El Morro tenants hang on

Lauren Vane and Alicia Robinson

In the wake of Assemblyman Chuck DeVore’s decision to scrap two bills

that could have extended the leases of El Morro tenants for decades,

residents are hanging on to rumors that the Irvine Co. may have a

buy-back option on the property -- rumors both state and Irvine Co.

officials said are just not true.

In separate accounts, two residents said that the neighborhood was

buzzing with talk that the Irvine Co. could buy the land if the parks

department did not take action on plans to turn the land into a state

park within a certain time frame.

“The motivations for it [the state parks project] just don’t seem

to add up on paper,” said resident Jeff Brooks.

Michael Spencer Taylor, who moved to El Morro just over a month

ago, said he fears more housing developments would grow if rumors

about the buy-back are true.

“It’s inevitable -- it’s prime real estate,” Taylor said.

Spokespeople from state parks and the Irvine Co. said there is no

truth to the hearsay, and there is no legal loophole that would ever

allow the land to be sold.

“The most important fact is that the land is just not for sale,”

said Irvine Co. spokeswoman Jennifer Hieger.

State parks spokesman Roy Stearns said the state has fee title

ownership of the land. The state bought the land from the Irvine

Company for $32 million in 1979 with the stipulation the land be used

for a state park.

“It was not a gift or a grant with stipulations,” Stearns said.

Brooks said DeVore’s decision to scrap the bills came as a

surprise to him. DeVore announced Monday that he pulled both bills

because he could not get a majority committee vote.

The controversial bills were scheduled for a hearing Monday in the

Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee. One bill would have

extended El Morro residents’ leases for 30 years in exchange for a

$50-million payment that would go toward the state’s projected

$8-billion deficit. The other would have put leases on the mobile

homes up for public bid and earmarked the profits for the state parks

department, which has reported a $900-million backlog of parks

facilities and maintenance projects.

The mobile-home park community had high hopes for DeVore’s

proposed bills and believed they offered a positive alternative to

demolishing the trailer park, Brooks said.

“Everybody would have been a lot happier,” Brooks said.

Even if it meant a sharp increase in rent, Brooks said passing

either one of the bills would have been better than having to leave

behind a home he has known since 1986.

“It was fine with me to have the rents more than doubled,” Brooks

said.

Taylor, who moved into the trailer park 39 days ago, said that he

was not shocked when he heard that the bills had been dropped.

“I knew this moving in, that it was a gamble,” Taylor said.

“I’m just going to stay here as long as I can.”

Residents’ leases expired in January and a handful of tenants

signed a three-month extension agreement that had them moving out

April 1. The residents who did not sign the extension remain in the

trailer park, awaiting the court’s decision on eviction proceedings.

“Right now, residents are in limbo,” Brooks said. “Nobody’s

comfortable with it. It is a twilight zone of discomfort.”

DeVore’s decision to pull the El Morro bills has no impact on the

eviction process, said Ken Kramer, superintendent of Crystal Cove

State Park.

“It keeps us on the same path we’ve been on,” Kramer said.

The decision only cements the state parks’ faith in the project,

Stearns said.

“This may remove any of the doubt about our firm intention to move

ahead,” Stearns said. “We’re eager to go to court and show that this

eviction process should continue.”

While the evictions hang on court decisions, El Morro residents

continue to enjoy life in a community that could be facing a breakup.

“It’s the only thing you really can do,” Brooks said.

“I just feel that regardless, I had the chance to move in here,

and even if it’s just for the month, I had the chance to live here,”

Taylor said.