Crystal Cove residents file suit

Paul Clinton

CRYSTAL COVE -- They’re fighting fire with fire.

Vowing to remain in their cottages until the state unveils a viable

project for Crystal Cove State Park, residents filed a lawsuit Tuesday to

block looming evictions from the state-owned land.

The state parks department has given those who live in the 40 occupied

beachfront cabins until March 15 to clear out or face removal.

“We want the plan to be a ready-to-go plan before we’re asked to leave

the cottages,” said Crystal Cove Residents Assn. spokesman Al Willinger.

“Our primary goal is to preserve the cottages.”

Residents have said the cottages, placed on the National Register of

Historic Places in 1979, would deteriorate if they are forced to leave.

Jane Burzell, 35, has lived in a cottage her whole life and said she

plans to fight the eviction.

“They need to be occupied so they can be cared for,” Burzell said.

“I’d hate to see my cottage turn into one of the abandoned ones.”

State parks spokesman Roy Stearns had not seen a copy of the

complaint, filed in Orange County Superior Court, but said the residents

have signed waivers allowing the state to terminatethe leases.

The residents must be removed so state engineers can examine the

cottages and their septic tanks, which have been cited by the Santa Ana

Regional Water Quality Control Board as a potential source of waste-water

pollution into the cove, park officials say.

Those who live in the historic bungalows, built in the 1920s and ‘30s,

dispute the claim that their septic tanks are leaking.

“This is a tough thing for them, and we want to be sensitive to their

rights and emotions,” Stearns said. “But on the other hand, it’s time to

move on and get this project started.”

With time running out for the cottage dwellers, the state pulled the

plug Tuesday on a deal with San Francisco developer Michael Freed to

build a resort in the park.

Acting on input from a Jan. 18 information meeting on Freed’s proposed

$35-million luxury resort, in which hundreds of locals showed up to

oppose the project, state representatives announced plans to terminate a

1997 contract between Freed and the state.

Back at square one, state officials are now considering other plans.

“The high-end resort is no longer an option,” State Parks Director

Rusty Areias said in a Tuesday statement. “All other alternatives are now

on the table.”

One of those alternatives, a nonprofit educational center, has been

suggested by one of the residents. Laura Davick, the founder of the

Alliance to Rescue Crystal Cove, has begun to develop her plan with the

state’s blessing. Caught in a somewhat awkward position, Davick said she

doesn’t support the lawsuit.

Tuesday’s suit is the latest in a series of court fights between the

state and residents since the Irvine Co. sold the 2,791 acres of land to

the state in 1979 for $32.6 million.

The latest eviction notices represent the fifth attempt by the state

to clear out the homes. The cottage dwellers have managed to hang on to

their homes because of a string of court victories.

The first suit was filed in 1983. In exchange for a waiver of

relocation benefits, the state agreed to extend the leases 10 years. The

residents were back in court in 1993, winning another extension -- this

time for three years.

The most recent lawsuit, filed in 1995, gave the residents two years

of court-protected leases. That safety net vanished on March 1, 1998. The

residents have been paying between $790 and $1,400 per month to live on

state-owned land.