The few or the many?

Mary A. Castillo

Janine Arendsen remembers spending summers at El Morro Village in

a mobile home that has been in her family since 1927.

The 22-year-old recalls growing up with some of the children who

now bring their own children to the secluded cove just south of the

Crystal Cove village. It was a time when parents would look out for

each other’s children in the water and friends would explore the tide

pools at low tide.

“Our trailer has washed away twice and we’ve rebuilt it twice,”

she said. “There’s so much family history here that it’s

disheartening to know that the state wants to get rid of it.”

The state has owned the land since 1979, when it purchased the

land and the leasehold from the Irvine Co. Three years later, the

State Parks Department released the Crystal Cove State Park General

Plan that called for the removal of the mobile homes. The department

issued long-term leases for 20 years and tenants signed a waiver of

relocation benefits, requiring them to pay for the removal of their

mobile homes. The leases were extended for five years in 1999 and

will expire Dec. 31, 2004.

Arendsen and her neighbors have grown even more apprehensive about

the fate of the village since the state’s recent release of the final

environmental report on plans to convert the mobile-home park to a

campground and day-use facility. She not only fears losing her

home-away-from-home, but also losing the beach to a larger

population.

“Everyone here cares about the beach,” she said. “We clean up our

stuff and pick up litter when we find it. I’m afraid if it becomes a

public beach there’ll be problems with fireworks, drinking and

overcrowding.”

Although Arendsen’s family is based in San Diego, they have been

actively involved with the El Morro Community Assn. to prevent the

state from breaking up what they see as a safe, tightly knit

community that has been in place for 75 years.

Not everyone is dead set against a change, however.

Although Mary Fegraus, executive director of the Laguna Canyon

Foundation, empathizes with village residents, she looks forward to

the state reclaiming the land for taxpayers.

“The state bought the land for park land,” she said. “It’s a good

thing they bought it when they did because it’s one of the last

remaining open spaces along the coast.”

She had not read the final report at press time but was concerned

about the pedestrian-access signal proposed in the preliminary draft.

“We’ve had some bad accidents in that location,” she said.

The state replied to her response letter claiming that the

proposed signal not only met sight distance requirements but that a

flashing warning signal would be installed to protect pedestrians and

motorists.

The next step in the project will involve working the design

drawings into plans, said Tina Robinson associate park and recreation

specialist spokesperson for the state on the El Moro conversion

project.

“This is a capital outlay process that will be funded in stages

through the state budget,” she said.

The project is budgeted at $12.7 million and will be managed by

the California Department of General Services.

“This is a [Proposition 12] project,” she said.

Still, residents are not impressed with what they have seen or

with the state’s environmental report.

“I thought it wasn’t thorough,” said Jeannette Baker, who has

lived at El Morro since 1962. “There was very little documentation

behind the claims they made.”

She bristled at the report that claimed community cohesion at El

Morro compared to similar communities is low because just 36% of the

residents use their mobile homes as a primary residence.

“That’s not true,” she said. “People have lived here for four

generations. It’s terrible that a community stands to be destroyed to

put in a RV and tenting facility next to an elementary school.”

She worries about the safety of schoolchildren with a transient

population nearby.

“Back in 1982 we didn’t worry about people kidnapping children or

amphetamine labs in RVs ,” she said.

She also refuted the report’s claims that converting the park

would generate more income. She claimed that the village generates

$1.2-million in revenue annually.

Miller also took issue with the report’s claim that El Moro Creek

has a high level of bacteria.

“The San Diego Water Quality Control Board asked that State Parks

do water testing within 30 days,” she said. “It’s been six months and

they still haven’t done it.”

The Orange County Department of Health performs tests at El Moro

Creek twice weekly, said Monica Mazur, the department’s supervising

environmental specialist. Samples are taken upstream from the mobile

home park and downstream. Although the department doesn’t have

standards for creek waters, El Moro meets ocean standards.

“We rarely see violations at the site,” Mazur said.

RBF Consulting acted as the hydrology/water quality consultants

for State Parks on the report.

“I do not have much confidence in any analysis made by this

hydrology/water quality consultant due to flaws in other county

projects submitted recently,” said Roger von Butow of Clean Water

Now. “There is not, but should be a thorough water quality database

being generated in the Moro Canyon Creek and watershed beginning

yesterday.”

The firm’s submission for the PRLA Detention Facility in Arroyo

Trabuco Canyon was rejected by a state court judge and the firm’s

hydrology/water quality report at Driftwood Estates was rejected by

Cal Trans engineers.

Von Butow also took issue with the report’s intention to restore

the creek to a natural channel. He likened historical restoration as

an attempt to duplicate mother nature.

“The [report] is weak in the area of environmentally sensitive

habitat areas and these animals and plants could be greatly impacted

by both construction and post-construction activities,” he said.

The report claimed that tests are ongoing to determine the source

of alleged contamination. Robinson could not be reached to verify who

was performing these tests.

Miller and the El Morro Community Assn. are ready to hold their

ground.

“We don’t think it’s a done deal,” she said.

The association plans to file a writ of petition within 30 days.

And Arendsen is equally determined to keep a piece of her family’s

history intact.

“If it comes to it, I plan to stand on my trailer and make them

pull me down before they take it away,” she said.

* MARY A. CASTILLO is a news assistant for the Coastline Pilot.

She covers education and City Hall.