View Property -- for All

Public land is for the public benefit, a simple enough idea. The tenants in a mobile home enclave on state park land along the Orange County coastline have been exempt from that concept for so long that they no longer seem to understand it.

Neither does their state assemblyman, Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine). He accepted $66,000 in campaign donations and loans from residents and others associated with the El Morro Village mobile home park, and then introduced a bill to allow residents to stay for up to three decades more instead of letting the state create a campground for public use.

After buying this piece of land just north of Laguna Beach and adjacent property in the 1970s to create Crystal Cove State Park, the state temporarily allowed the mobile home tenants to lease back a piece of the land, at less than half the market rate. The property is fenced and, in peak season, has an entry guard. Several of the mobile homes are right along the surf.

After Proposition 12, a $2.1-billion parks bond approved in 2000, provided enough funding, the state Parks Department decided to restore the mobile home area to a more natural condition and install 60 campsites. But instead of spending their last grace period looking for a new place to live, the residents dug in.

They appealed to local voters, warning that the campsites would attract undesirables. They sued on the grounds that the plan would endanger a rare bird.

Now, DeVore’s bill would let the tenants stay for up to 30 years longer, with higher space rents. The money could go toward maintenance of state parks, DeVore says, and in the meantime the state wouldn’t be spending $13 million for a new campground. But that $13 million comes from a state bond that Californians passed to create and develop more park facilities, not from the general fund. The couple of million a year that the rents provide wouldn’t put a dent in the state’s budget problems.

El Morro residents might be excused for mistaking public resources for a private playground. It’s gotten fashionable of late, with a luxury resort in Laguna Beach recently trying -- unsuccessfully -- to turn part of a public wilderness park into a private golf course, and beachfront property owners in Malibu chasing off beachgoers who have a perfect right to be there.

State legislators shouldn’t make the same mistake. Camping spaces are a rarity along the southern coast, and the Crystal Cove campsites, in a unique yet accessible location, would be terrifically popular.

Californians have approved parks bonds so all -- not just a privileged few -- could enjoy such sites.