Groups ask for deferral of major work at Crystal Cove

Paul Clinton

CRYSTAL COVE -- They’ve put it in crystal-clear writing.

A coalition of environmental groups has itemized its ideas about how

the state should proceed on Crystal Cove in a “statement of principles”

released Monday.

The statement comes with California State Parks close to restarting

the process for restoring and potentially developing the historic

bungalows at the state beach.

In the statement, the 11-group coalition asks the state parks

department to complete a planned buyout of an earlier developer, increase

public involvement in the decisions about the cove’s future and defer a

major overhaul of troublesome septic tanks underneath the bungalows.

“The point of this is to lay out a plan,” said David Beckman, senior

attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s something we

would like state parks to sign on to.”

California State Parks spokesman Roy Stearns said the statement didn’t

include anything his department hasn’t already considered.

Stearns added that the groups have no cause for concern.

“All of these are directions we are slowly moving in,” Stearns said.

“We seem to be on board [with the groups] and traveling on the same train

track.”

Groups that signed the letter include the Sierra Club, Orange County

CoastKeeper, the Surfrider Foundation, the Alliance to Rescue Crystal

Cove and Defend the Bay, as well as heiress Joan Irvine Smith.

After facing massive public opposition to a luxury resort plan signed

between former Gov. Pete Wilson’s administration and a San Francisco

developer, the state pulled the plug on a previous plan for the 46

bungalows built during the 1920s and ‘30s.

The state is completing the buyout of that contract, signed in 1997,

with Michael Freed. The developer has said he spent $2 million on the

now-failed, $375-a-night resort.

On March 22, the California Coastal Conservancy is scheduled to

consider freeing up state park bond money to fund the buyout. Stearns

said the state must wait until then to ink the deal with Freed -- who has

been asked to submit an itemized list of costs.

While the planned hotel is essentially dead, the state is maintaining

an April 1 eviction deadline for residents living in 39 of the cottages

so work may begin on aging septic tanks that have been cited as one of

several sources of pollution in the cove.

In a Nov. 16 cease-and-desist order, the Santa Ana Regional Water

Quality Control Board ordered state parks officials to fix the situation

in two years. The board gave the state six months to present a cleanup

plan.

With that plan due in early May, the state has mailed eviction notices

to the cove’s residents. State officials said they must remove the

residents -- who pay between $800 and $1,400 a month in rent -- so

engineers may inspect the cottages and decide what work needs to be done.

The residents have filed a lawsuit to stay in their homes. But those

evictions will go ahead as planned, Stearns said.

However, the infrastructure work, which has reached $10 million by one

estimate, probably won’t be the final, major overhaul needed, Stearns

said. It will only be designed to stop leaking from the septic tanks.

“We’re not ready to design the full infrastructure,” Stearns said.

“We’re only ready to do the stopgap measure.”