Is a 1976 drainage plan to blame for 2023 Rolling Hills Estates landslide? Homeowners’ lawsuit says yes

Homes on Peartree Lane remain damaged in November 2023, months after a landslide in Rolling Hills Estates. City and county officials “knew or should have known that the proposed Park Community and other developments in the watershed area would significantly increase the stormwater flow in the open canyon drainage channel, and that the increased stormwater flow would erode, down-cut, and destabilize the hillside on which plaintiffs’ homes would be built,” says the new complaint, which was filed this month. The city of Rolling Hills Estates, which concluded that extreme rains from the prior winter caused the landslide, rebutted the lawsuit’s claims. Ken Kasdan and Scott Thomson, attorneys for that group of residents, said they hired experts who conducted on-site assessments, finding that the way water funneled into the canyon “contributed to the slope failure.” California ‘Unusually heavy’ rains caused Rolling Hills Estates landslide, city report finds A report prepared for Rolling Hills Estates says excessive rainfall caused the landslide in July that destroyed eight homes, but some residents are skeptical of the city’s findings. Before construction on this development began, a city engineer in 1976 wrote to Rolling Hills Estates leaders, noting that it was important “to ascertain if any consequences exist in this area as a result of subsidence similar to that which is being experienced in some of the adjacent beach areas,” which the most recent complaint said was in reference to the Portuguese Bend landslide.