Residents of Crystal Cove Win Eviction Reprieve for Another 2 1/2 Years : Parkland: Tenants in 45 rustic, beachfront cottages owned by the state gain time as state budget is signed.

Residents of 45 rustic, beachfront cottages in Crystal Cove State Park, all of whom held eviction notices with a Wednesday deadline, got a last-minute reprieve with Gov. Pete Wilson’s signature on the state budget.

The new budget includes $500,000 for renovation of the cottages and allows residents to stay in them for another 2 1/2 years, said Carla Agar, a state parks department spokeswoman. After that, the state will take over the cottages.

A parks department representative will meet with the residents within 15 to 20 days to outline a new agreement, Agar said.

Residents of the cove south of Corona del Mar were reluctant to celebrate yet, however.

“Every day in Crystal Cove is a celebration of life,” said Stella Hiatt, whose family has had a cottage in the cove since 1937. “But we’ll feel a lot easier when we see something in writing.”

The residents will get their agreement in writing once they sign off on five provisions, including a promise to allow parks officials access to the cottages to complete their survey work and the removal of the gates blocking access to the cove roads, Agar said.

Residents will be allowed to stay on a month-to-month basis for six months until they sign the agreement, Agar said. Then a two-year extension will be granted, she added.

“After that, the cottages will be turned over for public use,” Agar said. The state will seek “other sources of revenue as well” to finish renovating the cottages to ultimately rent them to the public, Agar said.

The 12-acre cove and El Morro Trailer Park, just south near the city limits of Laguna Beach, were part of the Irvine Ranch. But in 1979, as part of the most expensive park purchase in California history, the state paid $32.6 million for 1,896 acres of coastal Irvine Ranch property, including the cove and trailer park, which became Crystal Cove State Park.

Although some of the families had lived in the cove for decades, eviction proceedings were begun at that time, only to be postponed when the residents won a 10-year lease in 1982.

Last January, after a meeting with state parks representatives, the residents were given six-month eviction notices which expired Wednesday. Then the state budget granted them another reprieve.

“We’ve always hoped we’d get another extension,” said cove resident Nancy Killen. “I’m happy for this, not as happy as I would be if it were forever. We do a lot of traveling but we have never found any place like this.”

Jim Thobe, a Crystal Cove resident for 22 years, said earlier this week that he and his neighbors have been “holding our breath.”

“I’m so anxious to hear something good, I’d grab at any straw,” Thobe said.