El Morro editorial missed valid points The...

El Morro editorial missed valid points

The Daily Pilot’s Feb. 13 editorial titled “Two doses of

unimpressive from Chuck DeVore” ignores several very important points

about the assemblyman’s plan for El Morro Village.

The most important of these is that the state already has several

beachfront properties slated for conversion to public use but lacks

the money to develop them.

A prime example of this is the Monarch Beach mobile home park near

my home in Dana Point. The residents there were evicted and the

mobile homes removed but the land remains fenced off, unusable by

anybody.

It’s been growing weeds for over 10 years now.

The math in your article also needs correction.

The plan, if adopted, would require El Morro to post the $50

million bond and also continue to pay rent. The average rent on each

space would be closer to $3,000 per month than the $904 you quoted.

That’s more than fair market value, and the state would net nearly

$150 million over the 30-year term. Campsites won’t generate that

kind of income.

In addition to that money, the state would also save the $10

million slated for the development of El Morro. This would yield a

grand total of $160 million earned and saved.

What the state really needs right now is money and lots of it,

especially if the already vacated areas are to be made usable by the

public. Delaying the El Morro project would not solve the $8 billion

deficit by itself, but it would certainly be a step in the right

direction.

One last point I’d like to make is to correct your assessment of

the result at Crystal Cove. I don’t know if you’ve tried to use that

beach lately, but if you did, you’d know that the old cabins are now

used only for park rangers (at much less than fair market value), and

the public has no more access than it did before.

I see no change except that the state no longer makes any money

from it.

Rather than blaming Chuck DeVore for this problem, you should be

blaming Gray Davis and all the other spend-happy politicians who got

us into this fiscal mess in the first place.

DeVore is simply trying to do the right thing. Selling the land to

developers (which might happen anyway) would yield the most money for

the state, but then it would be lost forever.

DeVore’s plan merely postpones the conversion of El Morro until

the state is in a better position financially to actually do

something positive with the land once it is reclaimed.

This makes more sense than letting it grow weeds for the next 20

years.

JAMES MEAD

Dana Point

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Corona del Mar