Measure RS would raise the city’s hotel tax from 10 to 13 percent to raise about 2.2 million dollars a year, a fraction of the roughly 75 million dollars the city expects to spend on landslide damage
Pay As You Slide
RANCHO PALOS VERDES. The city of Rancho Palos Verdes is turning to its best known attraction to help pay for landslide damage, according to LAist’s report on Rancho Palos Verdes and the overnight tax for landslide damages. Measure RS, on the November ballot, would raise the transient occupancy tax on overnight hotel stays from 10 percent to 13 percent, affecting Terranea Resort, a 102-acre bluff-top resort, and a two-star inn in the city. The city estimates the increase would raise about 2.2 million dollars a year. It expects to have spent about 75 million dollars on landslide-related damage by the end of June 2027.
The proposal introduces a uniquely Californian concept to the world of hospitality: guests enjoying ocean views from a luxury resort will contribute to dealing with the fact that the land nearby is, slowly but persistently, trying to join the ocean.
The Moving Ground
According to LAist, heavy rain in 2022 and 2023 accelerated ground movement in the area to as much as one foot per week, before it slowed to about an inch per week. For residents, the landslides have been a slow-motion disaster, damaging homes, roads and utilities and forcing difficult decisions. For a city budget, they have been an enormous and continuing cost. The 2.2 million dollars a year from Measure RS will not cover everything, and the city is still pursuing grants.
A resident of the peninsula who has watched the area change said he had developed a dark sense of humour about it. In most places, you measure your property in square feet, he said. Here, we measure how far it moved this week. My neighbour’s garden is a little closer to Catalina every month. He says it is the only real estate in California that is appreciating in a westerly direction.
The Market Rate
City Manager Ara Mihranian told LAist that the city compared Terranea’s rate with similar resort hotels in Los Angeles and Orange counties and found it below the market rate. A resort spokesperson declined to comment. Hotel taxes are popular with local governments because they are largely paid by visitors rather than residents, a principle that political scientists summarise as taxing people who cannot vote in your election.
A hospitality consultant in Long Beach said guests at luxury resorts rarely notice a few percentage points on the bill. When someone pays for an ocean-view suite, she said, they are not studying the tax line. They are studying the sunset. They are thinking about the spa. They are thinking about whether to order the lobster. A three percent tax increase is invisible to them. A three percent increase in the price of the lobster, they would notice.
The Marketing Opportunity
Some locals have suggested that the city lean into the situation. A copywriter who lives in nearby San Pedro proposed new marketing taglines for the peninsula. Stay with us, help hold us up, she offered. Or, your vacation keeps our roads attached. Or, the views are breathtaking, and so is the geology. She admitted the city had not responded to her suggestions. They probably think I am being flippant, she said. I am. But it is also true.
The Bigger Picture
Rancho Palos Verdes is one of many California communities facing expensive consequences of natural hazards, from fire and flood to erosion and landslides. With state and federal resources stretched and disaster aid often slow or uncertain, small cities increasingly look for local sources of revenue. Taxing visitors, who benefit from the area’s beauty but do not bear its long-term costs, is a logical place to look.
A municipal finance expert at a Southern California university said the measure was a sensible step but highlighted a broader problem. Seventy-five million dollars is a huge sum for a small city, he said. Two point two million a year helps. But the real challenge is that the landslide does not care about budgets. Nature does not file invoices. It just sends the bill.
Voter Considerations
Because the tax falls mainly on hotel guests rather than residents, it may be more palatable to voters than other options. Residents of a city facing a costly disaster tend to welcome revenue that does not come from their own pockets. A retired teacher who lives on the peninsula said she planned to vote yes. I love our visitors, she said. They come, they admire the ocean, they eat at the resort, they leave. Now they can leave a little something extra for the roads. It is like a tip. For geology.
The Resort Experience
Terranea, with its clifftop views, spa, golf and trails, is the kind of place where guests come to feel that the world has slowed down. That will remain true if the measure passes. Guests can continue to watch whales, sip cocktails and admire the Pacific, comforted by the knowledge that a small part of their bill is helping a community deal with land that will not hold still.
The Last Word
On a terrace overlooking the Pacific, a couple from Arizona celebrating their anniversary were told about Measure RS. The husband looked at the ocean, then at the cliffs, then at his wife. Three percent, he said. To keep the land from sliding into the sea. She considered it. Seems fair, she said. And honestly, she added, gesturing at the view, for this, I would pay the whole slide.