Crystal Cove Residents Ratify Lease Agreement With State

Residents of Crystal Cove State Park have agreed to a state Department of Parks and Recreation plan to allow them to continue to live in the park’s cottages for up to two more years, officials announced Wednesday.

Residents will be allowed to continue leasing their homes until renovations begin on individual cottages. The two-year extension began May 1, when a tentative agreement was reached.

Renovation of the cottages and construction of new ones is expected to begin in 1997, said Ken Colombini, spokesman for the parks department.

“We’re satisfied with the agreement,” Colombini said. “We are finally able to move forward and develop it for public use. It’s been a long time coming.”

The battle began 17 years ago when the state tried to evict more than 100 residents from the 45 cottages at the state-owned beach colony. The weather-beaten, ramshackle style of the cottages earned them a place in the National Register of Historic Places as the last intact example of “vernacular beach architecture.”

The quaint atmosphere of Crystal Cove will remain, but it will be more accessible to the public, with cottages serving as overnight accommodations, Colombini said.

Current residents will pay a lump sum in back rent from the time the latest stalemate began in early January. Some of the cottages have been vacated by renters who could not pay the back rent. The vacated cottages will be rented to those who can pay what is owed, Colombini said.

The cottages bring in about $500,000 in annual rent to the state.