READERS RESPOND -- What does crystal ball say for Crystal Cove?

This letter is being written in response to a Feb. 18 editorial. The lack of sensitivity to the emotions of Jane Burzell and other long-term

residents of Crystal Cove is most disturbing.

Do some role-playing. Assume your grandfather built a cottage, and

five generations of your family enjoyed holidays, vacations and the

natural beauty of a beach cottage for 60-plus years. It would be natural

to refer to the cottage as “my cottage.”

The state of California does own the Crystal Cove historic district,

and no one disputes that fact. However, the heart and soul of the

district will remain with the residents.

Your reference to current rental income being paid to the state of

California by the tenants needs clarification. In addition to the rental

($480,000 per year), the tenants are charged with the responsibility of

paying for possessory real estate taxes, fire and liability insurance

premiums and maintenance of the cottages and infrastructure elements.

We agree that the Department of Parks and Recreation should make the

Crystal Cove historic district available for the public with a plan yet

to be developed, permitted or financed.

We also believe that the Department of Parks and Recreation is correct

in planning for the installation of a sewer system. The sewer system has

not been designed, permitted or financed. There is clear evidence from

Orange County records that the existing septic tanks do not negatively

impact the ocean waters of Crystal Cove. The records indicate that the

Crystal Cove ocean waters are consistently excellent. Check the records.

Our primary concern is the preservation of the historic district. Six

cottages have been vacant at the choice of the Department of Parks and

Recreation, and these six cottages are in the process of “destruction by

abandonment.”

We know that we will have to vacate the cottages; however, a viable

plan should be in place for the preservation of the cottages before they

are vacated. If there is no approved plan and if the cottages are left

vacant, the historic district will become only a treasured memory.

A.R. WILLINGER

Newport Beach

* EDITOR’S NOTE: A.R. Willinger is a board member of Crystal Cove

Residents Assn.

Once again, the mean old landlord is trying to evict those poor people

who lease those cute little cottages on the beach at Crystal Cove. Again

the folks leasing paradise by the sea have lawyers, have contacted their

state senator and have hired lobbyists to fight to remain there. Again

they are supported by all the self-styled “environmentalists” of the

coastal area who have “saved” the coast by trying to keep deserving

taxpayers off it.

Before the general public again closes its collective eyes and once

more allows them to continue living there, perhaps it should learn the

facts of this rip-off of public land and public money.

First, these little shacks are not historic old structures. They are

not as old as many of the houses of Balboa Island or Laguna Beach.

They are simply poorly constructed little houses that were never built

to code. Their owners were not about to build regular, expensive houses

on little plots of land they could only lease for a maximum of 30 days at

a time. The shacks were placed on the National Registry of Historic

Places by their occupants and “environmental” helpers in what I believe

was a scheme to ensure that the state couldn’t or wouldn’t demolish them

after California purchased the land from the Irvine Co.

Three decades ago, each leaseholder paid less than $100 for each 30

days they remained there. They pay more now. Through a very bad lease

arrangement made by the state, they pay about $1,000 per month. That’s a

mere pittance of the true value of these unique “on the beach lots.” Each

lot is conservatively worth $2 million to $3 million. A simple 6% return

on the public’s investment would bring in more than $10,000 a month for

each lot. Taxpayers, you are being ripped off.

Crystal Cove was part of over three miles and 10,000 acres of coastal

property owned by the Irvine Co. Back in the early ‘70s, after three

years of planning and studying coastal resorts all over the world, the

company unveiled a magnificent coastal plan allowing for full and

complete public access at Crystal Cove.

GIL FERGUSON

Newport Beach

* EDITOR’S NOTE: Gil Ferguson is a former Republican assemblyman.

Regarding the tug of war over Crystal Cove, the only authentic

environmentalists and conservationists seem to me to be the people who

are living in those nifty bungalows and who have kept Crystal Cove the

way it is for the past 50 years.

No one seems to care about them.

Instead, we have the most unwholesome congeries of activists,

environmentalists, bureaucrats and right-thinkers who are going to

succeed in killing everything that was lovely, unique and remarkable

about that community.

God save us from the toadies.

DUVALL Y. HECHT

Newport Beach