Manager of Campgrounds Given 2 Months to Improve

The Orange County Harbors, Beaches and Parks Commission has given a private company that manages the campgrounds of Featherly Regional Park two months to make improvements or face losing its lease.

The commission met Wednesday night to consider recommending that the Board of Supervisors cancel its lease with Canyon RV Park. A county report says the company has mismanaged the campgrounds and left them in disrepair.

But another showdown is likely. The president of the Torrance-based company that operates the park said he will not make the requested improvements and intends to use the two months to prove to the county that the lease guidelines are already being complied with and that complaints about mismanagement are unfounded.

“We feel that we’re not being judged properly,” said Vernon St. Clair, president of Canyon RV Park, whose county lease expires in 1998. “We’re very proud of the condition of the park.”

Instead of voting on the lease Wednesday, the commission determined what is to be required of the operator over the next two months and voted to appoint a county staff member to act as a liaison with the company.

Don Bankhead, chairman of the commission, said the panel is especially concerned because after the lease expires, Canyon RV Park then has the right to a 30-year lease.

The commission agreed that the operator should make $1 million in improvements, namely the extension of recreational vehicle hook-ups, said Bob Hamilton, the commission’s executive officer.

But St. Clair said he won’t comply. The lease states that the $1 million in improvements is not required until the 30-year lease in enacted, he said.

“At that time, we will go ahead with the addition of the utility hookups of all the campsites,” he said. “That is according to our agreement.”

A 58-page report critical of Canyon RV Park was commissioned by the county employees association, the union that represents the 15 county workers who were transferred to jobs at other parks when Featherly was privatized.