El Morro plan only muddies the water

Last week, a group called the El Morro Village Community Assn.

pitched a plan that would in essence give a reprieve to some 200

mobile home owners who live on state beach park lands along the

Newport Beach and Laguna Beach borders.

The plan, which counters those of state parks officials, would

call for an increase in mobile home rents, and some of that money,

some $10 million backers say, would go toward refurbishing the

historic cottages at Crystal Cove.

There were other finer points to the plan.

Money gleaned from rents would be earmarked for affordable housing

for Laguna Beach fire and emergency personnel and an RV camp next to

El Morro Elementary School would be replaced in lieu of building a

vacation hostel. The plan, like the state’s, does call for the

elimination of the beachside mobile homes and also earmarks $1

million a year for two groups with a vested interest in open space --

the California State Parks Foundation and Laguna Greenbelt, an

environmental group that has long fought for protection of Laguna

Canyon.

As first blush, this quid pro quo plan sounds nice and offers up

money to all the right factions.

But it’s hard not to see this for what it really is -- a veiled

effort by the El Morro mobile homeowners to hold on to their little

slice of paradise at any cost.

Some background here might help.

The land at El Morro was part of a larger sale. The state

purchased a large chunk of coastal bluff tops, beaches and canyons

from the Irvine Co. several decades ago.

Along with that sale came El Morro Beach and Canyon, Crystal Cove

State Park and Beach and the historic cottages that sit on that

beach.

Those cottages too were inhabited by tenants who paid little rent

and fought for decades to avoid state eviction. But that battle

finally ended in the summer of 2001, and now the land is rightfully

in the hands of the state and available for enjoyment by all state

taxpayers.

That is exactly what should happen at El Morro.

Contrary to the claims by those at El Morro, the state does have a

plan for the restoration of the 46 Crystal Cove cottages. That

$12-million restoration, announced last October, called for rental of

the cottages to the public at $100 a night.

The state also has a plan for El Morro and has issued a

modification to its plans that is largely based on public comments

and suggestions. Instead of acknowledging the state’s efforts, the El

Morro mobile home owners fight the state at every turn and make

allegations that simply don’t wash.

With all due respect to those residents at El Morro, it’s time to

realize that the day is fast arriving to vacate the premises, hand

the land over to its rightful owners -- the state taxpayers -- and

end these last-ditch efforts that only muddy the process.