The Righetti company shot back at the city of San Luis Obispo’s claims of triggering landslides in the Righetti Hill open space with a lawsuit of its own.
In May, Righetti NC LLC sued the city for damages, alleging that two landslides that took place in 2019 and 2023 happened because the city neglected to maintain the property.
“The city knew or should have known that Lot 169 was susceptible to slope failures and landslides, including without limitation because of the man-made improvements on the lot—e.g., access road, quarry, staging area, hiking trails—and Lot 169’s subsurface conditions—e.g., rodent burrows and desiccation cracks,” Righetti’s lawsuit said. “As such, soil conditions in those areas have significantly deteriorated.”
The litigation arrived a month after SLO slapped Righetti with a lawsuit for trespassing, nuisance, and negligence. The city lawsuit added that the company covered up landslide damage without proper authorization.
The lawsuits focus on a 328-lot residential Righetti Ranch development on Orcutt Road, specifically, lots 161 and 169. Righetti gave lot 161 to the city as a permanent gift or “in fee” to be used as public open space. SLO City Council’s approval of the final map for the project in 2017 required the dedication of that lot.
Righetti asserted in its lawsuit that it’s never been responsible for maintaining the two lots, barring a 10-foot-wide drainage easement that the company, and now the homeowner’s association, must take care of.
Drawing from the Orcutt Area Specific Plan, Righetti said that the city is to blame.
According to the plan, SLO must manage the dedicated Righetti Hill portion in line with city standards for open space areas.
“The top priority is ‘avoidance of threats to public health and safety, such as ground instability,'” the Righetti lawsuit said. “The plan further provides that the ‘city will monitor its open space holdings often enough for timely discovery and response to problems such as substantial hazards.'”
The lawsuit added that water accumulated in lot 169’s staging area after heavy rainfall in 2019. Rodent burrowing and cracks in the area caused large amounts of water to infiltrate the hillside and made the slope unstable. Eventually, a mudslide moved downhill from lot 169 into lot 161.
Similar conditions in lot 169 resulted in another landslide in 2023. Unlike the 2019 failure, the lawsuit said, the 2023 failure and slide remained entirely within lot 169. It didn’t creep into lot 161.
“Specifically, the city’s failure to maintain Lot 169 twice caused slope failures and landslides that have resulted in considerable damage to Righetti, requiring it to incur significant expense to remedy the downhill problems created by the city’s failures,” the lawsuit said.
Righetti allegedly spent $152,219 to remove debris caused by the slide in 2019 and $200,977 to make emergency repairs in 2023. The city reportedly rejected Righetti’s claim for the 2023 expenses.
Righetti hopes for damages in the amount of $353,196 from the city.
“Nothing has changed about the city’s fundamental position as expressed when we last discussed it—the city’s position is that the cause of the slides is Righetti’s work and faulty repair that destabilized the hillside and that there is no failure of city maintenance or other wrongful conduct related to the slides,” SLO attorney Christine Dietrick told New Times.
A case management conference is scheduled for Oct. 20. Δ
This article appears in Jul 31 – Aug 10, 2025.