Local News in Brief : Heavy Tab for Landslide

A major landslide that carved a deep gash in the north face of the Palos Verdes Peninsula also has dug a deep hole in the Torrance city budget.

Torrance taxpayers will have spent at least $5.2 million on the landslide by the time the long and difficult task of rebuilding the heavily damaged hillside is completed in November.

The slide on a city-owned hillside two years ago this month destroyed a pair of expensive homes and forced a series of temporary repair measures. A highly visible black plastic sheet was placed over the hillside to channel rainwater and prevent more damage during the winter months.

Rebuilding the hillside after the April, 1986, landslide has stripped the city’s entire parks and recreation project fund, depleted the catastrophic insurance reserve and drained a variety of special funds that had been set aside for sewer and drainage projects.