Palos Verdes Peninsula News
Thursday, June 28, 2007
From the Editorial Staff  

Slide repair is critical

    A few Peninsula News staffers who are still here remember getting a call in the early morning hours of February 1997. Our office at 655 Deep Valley Drive in Rolling Hills Estates was being red-tagged, and we had to spend a Saturday moving equipment and furniture to a new location at 500 Silver Spur Road. Why the sudden move? Though it lay dormant for some time, the Deep Valley Drive landslide began moving that winter, prompting businesses to relocate. Since that time, the landslide has sat covered with tarps and sandbags.
    City officials and local business owners frown on the eyesore that lies between Deep Valley and Indian Peak Road. Worse, any utilities (water, phone lines, gas) that run beneath the slide could be destroyed if it fails completely. So why doesn’t the city of RHE just fix the darn thing? If only it were that simple. While the city is in solid economic shape, officials don’t have the $16 million to $18 million it would take to tame the Deep Valley Drive landslide.
    "We don’t have $20 million to remedy the hill," Councilman Frank Zerunyan told the News last week.
    However, private developer Laing Urban has offered to pay for close to half the cost -- $7 million to $8 million - of landslide repair. There's a catch, of course. Laing Urban wants to build 169 residential units, including a series of hillside townhouses, over nearly eight acres from 655 to 683 Deep Valley and 924 to 950 Indian Peak - that's more units than the 133 already approved for construction in the commercial district. Nevertheless, city officials would be foolish not to consider the project. Even councilmen John Addleman and Steve Zuckerman, who became vocal opponents of dense downtown development, admit that the Laing Urban project is one that could be a boon for the City.
    While much work remains and Laing Urban must prove beyond a doubt that it can stabilize the slide, the News urges RHE officials and the developer to find ways to make the project work. For one, a compromise on the number of units is in order. But don’t let this project fall by the wayside. If the slide isn’t repaired, we all stand to lose.


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