Cousteau Society Drops Plans for Catalina Resort

The Santa Catalina Island Co.’s plans to replace the historic Boy Scout camp at Emerald Bay with an aquatic educational center and resort developed by the Cousteau Society have fallen through.

Cousteau officials in New York announced over the weekend that they were “unable to proceed with the proposed facility on Catalina Island,” according to island company officials. No further explanation was given.

The withdrawal is seen by opponents of the plan as a reaction to the furor touched off by the island company last summer when it announced that the Scouts’ lease on Camp Emerald Bay would not be renewed at year’s end, said Steve Martin, spokesman for the Save Emerald Bay Committee.

The committee had launched a letter campaign to pressure the island company into changing its plans. Uniformed Boy Scouts picketed the Cousteau Society’s Los Angeles office recently, Scout officials said.

The Cousteau pullout caught company officials by surprise. A spokesman expressed disappointment at the decision but said the company will come up with a new plan for Emerald Bay.

Cousteau’s change of plans also raised hopes that the Scouts can save their camp, Martin said.

But the possibility of the company offering a new lease seems remote. Company officials have said they are committed to change from the high-impact summertime uses such as the Scout camp to more environmentally sensitive developments in coves such as Emerald Bay.

The company has offered the Scouts alternative sites, but Martin said it will cost millions to develop a new location and the proposed sites are not suited to aquatic programs such as those offered at Emerald Bay.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors may help the Scouts. According to Martin, Supervisor Mike Antonovich is to introduce a resolution today urging the island company “to negotiate a new lease” with the council.

The rustic camp has been operated by the West Los Angeles Council of Boy Scouts of America since 1925. One of only two or three such ocean-based summer camps in the nation, its programs introduced thousands of Southern California boys to water sports and the ocean environment.

The island company--owned by the Wrigley family--has title to most of the developable land in the coves and bays on the rugged, 76-square-mile island 22 miles off San Pedro. The Cousteau development was to have been the first step in an effort to build more ecologically sensitive, year-round recreational and educational facilities, company officials said.