State answers Crystal Cove lawsuit

Paul Clinton

CRYSTAL COVE -- Attorneys for the California State Parks are

dismissing an activist’s complaint as “just the latest in a long history

of lawsuits intended to prevent the eviction of private individuals from

public state park land.”

Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer and three other state lawyers made the

argument in a legal brief filed Monday in answer to a suit filed by the

Crystal Cove Community Trust against the state parks department.

The trust alleged the department removed the former tenants of the 46

cottages in Crystal Cove State Park too hastily and without adequate

environmental review of the decision’s consequences.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Francisco Firmat is set to render a

decision on the merits of the trust’s suit during a Nov. 29 hearing.

In the brief, state attorneys dismiss the trust’s challenge of the

eviction of the former tenants earlier this year.

The attorneys say the challenge is off-base because “it is not timely,

petitioners lack standing . . . and the evictions are not a ‘project’

under [state environmental law].”

Trust founder Bruce Hostetter has accused the state of failing to

perform the environmental review required by the California Environmental

Quality Act.

Hostetter was unhappy with the state’s dismissal of his claims.

“It’s just a political attack,” Hostetter said. “We feel we have an

awful lot of the law on our side. This [lawsuit] isn’t a pipe dream.”

Hostetter has asked for the state to reconsider the return of some

form of long-term residency at the cove. He has also said he wants the

former residents to play a more active role in the decision about how the

46 historic cottages will be used in the future.

The state is set to bring forward a plan for the cottages early next

year.

In the brief, state attorneys denounce Hostetter’s suit as “just a

second attack on the evictions,” following a string of challenges by the

former residents since the state bought the park from the Irvine Co. in

1979.

The residents filed three separate lawsuits, beginning in 1982, in an

attempt to stay on the public land.

They successfully delayed the state’s attempt to evict them until

finally agreeing this year to leave. Their final day in homes they leased

from the state was July 8.

Hostetter denied that he had been paid by the tenants to file the

suit. He said the cottages need to be taken out of the state’s hands to

“make sure the place doesn’t disintegrate.”

“We are independent of them,” Hostetter said. “This is what we

consider an unidentified need of the public.”

The state has spent $1.3 million on an interim plan to protect the

cottages from the elements and repair leaking roofs, precarious

staircases and other problems.

Heiress Joan Irvine Smith, who entered the debate early in the year,

has defended the state’s stewardship of the cottages.

“This is an excellent answer,” Smith said about the state’s brief. “If

there’s any justice, it ought to prevail.”