New cove battle

Lauren Vane

The battle for land at the El Morro Village mobile home park has

existed for some time between the California State Parks Department

and trailer residents fighting to keep their picturesque seaside

community.

Now the plight of Bluebird Canyon slide victims has been pulled

into the mix and emotions are running high.

Almost two-dozen Laguna Beach families are in need of housing for

up to several years after they were left homeless when the June 1

landslide destroyed their homes; roughly the same amount of trailers

sit vacant at El Morro.

Laguna Beach Mayor Elizabeth Pearson-Schneider and Assemblyman

Chuck Devore say this is a coincidence that cannot be ignored.

“The fact is you have two-dozen families that have a desperate

need and you have about two-dozen trailers that stand empty,” Devore

said.

The handful of empty trailers were left behind by owners who

signed a deal with the state, allowing them to remain in their

trailers until April. While these homes are now empty, the mobile

home park is still filled with more than 200 residents fighting their

evictions in court. Since 1979, state parks has owned the land at El

Morro, and after several lease extensions they are moving forward

with plans to convert the land into a state park and campground open

to public access.

Pearson-Schneider said the idea to relocate slide victims to El

Morro came to her the weekend after the slide occurred. Devore then

wrote a letter to the California Resources Agency voicing his support

of the proposed solution. The secretary of resources has not issued a

written response to Devore’s letter.

While state parks representatives say they are sympathetic to the

landslide victims, allowing anyone to move into El Morro would defeat

the purpose of eviction efforts and stall progress on the project.

“We’re in the middle of a lawsuit and to re-open this seriously

undermines that lawsuit,” said state parks spokesperson Roy Stearns.

Claire Schlotterbeck, a consultant hired by individuals and

organizations who oppose any further delay of the park conversion,

believes the move would only complicate an already-messy situation.

“How can the state be evicting 240 people, and on the other hand,

allow 12 or 20 more people in? It will throw the case into mass

confusion,” Schlotterbeck said.

But Pearson-Schneider stands firm that moving the slide victims to

El Morro would be the right solution, allowing homeowners a chance to

save money until they can rebuild.

“The residents have asked me not to give up,” Pearson-Schneider

said.

Steve Howard, whose home on Flamingo Road was red-tagged after the

slide, said he thinks moving to El Morro is a viable option, but only

if it means keeping the neighborhood together.

“I think it’s a positive because you’re gonna keep the neighbors

together,” Howard said.

Relocating to housing only three miles from his former home would

allow his 16-year-old daughter to continue to attend her current

school, Howard said. The family is currently living with his parents

in Mission Viejo.

Aware of the pending evictions at El Morro, Howard is still

hopeful that he and his neighbors will be allowed to move in.

“I hope for some reason they can try to put it together,” Howard

said.

State parks affirms that there are several legal issues that

prevent the slide victims from moving into the empty trailers. For

starters, state parks does not own the empty trailers and therefore,

has no authority to give them away, Stearns said.

“The whole issue is before the courts as to who owns this place,”

Stearns said.

Additionally, the current sewer system in the El Morro mobile home

park is failing and would have to be replaced in order to accommodate

usage for several more years, Stearns said.

The state is under a cease and desist order from the San Diego

Regional Water Quality Control Board to shut down the system by

September 2005. The fines for violating the order could be up to

$5,000 per day, Stearns said.

A failing sewer system will not stand in the way of

Pearson-Schneider’s plan; she said the city of Laguna Beach will pay

for a new sewer system if the slide victims are housed in El Morro.

But according to Stearns, state parks is not the appropriate

agency to handle disaster relief to begin with.

“We don’t think that a state parks system is designed, nor should

be the place to be considered, for disaster relief, long-term,”

Sterns said.

Schlotterbeck criticized Pearson-Schneider’s leadership, insisting

that city officials should look within the city for space to house

the slide victims, not in a state park.

“The bottom line is Laguna Beach has property themselves, they

could move their own trailers or their RVs, at big bend or Act V,”

Schlotterbeck said.

However, Pearson-Schneider and her supporters stand by El Morro as

the relocation point for slide victims. Many of the families have

found temporary housing, but they need somewhere to go for several

years; the empty trailers at El Morro represent a twist of fate that

may be the answer to the problem, Devore said.

“Mayor Pearson-Schneider clearly has a vision of how she wants to

help her residents, and she’s thinking out of the box,” Devore said.

Right now the issue is not in their hands. As the city awaits the

state’s response on the proposed relocation plan, upcoming court

dates for the eviction hearings of trailer park residents will tell

another chapter in the El Morro struggle.