State OKs renting cove cottages to vacationers

Paul Clinton

The state’s Parks and Recreation Commission took the first step

toward opening up 46 beachfront cottages in Crystal Cove State Park

for public use on Friday, almost 25 years after the state bought

them.

The commission, during a three-hour meeting at the Radisson Hotel

Newport Beach, unanimously approved renovation plans for the cove’s

historic district, which has been the focus of interest, and much

controversy, for the past three years.

“We are thrilled Crystal Cove will be available so people can

enjoy this amazing place,” Commission Chairwoman Caryl Hart said

after the meeting.

The commission, with Paul Junger Witt absent and Robert Shriver

casting his vote in absentia via a conference phone, approved both

the state’s public use plan for the district and an amendment to the

1982 General Plan, the state’s first planning effort for the pristine

area.

As part of the plan, the state will spend $12.5 million to

rehabilitate 40 cottages, 29 of which will be available to the public

to rent in the fall of 2004. The plan next heads to the California

Coastal Commission this spring. Work is expected to begin during the

fall.

The state bought the land from the Irvine Co. for $32.6 million in

1979, the same year that the historic district was placed on the

National Register of Historic Places.

Hart and her fellow commissioners, who include movie icon and

coastal activist Clint Eastwood, listened to a string of public

speakers at the meeting. It was indicative of the state’s dogged

effort for more than a year to collect public input on a plan to use

29 of the existing cottages for overnight rentals, eight for state

personnel and another handful for educational uses and a snack stand.

Eastwood, former mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea, toured the cove

Thursday. It was not his first trip to the secluded area, which he

said “looks like a movie set.”

In the early 1950s, while he was a student at Los Angeles City

College, Eastwood he visited the place with a girlfriend, he said. It

hasn’t changed much since then, he said.

“It still looks the same, but there is now development on the

hills,” Eastwood said. “From a state point of view, [opening the

park] is a service the state can offer the public.”

During public comments, Jim Turner, the lifeguard operations

captain with the Newport Beach Fire Department, said he supported the

plan, but asked the state to move the district’s lifeguard station

closer to the beach.

Former Costa Mayor Sandra Genis, who is also active with the

Sierra Club, said she supported the plan for the most part.

“I’m delighted to see where we’re at,” Genis said. “I’m really

happy about where we are today.”

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment, business and politics. He

may be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

paul.clinton@latimes.com.