City Weighs Changes to Zoning Near Slide Area : Development: Proposal would allow construction in 130-acre area of Rancho Palos Verdes. Opponents fear huge projects, lawsuits and Mother Nature.

Rancho Palos Verdes is considering a plan to relax a ban on home construction within a 130-acre area near Abalone Cove that has been off-limits to developers since a severe landslide 15 years ago destroyed or damaged dozens of homes nearby.

The mere consideration of construction in the area has drawn sharp criticism from opponents, who contend that the move could open the way to large-scale development or lawsuits against the city if another landslide damaged homes.

The proposal, expected to come before the City Council later this month or in September, has come about after recent complaints from landowners in the vicinity of Narcissa and Vanderlip drives, who say the city unfairly placed them within a 1,200-acre moratorium zone in 1978 after the landslide, which left 48 homes destroyed or damaged.

*

The landowners say the inclusion of their property in the zone has blocked their ability to build homes on about 40 vacant lots or make major additions and renovations on older homes already there.

“The housing there is getting old and in need of repair,” said Councilwoman Jacki Bacharach. “But it’s virtually impossible to do that under our rules.”

City officials said it is unlikely houses in the 130-acre area would be damaged because experts tell them there hasn’t been a landslide there in 100,000 years and probably won’t be anytime soon. The 130 acres was hastily included in the moratorium zone in 1978 as an emergency precaution even though no land moved there and no homes were wrecked or damaged.

The land surrounding the area targeted for development has a history of landslides.

A slide at Portuguese Bend in 1956 damaged or destroyed 145 homes and the county was found liable for about $7 million in damages because it was determined that a road construction project on Crenshaw Boulevard contributed to the slide (the city was not incorporated until 1973).

*

After the 1978 slide the county agreed to underwrite a $10-million bond issue to help the city’s redevelopment agency stop the slides, including the installation of a sewer system to replace septic tanks, which can destabilize land as water seeps from them.

But city officials are confident that the area proposed for development is stable.

“The moratorium was arbitrarily slapped on that portion of land,” said Mayor Susan Brooks. “These are people who have not been able to do anything substantial to their property.”

The proposal would place guidelines on any construction. The builder would have to pay the cost of installing wells to monitor the collection of ground water, large amounts of which could make land unstable. The city also would require a geological study on each proposed house to determine if the land could support its foundation.

“We have an obligation to take a look at this,” Bacharach said. “Every decision that we make we are concerned about liability. But in cases where you have land that is stable and it has been deemed unstable, we also have a liability in that situation.”

Opponents, however, have argued that all of the Portuguese Bend-Abalone Cove area is part of a large, single slide that cannot be segregated into separate zones.

“Landslides do not get smaller, they get bigger,” said Andrew Sargent, who lives at Portuguese Bend and is president of the Coastal Conservation Coalition, a consortium of environmental groups. “These lines are artificial. God doesn’t work that way.”

Critics of the proposal also fear that the city will lift the moratorium in areas beyond the 130 acres targeted, citing talk that developers in the moratorium would like to build on their properties.

Although the moratorium and the threatened California gnatcatcher habitat areas, located in pockets outside of the 130 acres under consideration, have prevented construction, some residents are worried that developers will find a way to build.

Orange County developer Barry Hon, who owns about 370 acres in the moratorium, has suggested building a golf course on his property. He also has told officials he would like to build 15 to 26 homes in an area at the end of Crenshaw Boulevard called Peacock Flats, which is within the moratorium, said City Manager Paul Bussey.

Another developer, James Monaghan of Phoenix, who owns more than 300 acres, also would like to build a golf course and an undetermined number of homes, Bussey said. But his development firm filed for bankruptcy protection last year.

“I have mixed emotions about this,” said Cathy Snell, who lives in a home on Vanderlip Drive, where land has been deemed stable, according to a study by city geologist Perry Ehlig. “My house is the farthest away from (where the 1978 landslide occurred). But I’m scared it will open up the land to bulldozers.”

But even if those projects were to get an exemption from the moratorium, a rarity, some residents say that potential buyers will find it too much trouble to build.

“There are liens, assessments and additional monies that have to be paid (to live here),” said Jack Downhill, a local real estate agent who lives on Vanderlip Drive. “The stigma (of the slide) doesn’t go away.”