State agency approves Crystal Cove buyout

Paul Clinton

LAGUNA BEACH -- The long battle pitting a San Francisco developer

against area environmentalists over the future of Crystal Cove finally

ended Thursday.

The California Coastal Conservancy, a state funding group for projects

that affect public access to beaches, authorized $2 million to the

California State Parks to buy out the developer, ending plans for a

luxury resort at Crystal Cove State Park.

It was a day environmentalists had yearned for since 1997, when state parks officials announced a 60-year contract with Michael Freed to build

the resort in the historic community.

“This looks like the final chapter in the ongoing resort saga,” said

Laura Davick, who founded the Alliance to Rescue Crystal Cove to halt the

project. “I’m looking forward to closing that book.”

In granting the unanimous approval, commissioners urged the parks

department to avoid another commercial development for the taxpayer-owned

land. Freed said he would rent rooms in the resort for $375 per night,

which environmentalists have said would all but lock out the average

beachgoer.

“We’re here to increase coastal access and preserve the coast for the

next generation,” Conservancy Chairman Gary Hernandez said.

State officials received a wake-up call Jan. 18, when about 600 locals

voiced their opposition to Freed’s project at a state informational

meeting.

The public spoke and state parks officials listened, Chief Deputy

Director Mary Wright said.

“This is democracy at work,” Wright said. “We’ve bought a fresh start

for the public.”

After direction from Gov. Gray Davis in a Feb. 16 public statement,

state parks officials began discussing the buyout with Freed.

Wright said she would sign the deal with Freed and instruct the state

controller to cut him a check for $2 million Tuesday. Freed had submitted

slightly more than $2 million in expenses from his failed odyssey to

build the resort.

Parks officials said Freed submitted expenses for design and other

preliminary costs incurred while preparing to build the resort.

With the buyout nearly complete, state parks officials can turn their

attention to other plans for Crystal Cove’s historic district. The state

bought the district’s 46 beachfront cottages and 3.25-mile coastline in

1979 for $32.6 million.

The cottages, built in the 1920s and ‘30s, were placed on the National

Register of Historic Places that same year.

Also on Thursday, state parks officials announced they would hold the

first public workshop for Crystal Cove on April 26, though a location has

not yet been decided. They’ll start at square one -- a 1982 plan for the

cottages that calls for restoration of the cottages, a hostel and

interpretive center in the district.

In addition to calling for the buyout, Gov. Davis also asked members

of his staff to find funding for state parks’ sewer infrastructure

project. The department must replace aging septic tanks under the

cottages, which are suspected of leaking into the cove.

The Thursday decision will take the state out of a bad deal, as well

as restore some public faith in government, conservancy member Paul

Morabito said.

“It permanently stops commercial development,” Morabito said. “It’s

called creative government.”