Plans for cove restoration defended

Paul Clinton

CRYSTAL COVE -- A group led by an Irvine Co. heiress is shrugging off

a local assemblyman’s critique that the restoration of the state park’s

46 beachfront cottages is going too slowly.

Assemblyman John Campbell, who represents Newport Beach, last week

challenged the state to “show me the money” after proposing his own plan

for paying for the project. Campbell has said the state should use the

revenue from mobile home rentals at El Morro Beach to help cover the

park’s restoration.

Campbell, the vice chair of the Assembly’s budget committee, has also

said no money would be available for Crystal Cove State Park until 2005

at the earliest.

On Monday, Joan Irvine Smith, who founded a nonprofit group to raise

funds for the cottages, defended the the state’s deliberate approach.

“The project is moving forward,” Irvine Smith said. “I’m not concerned

about Campbell’s concerns. Campbell wants to stampede us into supporting

Campbell’s proposal to leave the renters in El Morro.”

California State Parks Director Rusty Areias has said the restoration

of the Crystal Cove dwellings is a high priority and has promised to find

the funds to pay the $12- to $20-million price tag.

Campbell’s plan to leave renters in El Morro has not found wide

support. But the assemblyman said his plan is a creative way to fund the

project in tough economic times.

Due to a nose-diving economy and the state’s energy woes, Gov. Gray

Davis has ordered each department to cut 15% from its budgets.

“I’ve got a hard proposal on the table to pay for this,” Campbell said

Monday. “Nobody else does.”

One group has endorsed Campbell’s plan -- a local group that is suing

State Parks over the eviction of the cove’s former residents.

Left unattended, members of the Crystal Cove Community Trust argue,

the 1930s-era cottages will deteriorate even further.

Bruce Hostetter, the trust’s executive director, has criticized the

state’s long-term stewardship of the cottages.

“They’ve made some good efforts, but I don’t think they’ve done

enough,” Hostetter said. “They do not have the [financial] means to deal

with long-term decay.”

State Parks spokesman Roy Stearns could not be reached for comment

Monday.

Some more state help may be on the way for the cottages. So far, the

state has begun efforts to restore the cottages, installing Lexan

coatings on the windows and removing toxic lead paint.

State Parks officials have applied to the California Coastal

Commission to begin installing a new sewer system, building an

interpretive center and completing some restoration of the cottages.

The commission is scheduled to hear the request on Nov. 13.

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

[email protected] .