Cove plans being explored

Paul Clinton

CRYSTAL COVE -- Fresh off a brainstorming session with locals about

the future of the Crystal Cove historic district, state parks officials

headed home last week with a lot on their minds.

During a Thursday evening meeting in Corona del Mar, California State

Parks Department officials brought themselves back to the drawing board

on plans for the oceanfront community.

The state agency listened to a handful of speakers during the

three-hour meeting and presented some ideas as to how to restore the

historic beachfront cottages.

The laundry list of alternatives to the state’s earlier plan, a luxury

resort stopped in its tracks after community outcry, began to form at the

Thursday evening meeting.

Some ideas include a marine research lab, an artists’ colony, an

educational center and hostel-type accommodations for the 46 dwellings.

“All of these things are strong possibilities,” State Parks spokesman

Roy Stearns said. “What we have to do is go back to Sacramento and tally

up these ideas.”

At a follow-up meeting, set for late May, parks department officials

will bring back several possible scenarios for restoring and using the

cottages.

At the same time, the agency is moving forward with the eviction of

the cove’s present tenants. Their last day to vacate the cottages, per a

signed agreement, is July 8.

The state has pledged to monitor the structures using a small crew of

rangers and lifeguards that will move in shortly after the residents

leave.

At the Thursday meeting, several speakers said they worried the

cottages would fall into disrepair or become victims of vandals.

Stephanie Barger, the executive director of Costa Mesa-based Earth

Resource Foundation, was one of several speakers to urge the state to

allow the residents to stay in the homes many have rented for decades.

“They’re not planning,” Barger said. “They want to get those residents

out of there ASAP.”

The state has tried to evict the residents since shortly after

purchasing the cove from the Irvine Co. in 1979 for $32.6 million. That

same year, the area was placed on the National Register of Historic

Places.

The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board injected that

effort with a sense of urgency when it slapped the parks department with

a cease and desist order on Nov. 16 regarding suspected pollution from

the cottage’s aging septic tanks.

Laura Davick, who formed the Alliance to Rescue Crystal Cove,

cautioned the state against rushing its review to satisfy that order. The

state must comply by Nov. 16, 2003.

“I don’t want the cease and desist order to become the driving force,”

Davick said. “The public review process should be the guiding force.”

The state has revisited its own 1982 plan for the cottages, which

included rehabilitating the cottages. It was put on the shelf in 1997

when the department signed a 60-year deal with Mike Freed. A $2-million

buyout of the developer was finalized in March.

As the state begins a new public process, those involved said they

hoped there would be more opportunity for dialogue between the parties

involved.

“I found [the Thursday meeting] a difficult forum to have any

back-and-forth dialogue,” Newport Beach activist Nancy Skinner said. “It

would be nice to have a round-table discussion.”