Palos Verdes Estates, CA

Does your business rank among the best in California?

nominate a business

Learn more about our selection criteria and vetting process.

Rancho Palos Verdes, a picturesque city in California, is not just known for its breathtaking ocean views and upscale homes. It's also in close proximity to some of the best high schools in the region. If you're considering relocating to this beautiful city or are just curious about the educational opportunities nearby, this guide is for you. Let's dive into the top high schools near Rancho Palos Verdes, their addresses, and a touch of their history.

Palos Verdes Peninsula High School

Address: 27118 Silver Spur Rd, Rolling Hills Estates, CA 90274 Approximate Distance: 2.5 miles

Highlights & Benefits: Palos Verdes Peninsula High School, often simply referred to as "Peninsula," is one of the top-ranking schools in California. With a strong emphasis on academics, arts, and athletics, it's no wonder that many Rancho Palos Verdes residents are proud to send their children here. The school boasts a rich history, having been established in 1961, and has since been a beacon of educational excellence in the community.

Palos Verdes High School

Address: 600 Cloyden Rd, Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274 Approximate Distance: 4.8 miles

Highlights & Benefits: Just a short drive from Rancho Palos Verdes, Palos Verdes High School (PVHS) stands as another pillar of academic achievement. Founded in 1961 and later reopened in 2002, PVHS offers a comprehensive curriculum with a wide range of extracurricular activities. Its sea king mascot and oceanic views make it a unique and scenic place to learn.

Rolling Hills Preparatory School

Address: 1 Rolling Hills Prep Way, San Pedro, CA 90732 Approximate Distance: 5.6 miles

Highlights & Benefits: Rolling Hills Preparatory School, a private institution, offers a more intimate learning environment with smaller class sizes. Established in 1981, it has a reputation for fostering critical thinking and leadership skills. The school's commitment to individualized attention ensures that every student gets the support they need to excel.

San Pedro High School

Address: 1001 W 15th St, San Pedro, CA 90731 Approximate Distance: 8.7 miles

Highlights & Benefits: San Pedro High School, with its rich history dating back to 1903, is deeply rooted in the community. As one of the oldest schools in the area, it has a legacy of producing well-rounded students. With a diverse student body and a plethora of clubs and sports, it's a hub of activity and learning.

Rancho Palos Verdes is not just a city of beauty but also one of educational prowess. With high schools that cater to various needs and preferences, families in the area are spoilt for choice. Whether you're looking for a school with a long-standing tradition or one that offers a more personalized approach, the vicinity of Rancho Palos Verdes has got you covered.

A massive landslide in Rolling Hills Estates this weekend destroyed 12 houses, officials said on Sunday, July 9, further underscoring the lurking danger of continually shifting earth on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

All the homes were evacuated by Saturday night. At least three of the houses, said Rolling Hills Estates Councilmember Frank Zerunyan, won’t make it through Sunday night — and will fall into the canyon below.

“It’s devastating,” Zerunyan said in a Sunday afternoon interview. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The “land shift,” as officials are calling it, occurred in a gated community on Peartree Lane.

Residents initially called the Los Angeles County Fire Department to report a water leak around 4 p.m. Saturday, Zerunyan said. When the firefighters arrived, they noticed cracks in the ground — and quickly realized the potential danger.

The county Fire Department ordered evacuations shortly after, multiple officials said.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose Fourth District includes the Peninsula, arrived at Peartree Late Saturday night.

While there, Hahn said during a Sunday afternoon press conference, she saw a fissure winding its way through the homes. The fissure continued to move while she was there, Hahn said — and did so quickly.

“Since I was here last night,” Hahn said, “the land has moved about six feet. So many of these homes that last night were still standing, are crumbling and giving way to the fissure.”

“We believe many of these homes,” she added, “will fall into the canyon sooner rather than later.”

It is hard to see in this photo, but there are homes here in Rolling Hills Estates that are physically leaning — like this garage— following the landslide. pic.twitter.com/JlBpbgMxay

— Janice Hahn (@SupJaniceHahn) July 9, 2023

The 12 homes in the evacuation zone were leaning or crumbling, according to photos and details from officials. Driveways were cracked and mishapen. Door and garage frames were slanted, rather than parallel.

Deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Lomita Station patrolled the neighborhood Saturday night to ensure the evacuated homes were secure, Hahn wrote in a Saturday night tweet.

In a follow-up statement later Sunday, Hanh said residents only had a few moments to grab their belongings and leave their homes.

A firefighter takes cell phone video of a collapsed garage after a landslide in Rolling Hills Estates on Sunday, July 9, 2023. (Photo by Raphael Richardson, Contributing Photographer)

The 12 houses that were evacuated were red-tagged, according to LA County Fire Department spokesperson Capt. Chiyoshi Hasegawa. If a building has been red-tagged, it means it’s been damaged so severely that it’s too dangerous to be in.

Electricity in the area was turned off and utility crews made sure no gas or power lines were disrupted.

Hahn’s office connected officials with the city and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works, so the latter agency’s geologist can “survey the land and determine the best course of action,” the supervisor said in her Sunday statement.

In all, 16 people were displaced, Hasegawa said. All of the evacuated residents have found shelter, thanks to the American Red Cross, Zerunyan said.

It’s unclear what caused the landslide. But city officials will look at several possible causes, including the winter deluge and a sinkhole that recently developed less than a mile away, though a building official said the latter explanation is “probably not” the reason.

Either way, land movement on the coast has gone unabated for centuries.

That danger is particularly acute on the Peninsula, a picturesque and relatively rural area of Los Angeles County — as least compared to the rest of the region — that is known for its hiking trails, ocean-view lookouts and lush hillslides.

The Peninsula, which is celebrating its unofficial 100th anniversary as a community this year, received a hint of the potential damage landslides could cause late last year. In December, boulders and other debris rained down from a hillside to the beach below in Palos Verdes Estates, adjacent to Torrance, though that landslide caused only minimal property damage and no injuries.

Rancho Palos Verdes, meanwhile, spends about $1 million per year to resurface a portion of Palos Verdes Drive South that is continually shifting and cracking.

That stretch of road is in a 240-acre southern section of Rancho Palos Verdes known as the Portuguese Bend Landslide area.

Landslides have always been a problem there. But in 1956, the county extended Crenshaw Boulevard to the coast, according to an RPV press release earlier this year. That exacerbated the issue.

Today, the Portuguese Bend Landslide section of RPV is the most active landslide area in North America, according to city officials, moving at a rate of as much as eight feet each year.

The rough boundaries of the PBL area is the Portuguese Bend neighborhood to the west, the Seaview neighborhood to the east, Burma Road to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south.

Rancho Palos Verdes was the last of the four Peninsula cities to incorporate, having done so in 1973. And over the years, some houses on RPV have moved 400 to 500 feet from their original property lines.

RPV is currently working to develop and implement a potentially $33 million plan to lessen the problem of continually shifting land, though that work faces multiple challenges, including from environmentalists because of possible destruction of native habitats.

“There’s a serious risk of major incident if we do not act fast enough,” RPV City Manager Ara Mihranian said in February. “(Palos Verdes Drive South) is sitting on wet soil. There’s a sewer line there. There could be a significant movement that may be very catastrophic and that’s why this is very important.”

Likewise, a preliminary geotechnical analysis of the soil conditions at the December landslide site in Palos Verdes Estates indicated another portion of that slope was actively moving and could fall at any time, PVE City Manager Mark Prestwich said at the time.

The extent of this weekend’s Rolling Hills Estates land movement, meanwhile, likely won’t be entirely known until geologists survey the area.

That survey likely won’t happen until the next day or two, Zerunyan said. Right now, he added, the priority is making sure everyone is safe. Officials were closing off trails in the area, Zerunyan said.

Pete Goodrich, a building official for Rolling Hills estates, confirmed during the Sunday afternoon press conference that there wasn’t much geologists could do at the moment. There’s nothing they can do to stop the houses from falling into the canyon, Goodrich said.

Three of the 12 homes will certainly fall into the canyon, Zerunyan said. The fate of the other nine was not yet known.

That neighborhood has around 80 homes total, the councilmember said.

Building officials will monitor other nearby homes to see if any more need to be evacuated, Goodrich said. But at the moment, that seems unlikely.

“There is a pretty definite line,” he said, “where you would see land movement.”

But that doesn’t mean the other residents are struggling with the fallout.

“We are very much in shock about what’s happening here,” Mayor Britt Huff said during the press conference. “As you can imagine, all of them (the neighborhood) are in a state of uncertainty right now.”

Zerunyan and the rest of the City Council, along with Hahn, attended that press conference. While there, Zerunyan said, they could hear the ground cracking — and he saw a piece of a house’s wall crumble and fall into the canyon below.

“There’s a lot of weight there,” he said, “and gravity is taking hold.”

There is nothing at the bottom of the canyon, Zerunyan said, so no one will be in danger if the houses on Peartree Lane fall.

Zerunyan, who has lived on the Peninsula for 45 years, said there are multiple canyons in Rolling Hills Estates, but the one at the bottom of Peartree lane is particularly steep.

He also said the winter deluge that hit Southern California late last year and early in 2023 may have contributed to the landslide.

City officials, in the coming days and weeks, will likely look at other canyons in the town and determine how vulnerable they are, Zerunyan said. But he seemed pessimistic about whether anything could be done to shore them up.

“I would be reluctant about touching any of the canyons,” he said, “because I don’t want to make it any worse.”

Staff writer Lisa Jacobs, freelance photographer Raphael Richardson and City News Service contributed to this report.

The city of Rancho Palos Verdes has declared a local emergency in response to landslides that have damaged several buildings and the threat of an unusually wet winter that may trigger more damage in the upscale community on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The Oct. 3 declaration by the Rancho Palos Verdes City Council comes after twelve townhomes in nearby Rolling Hills Estates were red-tagged in July and evacuated after landslides made them unsafe. Weeks later, two more homes were red-tagged in Rancho Palos Verdes’ Seaview neighborhood because of cracks and structural damage.

“This action strengthens the City’s access to resources to manage the land movement, especially in light of the El Niño weather pattern forecasted for this winter, and our ability to obtain possible mutual aid from county, state and federal partners,” Rancho Palos Verdes City Manager Ara Mihranian said in a statement.

Advertisement

California

Sept. 22, 2023

The recent wet winter is blamed for the severity of the movement, with “heavy winter rainfall resulting in surface water percolating into the ground and lubricating the bentonite soil,” according to the statement by the city.

Downtown Los Angeles recorded more than 27 inches of rain last winter, surpassing famously wet cities such as Portland and Seattle.

Tropical Storm Hilary brought even more rain, with Long Beach Airport reporting 2.62 inches on Aug. 20, dwarfing the historical record for that day.

Significantly more landslide movement has been reported since the start of this summer in Portuguese Bend, Abalone Cove and Klondike Canyon. There have been no reported injuries from the slides.

The declaration will also allow the city to have “the authority to expedite contracts for repair work and issue orders to help minimize additional land movement,” the statement said.

Steps that have been suggested to residents as voluntary actions to slow down the slides, such as ceasing outdoor irrigation or draining leaky swimming pools, could now be required by the city.

The declaration enacts a “moratorium on new construction that may contribute to movement” in southern Rancho Palos Verdes, according to the statement, pending approval by the California Department of Housing and Community Development.

No additional homes were red-tagged in conjunction with the City Council’s Oct. 3 vote, but with the arrival of El Niño possibly signaling another wet winter, more destabilization is possible.

On Saturday night, David Zee and his family had only 20 minutes to get out of their home in a gated community in Rolling Hills Estates after the ground shifted and threatened to send it and other homes down a canyon.

Since then, the slide has gotten worse.

“It’s just amazing how quickly this all happened,” Zee, 52, said Monday morning after he returned to his street on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

“The ground is still moving,” he said. His home is “still standing, but I don’t know.”

A dozen houses were evacuated because of a major ground shift.

Advertisement

Homes sliding into a ravine

Twelve townhomes on Peartree Lane in Rolling Hills Estates have been evacuated and red-tagged due to a ground shift.

Evacuated or red-tagged building

100 ft

© Mapbox © OpenStreetMap Improve this map © Maxar

Sean Greene LOS ANGELES TIMES

Here is what we know:

What do we know about the cause?

Officials say they are still investigating.

Pete Goodrich, a Rolling Hills Estates building official, said geologists will inspect the site and decide what can be done.

The land movement “could be due to the extensive rains that we’ve had ... but we don’t know,” Goodrich said.

Rolling Hills Estates Mayor Britt Huff said officials were surprised by the destruction.

“This neighborhood was built in 1978, and it’s been solid for 45 years,” Huff said. “So we’re very much in shock by what is happening here.”

Officials said they are monitoring other homes in the neighborhood for movement.

What causes landslides?

In areas where the bedrock is very deep, rainwater can seep deep underground during multiple rainstorms. During a series of repeated heavy storms, water can eventually start to accumulate and build up pressure, The Times reported in 2017.

The pressure can destabilize an entire chunk of land, causing it to collapse downhill. Landslides can happen slowly and show warning signs, such as cracking or subtle movements, that allow people time to escape. But they also can strike rapidly with no warning, even on a rainless day months after the end of the rainy season.

Deep-seated landslides, which involve slides greater than 15 feet deep, often strike in areas with a history of wet winters. The U.S. Geological Survey has warned that such slides can become active many months after such events.

One such example occurred nearly two decades ago in Bluebird Canyon in Laguna Beach. On a foggy morning in June 2005, 17 homes were destroyed and 11 seriously damaged by a landslide that struck seemingly out of nowhere. Heavy rains had fallen from the previous December through February of that year, but no rainfall occurred just before or during the landslide.

It is still unclear whether rain was a factor in the Rolling Hills Estates slide.

What are the slide risks?

The Palos Verdes Peninsula has long been prone to landslides. A dormantlandslide complex has shaped the area for hundreds of thousands of years. It was reactivated 67 years ago and is threatening to destroy homes and infrastructure.

In 1997, workers from 18 small businesses evacuated two buildings in a Rolling Hills Estates office park as the walls began to warp, windows cracked and sidewalks buckled.

In the 1980s, land movement in the Flying Triangle — a sloping, sea-view area of Rolling Hills — destroyed several expensive homes.

The most dramatic slide currently in the peninsula is affecting Portuguese Bend, an area on the south side named after a whaling operation, now known for its natural beauty and native vegetation.

The geological phenomenon has hit a 240-acre area particularly hard over the last seven decades, causing fissures to open in the earth and homes to strain, buckle and drift, sometimes onto adjacent properties.

City officials are planning to mitigate the landslide before it’s too late.

“Something catastrophic is imminent,” Ara Mihranian, a city planner, told The Times in March. Since being named city manager in 2019, he has made slowing the landslide a primary focus.

The Portuguese Bend landslide was triggered in summer 1956 — nearly two decades before Rancho Palos Verdes became a city — when a Los Angeles County road crew was constructing an extension of Crenshaw Boulevard that would run from Crest Road to Palos Verdes Drive South.

The crew dug up thousands of tons of dirt for the project and dropped it on top of the ancient landslide zone, which hadn’t moved in 4,800 years. The extension was never completed, but the weight and movement of the dirt shifted the balance of the earth enough to reactivate the slide, sending the land into a slow-motion descent toward the sea.

In recent years, the landslide’s harm has been more incremental than the initial destruction in 1956 that tore up a community clubhouse and 130 area homes. City officials said the land moves sometimes horizontally, sometimes vertically. Sometimes inches, sometimes feet.

Officials said it moves at a pace of roughly 8 feet, in a southwesterly direction, per year. Over the last 15 years, sections of land have moved from 100 to 225 feet horizontally and dropped 8 to 18 feet vertically.

The most noticeable damage is to Palos Verdes Drive South — the road that winds along the coastal cliffs — warping it into a crooked, hilly mess with dips that make your stomach jump. The city has to send maintenance crews once a month to fill cracks, which costs roughly $1 million each year.

How are things in Rolling Hills Estates?

The homes affected by the ground shift were red-tagged after firefighters and investigators found them visibly leaning Saturday afternoon. The community is on the southwestern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

The homes are continuing their gradual decline down the hillside, Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Sheila Kelliher said Monday morning.

“Things are still shifting there,” Kelliher said. “The hillside is still moving. We don’t know the extent of that movement, but geographical engineers are on their way to the site to further assess the situation.”

Times staff writers Jack Fleming and Rong-Gong Lin II contributed to this report.

Twelve homes were evacuated in Rolling Hills Estates on Saturday night after the ground shifted, leaving major cracks and some structures “visibly leaning,” officials said.

Firefighters and investigators were sent about 4 p.m. Saturday to Peartree Lane, where hilltop homes overlook a canyon, officials said. The community is on the southwestern side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Cracks in the homes were visible on the inside and outside, said Los Angeles County Fire Captain Chiyoshi Hasegawa. About 16 people were evacuated, he said, and utilities were shut off to reduce the risk of fire.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, whose district includes the city, said she was notified Saturday night about the land movement and the evacuation.

Residents of the affected homes “were told they had 20 minutes to get their belongings and get out,” Hahn said at a noon press conference Sunday at the site, where she was joined by Rolling Hills Estates Mayor Britt Huff and officials from the county fire and public works departments.

She said a fissure, or crack in the earth’s surface, was winding its way between the affected homes.

“We believe many of these homes will fall into the canyon sooner than later,” Hahn said.

City and county officials said Sunday that it is too early to speculate on what caused the ground to shift and that the matter is under investigation. They said they are monitoring other homes in the neighborhood for movement.

“This neighborhood was built in 1978 and it’s been solid for 45 years,” Huff said. “So we’re very much in shock by what is happening here.”

Pete Goodrich, a building official with the city, said geologists will inspect the site and decide what can be done. He said there was substantial damage to the homes.

The land movement “could be due to the extensive rains that we’ve had .... but we don’t know,” Goodrich said of recent winter storms.

Hahn said she could understand the fears of the affected homeowners.

“I haven’t seen anything like this in my career,” she said. “To think that these homes were intact yesterday afternoon and today to hear them creaking.... These homes are going to fall.”

Advertisement

David Zee, a former Torrance resident who said he moved into one of the 12 houses two months ago, told Hahn and the other officials that his family was devastated by what was happening.

“We thought this would be our forever house,” he said. “Maybe it still will be, but I’m just concerned. I’m usually not emotional but, you know, it’s our house.”

Mimi Borg has owned a home for six years across the street from one of the evacuated homes. She said her house has not been damaged, but her gas has been shut off indefinitely amid concerns that the problem could spread.

On Sunday morning, she surveyed the house across the street with a Spanish-style roof that had sustained significant damage.

“Last night I was out for a walk, and there was just a crack on the driveway and the wall, and now it’s 100 times worse,” she said. “We’re just hoping it doesn’t spread to us. I am worried. I have all of my stuff packed, all ready to go if they tell me to go.”

Ferry Mafinezam of Canada was visiting her sister a short walk up the hill from the evacuated homes. She said she felt an earthquake in the area last week and that her sister is “concerned” her home could be damaged.

“About a week ago I woke up to an earthquake just shaking the house,” Mafinezam said. “Now this morning I walked up and saw this.”

Advertisement

Geologists are expected to survey the land to determine what will happen to the homes.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula has long been prone to landslides, and the most dramatic one is affecting Portuguese Bend, an area on the south side named after a whaling operation, now known for its natural beauty and native vegetation.

A dormant landslide complex has shaped the area for hundreds of thousands of years. It was reactivated 67 years ago and is threatening to destroy homes and infrastructure.

The geological phenomenon has hit a 240-acre area particularly hard over the last seven decades, causing fissures to open in the earth and homes to strain, buckle and drift, sometimes onto adjacent properties.

City officials are planning to mitigate the landslide before it’s too late.

“Something catastrophic is imminent,” Ara Mihranian, a city planner, told The Times in March. Since being named city manager in 2019, he has made slowing the landslide a primary focus.

The Portuguese Bend landslide was triggered in summer 1956 — nearly two decades before Rancho Palos Verdes became a city — when a Los Angeles County road crew was constructing an extension of Crenshaw Boulevard that would run from Crest Road to Palos Verdes Drive South.

The crew dug up thousands of tons of dirt for the project and dropped it on top of the ancient landslide zone, which hadn’t moved in 4,800 years. The extension was never completed, but the weight and movement of the dirt shifted the balance of the earth enough to reactivate the slide, sending the land into a slow-motion descent toward the sea.

In recent years, the landslide’s harm has been more incremental than the initial destruction in 1956 that tore up a community clubhouse and 130 area homes. City officials said the land moves sometimes horizontally, sometimes vertically. Sometimes inches, sometimes feet.

Officials said it moves at a pace of roughly eight feet, in a southwesterly direction, per year. Over the last 15 years, sections of land have moved anywhere from 100 to 225 feet horizontally and dropped eight to 18 feet vertically.

The most noticeable damage is dealt to Palos Verdes Drive South — the road that winds along the coastal cliffs — warping it into a crooked, hilly mess with dips that make your stomach jump. The city has to send a crew once a month to fill cracks, maintenance that costs roughly $1 million per year.

Times staff writer Jack Flemming contributed to this story.