Crystal Cove Dwellers Want to Delay Inevitable : Eviction: The parks system has plans for the land and residents must move by June 30, but there’s a chance for a temporary reprieve.

The sad end may be near for inhabitants of this tiny oceanfront colony, the place that time had almost forgotten--until now.

Residents of 45 funky beachfront bungalows that have sat tranquilly since the 1920s face a June 30 deadline to pack up and leave the coastal canyon of narrow sandy roads between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach.

The cove’s owner--the state parks system--plans to evict them and convert the long-bypassed enclave into a bustling attraction with a museum, concession stands, a visitors’ center and other facilities to make the cove more open to the public.

But still lingering for the moment, the same way they’ve looked for years, are the rustic beachfront cottages with no cable television, sewers or street lights. Here, saltwater spray drifts through rickety shingles and seeps into living rooms.

The residents wouldn’t have it any other way.

“It’s not Malibu, it’s not Newport Beach or Emerald Bay,” said Jim Thobe, 66, a retired insurance executive who bought his pine-paneled, 800-square-foot cottage 22 years ago. “It’s a dinosaur. It’s California 70 years ago.”

Thobe and his neighbors are clinging to hopes that the state will let them stay awhile longer, although they know they must ultimately leave. Residents pay $500,000 to $600,000 annually to the park system to live in the cottages on state-owned land.

“My feeling is the sensible and best thing for everybody is for the state not to enter into a zillion-dollar ‘improvement,’ and I put that term in quotes, of a place that is generating revenue now,” said Cinda Combs, a Mission Viejo librarian whose grandmother purchased a cove cottage just after World War II. “They can do better by tending to other things at the moment.”

There’s still one chance that residents could beat the eviction deadline, if only temporarily.

A $500,000 sum in the proposed state budget would fund a restoration plan for the aged dwellings, which the state wants to renovate into vacation rentals after the current occupants leave.

If the now deadlocked Legislature passes the budget with the funding intact--and if Gov. Pete Wilson then approves the item--residents would be allowed to stay on while the plan is drafted. It’s possible the budget impasse might be broken tonight.

Thus, ironically, residents could remain in their cottages while the state makes plans for after they’re gone.

But if the study isn’t funded, residents must abide by the June 30 eviction deadline--unless it is extended--even if the bungalows are left empty until the state can afford the renovation project.

“If we get the appropriation, then the tenants could get a 2 1/2-year extended lease,” said Carla Agar, a parks department spokesperson. “But certain conditions have to be met. A tenant would have to allow us to complete our survey work to determine the actual cost of renovating the cottages at our convenience.”

Among the other conditions, residents must remove the rusty locked gates at the driveways to the cove, continue to maintain the cottages at their own expense and pay any back rent, Agar said.

“The whole mission of the department, its cornerstone, is public access. We want to allow everybody the kind of access the Crystal Cove tenants currently enjoy,” Agar said. “It is, after all, state-owned property.”

Until 1979, the 12-acre cove and neighboring El Moro Beach Mobile Home Park was part of the vast Irvine Ranch. But that year, as part of the most expensive park purchase in California history, the state paid $32.6 million for 1,896 acres of the coastal Irvine Co. property, including the cove and the trailer park, which became Crystal Cove State Park.

Although families had lived in the cove for decades, the eviction process was launched when the state bought the land, only to be postponed in 1982 when the residents won a new lease. Those who originally owned their cottages quick claimed them to the state, and so will not be compensated for their units.

On June 30, the lease runs out. And Assemblyman Gil Ferguson (R-Newport Beach), whose district includes the cove and park, believes the tenants should go.

“God knows, I wouldn’t want to leave either,” said Ferguson, a former Irvine Co. employee. “That’s the most expensive park ever purchased by the government. To allow a few people to benefit from it is just unfair.”

But Thobe and the other residents say they do share the cove with the public. The beach is already open and the gates are only there to ensure emergency access, he said.

“We don’t want to fight with the state,” Thobe said. “We’re willing to share. Heck, I’ve offered my telephone and toilet to lots of people over the years.”

Offering expensive beachfront rentals that only the rich can afford is no way to improve public access, said Walter Shatford, 43, an attorney whose family has owned a cove cottage for 25 years.

“That sounds much more elitist than what we have now,” Shatford said. “We have company presidents living next door to gardeners here. Nobody really cares.”

Ultimately, when the cove residents have to leave, the state is obligated to find everyone replacement homes, a thought that makes Thobe smile.

“That really can’t be done,” he said. “There’s only one paradise.”

Times staff writer Eric Bailey contributed to his report.