Public speaks out on Crystal Cove State Park

Paul Clinton

CORONA DEL MAR -- Last time, it was an ambush. This time, cooperation

was in the air at a public meeting about the historic district in Crystal

Cove.

More than three months after hundreds of locals packed Lincoln

Elementary School’s auditorium to oppose plans for a luxury resort on the

state-owned land, a less ornery group revisited the place to discuss the

future of the 46 historic bungalows in Crystal Cove State Park.

Leaders of environmental groups, concerned citizens and even those

living in the cottages voiced their opinions at the first in a series of

workshops scheduled by California State Parks.

One of those who spoke was heiress Joan Irvine Smith, whose family

owned the land for more than 100 years. Smith, calling the rustic

district “an island in time” joined others in calling on state parks to

restore the cottages as well as increase public access to the beach.

After buying out a San Francisco developer, the California State Parks

Department has restarted the process to seek ideas for an alternative

project at the historic district. The stating point will be the state’s

1982 General Plan that had been shelved after the agency signed a

contract with Mike Freed in 1997 to build the resort.

Freed was paid $2 million for those development rights in the March

buyout.

Due to their historic status, state parks officials pledged to

adequately restore the cottages, some of which are vacant.

State parks officials welcomed the input from those who attended the

meeting.

“We can save Crystal Cove, but saving Crystal Cove must contain those

cottages,” state historic preservation officer Knox Mellon said. “State

parks is committed to that.”

The state bought the historic district in 1979 from the Irvine Co. for

$32.6 million. The dwellings, built in the 1920s and 1930s, were placed

in the National Register of Historic Places that same year.