Crystal Cove Residents Win Reprieve--Again

Ignoring an eviction notice has paid off once again for dwellers at Crystal Cove State Park, where state officials are granting a maximum two-year extension for residents who refused to budge from one of the most scenic spots in Orange County.

If this all sounds familiar, that’s because it is. Since 1979, the state has been trying to oust the more than 100 residents who lease cottages at the state-owned beach colony.

Each battle goes something like this: State sets an eviction date. Deadline comes and goes. No one leaves. State extends the deadline and vows it will be the last reprieve.

“Our intent is not to extend it again,” Ken Mitchell, a supervising architect overseeing the cove area for the State Department of Parks and Recreation, said Monday. “We’re looking at a month-to-month lease for a max of two years.”

Evictions have been ordered four times over the years, as the state pursues plans to turn the 12.3-acre cove and its 45 cozy cottages into a tourist resort on the rugged coastline between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach.

Most recently, residents were ordered out by Dec. 31, 1995, but both sides now say they’ve reached a “win-win” agreement that lets residents stay and nets the state as much as $500,000 in rent each year.

The pending agreement will allow residents to continue leasing their homes until renovation begins on individual cottages.

A two-year extension was set because the project may take several years to complete. Some residents may stay longer than others, depending on how soon work begins on their cottage, officials said.

Cove residents said Monday they never believed the state’s threats to evict them.

“We’ve been hoping and hoping,” said Jeanette Dillinger, who divides her stays at the cottage with two other couples, including her sister. “We thought something like this would happen, so we’ve all just been hanging in there.”

It’s easy to understand why residents refuse to leave the cove, an offbeat enclave that has attracted people since the 1920s, when it was still part of the sprawling Irvine Ranch that made up much of Orange County.

Most of the cottages were built by the people who later lived in them, and in some cases have remained in family hands for five generations. Weather-beaten and ramshackle, the funky, thrown-together style earned the cottages historical status from the National Register of Historic Places as the last intact example of “vernacular beach architecture.”

Nestled against the hillside, the cottages offer stunning views and overlook a pristine stretch of beach that residents pretty much have to themselves. Dolphins frequently frolic in the surf, and Santa Catalina Island is visible on exceptionally clear days.

Residents pride themselves on creating a close-knit community that shuns the hustle and bustle of the outside world. One of the cove’s most well-known symbols is a sign outside an artist’s studio that reads: “Please set your clocks back to 1930.”

“It’s a very special place,” said Dillinger, who has been visiting the cove since the early 1950s.

For many, the best part is the price. While some pay as much as $2,000 a month, others rent for as little as $400, depending on cottage size and condition. In all, the state collects roughly $500,000 a year in rent from cove residents, officials said.

The eviction cycle started in 1979, when the state purchased the cove and nearly 1,900 surrounding acres. In 1982, cove residents brokered a deal allowing them to live there 10 years in exchange for giving up any claim to the cottages.

When that deadline rolled around, residents got a six-month extension. Then came a 2 1/2-year extension that expired New Year’s Eve. At the time, State Resources Secretary Douglas P. Wheeler said the date would stand, adding that residents have had “an extraordinarily long period” to prepare for that moment.

But not a single person moved. Instead, residents sued, arguing the state would be negligent to give up a half million in annual rent when work on the cottages may not begin until 1997. They also alleged the historic cottages would fall into disrepair if left vacant.

Residents haven’t paid rent since the six-month stalemate began. The new leases will demand back payment, and it is believed that two cottages have been abandoned by individuals unwilling to come up with the lump sum, Mitchell said.