The city of San Luis Obispo took the Righetti company to court for allegedly triggering a landslide in the Righetti Hill open space and covering up the damage poorly without authorization.
“The conditions, annoyances and/or injuries created a substantial and unreasonable interference with the plaintiff’s and surrounding community members’ peaceful and quiet enjoyment of their homes and community,” the lawsuit read.
The complaint for trespass, nuisance, and negligence filed April 2 targeted Righetti NC LLC and Righetti Ranch LP. It scrutinizes the 328-lot residential Righetti Ranch development on Orcutt Road—specifically, lot 161 given 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.
Located above all the residential spaces, lot 161 joined the larger Righetti Hill open space area—the 51-acre “morro” that became part of the city’s 4,300 acres of public land in 2018.
SLO’s acceptance of the gift came with the requirement to install a private drainage easement between that lot and those that were downslope from it. Righetti Ranch LP promised to take care of it and to protect the city from covering the cost if anything went wrong because of the drainage system.
A 2009 environmental impact report for the Orcutt Area Specific Plan—which the residential project had to follow—noted that if the developers plan to build on land with uneven slopes, the area must either be avoided or stabilized. It states that any design work to reinforce the slopes must be conducted by a geotechnical engineer, and the city building department must approve the solution before the developer gets a grading permit.
The city alleged that despite requests from staff, Righetti didn’t submit any erosion control plans that could reduce the chances of the ground surface sinking and settling.
“The city is informed and believes, and thereon alleges, that defendants began grading for its subdivision development in 2016 pursuant to tract grading plans, and advanced eastward (upslope) toward Righetti Hill in 2017,” the suit said.
That work, it added, cut into the toe of the hillside on lot 161 while Righetti prepared building pads for new homes. The toe area of a hill, often exposed to erosion from surface runoff, is susceptible to landslides.
No landslides occurred on Righetti Hill prior to the 2017 toe cutting, the city said. In September 2019, the first landslide took place. The lawsuit claimed that improper grading and failure to install proper drainage infrastructure were to blame. SLO Community Development Director Timothea Tway told New Times that hillside failure took place above a subdivision called Ladera at Righetti—a sold-out collection of 64 homes, according to its website.
Righetti allegedly tried to remedy the damage in 2019 without advance approval from the city and without submitting any plans for repair work. There was another landslide in the same area in January 2023.
“Defendants then proceeded to conduct remediation work on lot 161 for the January 2023 landslide on their own, and without city permission, even though the work was done on city property,” the lawsuit said.
Attorneys representing Righetti didn’t respond to New Times‘ request for comment by press time.
By March 2023, Righetti submitted a government claim worth more than $200,000 to the city for the January landslide repairs. Eventually, the city took over the task to avoid repeat incidents. A city-appointed contractor completed the repairs, and SLO incurred engineering design and construction costs of more than $871,000 in the process.
City Attorney Christine Dietrick told New Times that the parties initially entered a tolling agreement to settle the issue through negotiation rather than spend more money on litigation. A tolling agreement freezes the clock on the statute of limitations to buy more time to resolve a dispute. The SLO-Righetti agreement lasted from Dec. 8, 2023, to April 7, 2025.
“The parties were unable to agree, so litigation is the only remaining path to recover the public’s costs of remediating the damages the city believes were caused by Righetti’s actions related to its private development project,” Dietrick said. Δ
This article appears in Apr 17-27, 2025.