The covenants

The constitution

Between April 29, 1949 and November 24, 1952, the Palos Verdes Corporation recorded six instruments that, together, form the legal framework of the West Portuguese Bend Community Association (WPBCA) and the eighty-one lots of Tract 14649. The first of these, Declaration No. One, was signed by Kelvin C. Vanderlip (President) and John H. Robertson (Assistant Secretary) and recorded at Book 29980 page 159 of the Official Records of Los Angeles County. It is the constitution. It creates the tract, names the association, limits use to single-family residential, establishes an Architectural Committee, and sets the framework for every subsequent instrument.

Six days later, on May 5, 1949, the Corporation recorded a Declaration of Easements at Book 30051 pages 385-393 that reserved a bridle trail and walkway easement from Lot 1 of Tract 14649 to the ocean, drainage easements from Lot 11 to PV Drive South, and general road and street easements. Eighteen days after that, the Corporation recorded a Modification of Protective Restrictions at Book 30174 page 59 — granting a 20% reduction authority to the ARC for single-story structures, with no reduction allowed on Lots 1-15 (the bluff lots).

In July 1949 the developer's own engineers — Donald R. Warren Co., filed as F 965 with Los Angeles County — submitted a Compacted Fills Report for Lots 1 through 81 of Tract 14649. The report characterized the underlying soils as "sandy loam to tough black clay... marine deposits" with an internal friction angle of φ=15°. This is the first documented acknowledgment by the developer's engineers that the tract sat on marine clay. The report was approved by Los Angeles County on April 26, 1954 — seventy-five years before the 2024 RM-22 rezoning at 0 Clipper Road.

Lot H, the 1950 declaration

On January 25, 1950, the Corporation recorded the Lot H Declaration at Book 32160 page 26. Its only substantive content was a racial occupancy covenant, now void under California Civil Code § 12955 and under federal law (Shelley v. Kraemer, 1948; Fair Housing Act, 1968). The Foundation does not endorse and will not republish the original language. The declaration's one remaining legal effect is a 10-year automatic renewal clause from January 1, 1975 — the current renewal, Renewal 6, runs through 2035. Because its only covenant is void, the renewal has no operative effect. The Foundation maintains the record of this instrument for the same reason it maintains the record of any other founding document: accuracy.

On October 30, 1950, the Corporation recorded Declaration One-A at Book 34817 page 254, imposing a 40-foot bluff setback, a 4-foot height limit oceanward of that setback, and a 20-foot Sea Cove Drive setback on Lots 1 through 5 of Tract 14649. The 40-foot bluff setback would be validated 68 years later by the City of Rancho Palos Verdes' own 2018 Safety Element §5.9 (Coastal Cliff Retreat).

The distribution

On November 24, 1952, Frank A. Vanderlip Jr. — Kelvin Vanderlip's younger brother, signing on behalf of the Corporation — executed a standardized Grant Deed template recorded at Book 40601 page 303. Every individual lot deed issued by the Palos Verdes Corporation thereafter incorporated this template by reference. The template, in turn, incorporated all six founding declarations. The covenants did not stay in the corporate offices: they were pressed into every lot deed, lot by lot, house by house, from 1952 onward. That is why an 81-lot community has bylaws, a board, an architectural review process, and ocean-access easements to this day.

On April 29, 2009 the community recorded a Restated Declaration (Document 20090802242) that removed the void racial clause. On May 16, 2012 the community adopted restated bylaws with secret-ballot voting, a five-director board, and Davis-Stirling Act compliance. The 2012 bylaws remain in force, pending modernization.

Course of conduct

Running through the box score above is a pattern the courts have noticed: the Palos Verdes Corporation, when it intended to change a legal status, recorded an instrument. The December 1949 Suspension of Authority. The June 1950 Utility Easement. The December 1950 ARC Appointment. The 1954 ARC Members Appointment. The 1959 Simes Quitclaim. The 1961 PV Properties Quitclaim. Each one was a deliberate, dated, recorded act. That pattern matters in Colyear v. Rolling Hills Community Association (B308382, 2024), which narrowed the circumstances under which a master declaration binds a property absent a clean chain-of-title incorporation. If the Corporation could record an instrument for a utility easement in 1950, the argument runs, its silence on a particular parcel is not accidental.