Developer to press on with Crystal Cove resort

Paul Clinton

CRYSTAL COVE -- For Mike Freed, it’s full steam ahead.

The concessionaire developer who signed a controversial deal with the

state in 1997 said he will press on with his $35-million resort for

Crystal Cove State Park.

Freed’s pledge comes a day after a state parks spokesman said the

department will evict the residents living in the 46 cottages on the

state-owned land in mid-March.

Freed has already spent nearly $2 million toward developing the

resort, which has drawn heavy criticism for expected luxury room rates of

as much as $375 per night. At a Jan. 18 public meeting, hundreds of

locals expressed their objections to Freed.

In the aftermath of the meeting, state parks officials questioned

their commitment to the contract, signed under former Gov. Pete Wilson’s

administration. Freed, on the other hand, said he won’t be deterred.

“I’m not going to” pull the resort plan off the table, Freed said.

“We’re going forward.”

During a break in a string of high-level meetings about Crystal Cove’s

future, state parks director Rusty Areias said the agency was considering

buying out Freed’s contract. The state would probably be forced to

reimburse the San Francisco developer’s expenses.

“It’s one of the options, but it’s an option without money,” Areias

said. “Mr. Freed has been very amenable to what’s going to work. . . . He

wants a project that is sensitive to Crystal Cove.”

The state has tentatively set Feb. 15 as the date it plans to send out

30-day eviction notices to tenants living on land the state bought from

the Irvine Co. in 1979 for $32.6 million.

The tenants must be removed, officials said, to make way for the

removal of septic tanks that have been suspected of leaking sewage into

the cove. The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board cited the

cottages, in a Nov. 16 cease and desist order, as a potential hazard.

The state plans to install $10 million in infrastructure improvements

-- including new sewers, gas pipes and telephone lines.

There are no plans to allow those living in the cottages back in when

the work is done.

After hearing about the evictions, Crystal Cove residents were quick

to criticize the state for abandoning the cottages, placed in the

National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The state receives about

$480,000 a year in rent, funneled in with other general fund revenue.

“By jumping the gun [on the evictions], the state is losing valuable

income and they’re contributing to the destruction of the cottages,”

Crystal Cove resident Al Willinger said.

That’s not the intention, state parks spokesman Roy Stearns said.

“We do not want them to deteriorate,” Stearns said. “Our intent is to

preserve and protect.”