City of Rancho Palos Verdes

The City of Rancho Palos Verdes is located on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in the southwestern tip of Los Angeles County. The City includes 13.6 square miles of land with 7.5 miles of coastline; a population of 41,145 was reported by the 2000 census. With the magnificent views of the Los Angeles basin and the ocean, Rancho Palos Verdes is a very desirable place to live. Like the other three Peninsula cities, Rancho Palos Verdes was incorporated in 1973 to gain control of land use and implementation of local policies.

The City’s largest commercial area is located along Western Avenue and includes a wide variety of retail businesses. The second largest is the Golden Cove Shopping Center located at the intersection of Hawthorne Boulevard and Palos Verdes Drive West. The Peninsula Montessori School moved into this shopping center’s vacant grocery store last year. Currently, the Golden Cove Shopping Center is being remodeled, including the addition of 5,250 square feet of new retail shops and a façade remodel of the two-story building. Commercial recreational activity in the City consists of the Ocean Trails Golf Course located on the seaward side of Palos Verdes Drive South. New York developer Donald Trump recently purchased this golf course, which was crippled by a landslide in 1999 that destroyed the 18th hole just weeks before the course’s scheduled opening. Mr. Trump is completing the repairs to the landslide and is making plans to further improve the course. Also along the coastline is the former Marineland of the Pacific site, now known as Long Point, which the City recently approved a 450 room resort hotel with 35 villas, a spa, conference center, restaurants and a golf academy. The final approval of this project is currently pending before the California Coastal Commission. Further inland, but also with spectacular ocean views, is the 18-hole Los Verdes Golf Course that owned by Los Angeles County.

There are several churches located within the City, the most famous being the Wayfarers Chapel or “Glass Church” which was designed by Lloyd Wright and is located in Portuguese Bend on Palos Verdes Drive South.

Altogether, the City has 13 active and passive parks site. The more active parks are Robert E. Ryan Park on Hawthorne Boulevard near Vallon Drive, Fred Hess Community Park also on Hawthorne Boulevard at Locklenna Lane, and the Point Vicente Interpretive Center on Palos Verdes Drive South. Other points of interest are the U.S. Coast Guard Station adjacent to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center and the U.S. Air Force Radar Station on San Pedro Hill, the highest elevation on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

A large portion of this coastal community consists of steeply slopping hillsides and deep canyons. As development has occurred, the City’s basic philosophy has been to manage open space with minimal disturbance, keeping the hillsides as natural as possible. Because scenic views are one the of the City’s most valuable resources, view preservation has become a major goal of the City. Testimony to that is the citizen initiative known as Proposition M approved by voters in 1989, which provides for the preservation, restoration and perpetuation of views.

The majority of the City’s historical resources are within the confines of the coastal region: the Point Vicente Lighthouse, Smuggler’s Cove, the Harding Estate and Portuguese Bend. The Point Vicente Fishing Access on Palos Verdes Drive South between the Point Vicente Lighthouse and Long Point (Marineland) is a fully developed park providing access to the shoreline, fishing and scuba diving. Steep cliffs, a narrow rocky shoreline, tide pools and one sandy beach at Abalone Cove characterize the City’s shoreline. Besides significant marine and terrestrial habitat areas, the coastal region also contains major landslide hazard areas.

There are currently three active landslides within the City. A moratorium exists over these areas limiting construction activities and restricting development. The largest and oldest is the Portuguese Bend Landslide, which began to move in 1956 and is bordered on the west by the Abalone Cove Landslide and on the east by the Klondike Canyon Landslide. Landslide abatement districts have been formed in each landslide area, which conduct de-watering programs and other activities to promote land stability.

Areas of the City developed prior to 1960 are generally single-family homes; later the pattern took on a high density, multi-family dominance until the City’s incorporation returned the pattern back to single-family residential. The first major multi-family project within the coastal region was the Palos Verdes Bay Club in 1964 followed by the construction of the Porto Verdes complex in 1969. The newest development on the coastline, Oceanfront Estates on Palos Verdes Drive West at Hawthorne Boulevard started construction in 1999. When completed, the 132-acre site will include 79 single-family homes. The public improvements, which include a bluff top road and City parkland, habitat preserves and walking trails along the bluff, are completed and open to the public. The City of Rancho Palos Verdes currently has 15,121 single-family units.

Good air quality, a great climate and a beautiful shoreline are the resources and features that make Rancho Palos Verdes such a wonderful place to live. Adherence to strict land use principles has saved Rancho Palos Verdes from becoming another high-density coastal community.