Lawmaker Has Plans for Beach Project

The state’s restoration of 1920s-era cottages at Crystal Cove State Park has become a “money pit,” according to an Orange County state senator who wants to turn the ambitious repair project over to a nonprofit organization that would rent the bungalows to beachgoers.

Sen. John Campbell (R-Irvine) said he also would ask his colleagues to reject a request by the state Department of Parks and Recreation to spend an additional $2 million on the refurbishment project, which has already cost $12 million.

“Next week, they’ll have spent all the money, taken apart a bunch of cottages, and they haven’t restored a single one,” Campbell said of the four-year effort to upgrade water, electric and sewage systems, and eventually rehabilitate the 46 cottages, most of which were built in the 1920s and 1930s.

“Either they’ve misled us or mismanaged it or both,” Campbell said of the cost overruns. “I think this is headed for disaster.”

Normally, Campbell wouldn’t be able to pursue his latest proposal because the Legislature’s deadline for submitting bills passed in February. Campbell said he would instead insert his proposal for the park into a bill already introduced.

Parks officials said Friday that they would evaluate Campbell’s proposal, which they had not seen, and send a recommendation to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s office.

It would be a mistake to take the restoration project away from the state, said Roy Stearns, deputy parks director, because crews are finally making progress. They were stymied by three times the area’s average rainfall this winter, he said, including a six-week period when work halted.

“It’s quite typical of historic restoration projects to have cost increases of 150% to 200%,” Stearns said. “In 2001, we forecast that it could take up to $25 million to do the entire project. I think we’re proceeding quite well, given how tough it is.”

Parks officials late last month asked for an immediate $1.5 million in additional funding and an additional $567,000 for the coming fiscal year to finish restoring 22 of the 46 cottages. They hope to have them open for rentals around Labor Day.

Campbell said the project has lingered for three years and the state doesn’t have $13 million to complete it.

The cottages -- their roofs, floors and windows removed -- are draped in plastic.

Stearns said some of what Campbell proposed is already being done.

The nonprofit Crystal Cove Alliance has raised about $600,000 to complete the final 24 cottages, he said, and it intends to be among bidders to manage the finished cottages.