El Morro bills withdrawn

Alicia Robinson and Lauren Vane

Hoping to avoid a politically costly defeat, Laguna Beach Assemblyman

Chuck DeVore has pulled the plug on two bills that would have

extended the leases of residents at the El Morro Village mobile home

park.

El Morro Community Assn. President Jeanette Miller said she

understood the reasoning behind DeVore’s decision.

“I don’t have any problem with it,” Miller said. “He’s a

legislator; the issue is money.”

The controversial bills were scheduled for a hearing Tuesday in

the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee.

One bill would have extended existing 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.

El Morro Village sits on state-owned, beachfront land at Crystal

Cove State Park that is slated to become public parkland and

campgrounds once the mobile home residents are gone.

DeVore withdrew the bills last week because he could not get a

majority of the committee to vote for them, he said Monday.

“Losing a committee vote is something that I can’t afford right

now, because it makes a policy pronouncement on my idea and says it’s

dead,” he said.

There’s still hope that action can be taken to save the trailer

park despite the recent developments, Miller said.

“I’m not dismayed, I think there’s still an opportunity to

introduce a bill and to be listened to before the budget is decided,”

Miller said.

In the wake of DeVore’s decision to scrap the two bills, residents

are clinging 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 the neighborhood was

buzzing with talk that the Irvine Co. could buy the land for

commercial use if the parks department did not take action on plans

to turn the land into a state park within a certain time frame.

If rumors about the buy-back were true, residents expressed

concerns that, instead of a state park, Irvine Co. involvement could

mean the onset of housing or resort development.

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

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

Another resident agreed.

“It’s inevitable -- it’s prime real estate,” said Michael Spencer

Taylor, a tenant who moved to El Morro just over a month ago.

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 Co.

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.

“It was kinda shocking to all of a sudden hear that it got

yanked,” Brooks said.

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.

DeVore said he sees other options to keep El Morro open and bring

in more money for the state -- an order from Gov. Arnold

Schwarzenegger could do it, or a provision could be added to the

budget bill to continue collecting rents from residents.

“I’ve already talked to several [El Morro residents], and they

understand the tactical necessity of losing” this particular battle,

DeVore 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.

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 pending court decisions, El Morro

residents continue to enjoy life in an ocean-view 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.