New El Morro plans posed

Mary A. Castillo

Two competing plans that affect the future of El Morro Village and

its mobile home residents emerged this week.

One by the state calls for modest changes to its vision for the

park, and one backed by high-profile Laguna Beach leaders would hike

the rents at the village and extend leases to homeowners in exchange

for millions of dollars of improvements to Crystal Cove State Park

and the creation of affordable housing.

The California Department of Parks and Recreation cited public

input as the reason for making its changes to the conversion project.

The state is subtly changing components of the current proposal to

address concerns about beach access and the proximity of a campground

to El Morro Elementary School.

The other plan, pitched by the El Morro Village Community Assn.,

is a massive departure from the stated goal of state parks officials

to remove the group of residents and their mobile homes from the

Coast Highway beach enclave that straddles the border of Laguna Beach

and Newport Coast. State officials said their changes are the result

of responses received from the public after the state filed the final

environmental impact report in August 2002. The El Morro conversion

project is part of the larger Crystal Cove State Park plan.

“Those comments have given us valuable suggestions for how to

improve the plan, and we felt it was time to present an update to let

people know we are listening and making improvements,” Orange Coast

District Supt. Mike Tope said in statement released Wednesday.

The state’s changes to the existing plan at El Morro are: Shift

the campsites farther from El Morro Elementary School; increase the

height of the concrete boundary to improve the separation between

park and school activities; remove the pedestrian crossing and

intersection signal lights at Pacific Coast Highway near El Moro

Creek; improve beach access through the El Moro Creek tunnel under

Pacific Coast Highway by improving ramps and walking surfaces to and

from El Morro beach; and develop an El Morro Campground Operations

Plan that will include guidelines for restricting campfires during

normal school hours.

In response to the state’s announcement, members of the El Morro

Village Community Assn. took the opportunity to release a plan of its

own. The plan is based on talks with state and local leaders

including Fred Droz, Kathleen Blackburn, Greg Vail and Kathy Brown.

“The 1982 [state] plan is outdated. The changes outlined yesterday

fail to address many outstanding questions,” Jeanette Miller, chair

of the El Morro Village Community Assn., said in a written statement.

“For example, are there still plans for a sea wall at El Morro Beach?

Is there a plan to restore the [Crystal Cove] cottages before they

completely fall apart?”

The association’s proposal would eliminate the RV camp next to El

Morro Elementary School and replace it with a vacation hostel, retain

222 mobile homes and build 50 low-cost apartments for Laguna Beach

emergency response personnel, teachers, municipal employees,

teachers, artists and seniors. This plan, like the state’s, also

calls for the removal of the beach-side homes.

“Affordable housing is important, especially for a lot of our

younger members just starting out, some of whom have a hard time

living in Orange County, much less in Laguna Beach,” said Jeff Wood,

head of the Laguna Beach firefighter’s union.

The plan hinges on the state’s acceptance of a 30-year lease

extension for inland El Morro residents to pay higher rents to

provide $10 million to be used for Crystal Cove State Park

improvements, including refurbishing the historic cottages on the

beach. The plan will also provide $1 million each year to be divided

equally between the California State Parks Foundation and the Laguna

Greenbelt Inc., said Denny Freidenrich, spokesman for the

association.

In a written statement, the state maintained that the budget

crisis has no bearing on the conversion because funding was allocated

under Proposition 12, the State Parks Bond Act. The state is spending

$2.1 million on preliminary planning, and a large part of that is

earmarked for the annexation to the local sewer district and sewer

connection costs. If the project is halted, though, state parks

spokesman Roy Stearns said, the state will lose large portions of the

funds.

The association’s plan was met with outrage from the California

State Parks Foundation.

“We are completely opposed to what they are doing,” President

Susan Smartt said. “They are trying to steal a public park.”

The California State Parks Foundation is an independent, nonprofit

membership organization that provides financial aid to improvement

projects at California’s 273 state parks.

“Every time we turn around, the people in the trailer park have

another proposal,” Smartt said.

Freidenrich maintained that the foundation and Laguna Greenbelt

Inc. were not consulted in the development of the plan.

The association distributed the proposal to City Council members

on Thursday afternoon.

“Our hope is that we will go before the City Council in the next

30 to 60 days,” Freidenrich said.

The association also plans to take its proposal to the California

Coastal Commission and the state.