Door shutting on El Morro Village residents

Andrew Edwards

El Morro Village may not yet be a ghost town, but residents of the

seaside mobile home park are stuck in a kind of limbo, not knowing

how long they will be able to live in their current homes.

“People are very anxious; there are a lot of people at El Morro

Village who have no place to go,” El Morro Community Assn. President

Jeanette Miller said.

El Morro Village, bisected by Pacific Coast Highway, occupies a

scenic pocket of Crystal Cove Park between Newport Beach and Laguna

Beach. California Department of Parks and Recreation officials want

to demolish the mobile homes at El Morro to make way for a public

campground.

Residents have fought a series of losing court battles with the

parks department, which since Monday has had the right to evict El

Morro tenants, Crystal Cove Supt. Ken Kramer said.

With the exception of a handful of tenants who signed extensions,

no one has vacated the mobile home park. Parks department staffers

have started filing motions in Orange County Superior Court, which

would clear the way for residents’ evictions.

Residents plan to fight one more time at eviction hearings.

“We have the right to appeal to the court, so that’s what we’re

going to do,” Miller said.

The most recent legal decision, which made it possible for the

parks department to begin the eviction process, came Friday. Federal

District Judge David O. Carter ruled against residents’ claim that

demolition of mobile homes would violate the Endangered Species Act,

said Mike Tope, superintendent of the Parks Department’s Orange Coast

District.

Tenants paid between $400 and $1,100 per month to maintain mobile

homes at El Morro, Kramer said. Residents made an offer to stay at

the land, but parks officials were not interested.

The offer amounted to a 30-year-lease that would bring $30 million

to $40 million to the parks department, Tope said. Miller said the

dollar figure was higher, at about $50 million.

Though Miller said she has not received a formal rejection, Tope

said the parks department has no intention other than converting the

mobile home park into a public facility.

“It’s never been money -- it’s access,” Tope said.

The state makes about $1 million per year from residents, Tope

said. Officials expect revenues from park fees will garner the same

amount. Residents’ leases expired Dec. 31.

The state purchased El Morro Village in 1979, when it bought the

land that became Crystal Cove Park.

Tenants were given 20-year leases from the state, and five-year

extensions were offered in 1999.

Parks officials plan to build a 60-unit campground by the summer

of 2006, but the timeline of any construction will be determined by

how long it takes for all legal matters to be resolved.

“It’s all going to depend on how long this issue gets tied up,”

Kramer said.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards@

latimes.com.