay a nickel,” Mayor Mel Hughes said in an interview.

About 105 property owners will be affected by the plan, city officials said. The bond money will be used to fund various slide-abatement projects. A panel of experts, including the city’s geologist, will set priorities for the work.