CC SR 20160816 02 - PB Landslide Strategic PlanRANCHO PALOS VERDES CITY COUNCIL MEETING DATE: 08/16/2016
AGENDA REPORT AGENDA HEADING: Regular Business
AGENDA DESCRIPTION:
Consideration and possible action to approve a strategic planning process to address
infrastructure issues related to the Portuguese Bend landslide.
RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION:
(1) Review and approve the process to develop a strategic plan that addresses the
impacts of the Portuguese Bend landslide on public infrastructure and open
space.
FISCAL IMPACT: Development of a strategic plan for the Portuguese Bend landslide
is included in the FY16-17 municipal budget.
Amount Budgeted:
Additional Appropriation
Account Number(s):
$75,000
None requested
330-3043-461-32-00 "Ifs
ORIGINATED BY: Michael Throne, PE, Director of Public Worksj
REVIEWED BY: Same as above
APPROVED BY: Doug Willmore, City Manager'
ATTACHED SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS:
A. Draft strategic plan objective (page A-1)
B. Draft strategic plan process (page B-1)
BACKGROUND AND DISCUSSION:
The Portuguese Bend (PB) landslide has been actively moving since August 1956. In
the intervening years, the majority of the creeping land area has been designated as
open space preserve. However, critical transportation and utility infrastructure cross the
landslide, and the City expends funds to diligently resurface and raise the roadway,
while the Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County routinely adjust the above -ground
sewer main. Concurrently, little capital expenditure has been made to ensure the long-
term protection of the public infrastructure. While there have been decades of geologic
investigation by recognized experts, the sporadic pumping of groundwater in this area
has not significantly resulted in less maintenance or decreased land movement.
It has long been believed that the PB landslide problem is unsolvable, based on
assumptions about cost and technology, and no clear path toward a solution (or
1
solutions) has been proposed. Consequently, in July 2015 the City Council approved a
budget of $75,000 to develop a strategic plan for the PB landslide.
Public Works is proposing a process to engage the community and technical experts in
order to form a strategic plan that includes short- and long-term actions to achieve the
strategic plan objective developed by the Infrastructure Management Advisory
Committee (IMAC) at meetings held earlier this year (Attachment A).
In addition to providing valuable feedback on the strategic plan objective, the IMAC
suggests that the landslide problem is like a puzzle, with known and unknown parts
acting upon each other in known and unknown ways. When viewed this way, there is
more opportunity to elicit conventional and unconventional solutions if an open
competition is held in lieu of the standard requests for proposals (RFPs) from
engineering firms. Using that approach, the strategic objective then becomes the
foundation to create a competitive framework for short- and long-term solutions that
form the basis of the strategic plan.
After consulting with the IMAC over the course of the last year, the following process is
recommended to gather the best ideas and solutions to define a resolution and funding
plan by December 31, 2017. The process is described in more detail in Attachment B
and its tasks are summarized below:
Task I Solicit a variety of short- and long-term solutions
Task II Develop an action and funding plan by December 31, 2017
Task III Seek outside funding sources as appropriate
Task IV Implement
A tentative schedule of activities and their respective durations would be created during
Task II.
ALTERNATIVES:
In addition to the Staff recommendation, the following alternative actions are available
for the City Council's consideration:
1. Direct Public Works to develop a request for proposals to solicit standard
civil engineering solutions to address the PB landslide strategic plan.
2. Provide other direction as warranted.
2
DRAFT STRATEGIC PLAN OBJECTIVE
IMAC met on February 11, 2016, and June 9, 2016, to review a draft landslide strategic
plan objective and process, and provided comments and suggestions to Public Works
that has resulted in this draft strategic plan objective.
PORTUGUESE BEND LANDSLIDE STRATEGIC PLAN OBJECTIVE
The strategic plan objective is to develop and implement a solution or
solutions that preserves the use of a major transportation corridor and
critical public utilities that serve the Palos Verdes Peninsula while avoiding
or reducing the influence of the landslide on these facilities.
To support this objective, it may be necessary to improve our
understanding of the geophysics of the slide, which may include
measuring groundwater at greater depths; tracking slide movement more
frequently and precisely; and determining the consequence of wave
erosion on landslide stability.
The strategic plan will be used to create partnerships with impacted
utilities and create a marketing campaign directed toward outside funding
sources to meet the financial goal of the plan.
In addition to providing valuable feedback on the objective, the Committee also
suggested that the landslide problem is like a puzzle, with known and unknown parts
acting upon each other in known and unknown ways. If viewed this way, there is more
opportunity to elicit conventional and unconventional solutions if a call for ideas in open
competition is held.
A-1
DRAFT STRATEGIC PLAN TASKS
Solicit a variety of short- and long-term solutions
a. Establish the strategic goal
i. Involve the IMAC in determining the community's landslide goal,
which may be manage, mitigate or control the land movement. This
step was tentatively completed on February 11, 2016.
ii. Increase community involvement in the matter through various
modes of outreach such as workshops and publishing relevant
materials on the City's website.
b. Search for the best ideas and solutions
i. Solicit ideas to achieve the landslide goal from the general public
and world-wide by means of an international design competition
modeled on the XPRIZE (www.xprize.org), and employ the IMAC to
rank those ideas based on feasibility, practicability and cost. These
ideas will then be brought to the City Council for their consideration
and approval.
c. Examine those best ideas and solutions
i. Investigate the highest ranking ideas using a panel of subject
matter technical experts who will report to the IMAC. The highest
ranking ideas will then be brought to the City Council for their
consideration.
d. Rank and recommend a formula for strategic implementation
i. IMAC will review the ideas vetted by the subject matter technical
experts and present a recommended ranking of short- and long-
term actions and alternatives to the City Council for their
consideration as a strategic plan.
II. Develop an action and funding plan by December 31, 2017
a. City Council and community consider a recommended strategic plan and
its implementation
b. Establish implementation schedule
III. Seek outside funding sources as appropriate
IV. Implement
As