Suit Filed to Allow Return of Crystal Cove Residents

An Orange County man has filed a lawsuit seeking to allow the former tenants of Crystal Cove to move back into the isolated piece of paradise tucked between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach.

The twist is that while the tenants of the 46 cottages fought the state for two decades to stay at Crystal Cove, none of the people behind the suit has ever lived there.

The suit was filed July 3 in Orange County Superior Court by Bruce Hostetter and the Crystal Cove Community Trust, a group Hostetter formed with three others. Hostetter, who lives in Fullerton, contends the state violated the California Environmental Quality Act when it forced the tenants to move July 8. He said his primary concern is to save the ramshackle cottages from deterioration that residents would not allow to occur.

The tiny beach colony is on property owned by the state Department of Parks and Recreation. For years, the state has sought to take over the cottages and put the land to some public use.

Tim LaFranchi, chief counsel for the parks department--which is mulling what to do with the site since plans to build a resort were abandoned--said the suit is without merit.

Hostetter’s lawsuit puts him at odds with not only the state, which bought the property from the Irvine Co. for $32.5 million in 1979, but with environmentalists and public interest groups that hold out hope of opening some cabins to the public and turning others into educational facilities or artists’ studios.

“I am very familiar with the work state parks is doing down there, and they’re doing a wonderful job,” said Joan Irvine Smith, a member of the Irvine family and one of the leaders in the fight against the proposed resort.

Smith’s group, the Crystal Cove Conservancy, has scheduled an Oct. 20 fund-raiser at the beach colony. It will include an underwater TV feed from divers just offshore.

On Friday, Crystal Cove felt like the ghost town it has become. A couple of fishermen had planted their poles in the sand and three women sat under an umbrella.

Brush around the cottages had been trimmed to make it easier for contractors to spot water and gas valves and to get a better look at the buildings. Contractors were stripping lead paint from four cabins that will be used as offices and living quarters for state rangers and workers, and coating windows with protective plastic.

Squatters built the first flimsy cottages in the early part of the 20th century. Because the Irvine Co. wasn’t using the land, instead of throwing them out, James Irvine II charged his new tenants rent. The state continued to do the same after it bought the property.

The legal wrangling appeared to come to an end when the tenants agreed to move this summer, but not before Hostetter’s group lost its bid for an injunction to halt the evictions. The next day, the parks department moved in with cleaning crews.

Hostetter, an architectural lighting designer, said he has been enchanted with Crystal Cove since the mid-1990s, when he began collecting newspaper articles about the beach. He has compiled an oral history of the colony. He said he has no relationship with the cove or with any of the people living there--only a passion for the area.

“It just grabbed me at a deep spiritual level,” he said.

Hostetter said no former tenants joined the suit because the terms of their evictions would have subjected them to a $25,000 fine as well as required them to pay the state’s legal costs if they lost.

He said the tenants should be allowed to stay in the cottages until the state is ready to move with a plan.

The state is spending $1 million to figure out what work should be done on Crystal Cove’s infrastructure and cabins, said Roy Stearns, a parks department spokesman.

The money came from the department’s deferred maintenance fund. The agency had asked Gov. Gray Davis for $300 million for the fund to be used on 1,200 projects statewide. In June 1999, Davis gave the department $157 million to spend over three years.

Stearns said residents needed to leave Crystal Cove so the state could determine the condition of the cottages. “We found they were in a worse state than we thought,” he said. “There’s a tremendous amount of wood rot, glass breakage and things like that. They’ve been there since the 1920s. That’s a lot of wear and tear.”

The state has been holding hearings to determine what the public wants to do with Crystal Cove. About 300 people attended the first one in April.

The question remains, though, how the state will finance any project for the area, especially if the economy continues to slow. “Rusty Areias [the state parks director] said this is a priority,” Stearns said. “We’ll get the money. People said they want it done. We’ll get it done.”