Public meetings urged for Crystal Cove

Paul Clinton

CRYSTAL COVE -- A group of environmentalists agreed Friday to press

the state parks department to conduct public workshops on the future of

the historic beachfront land.

More than 30 activists huddled at heiress Joan Irvine Smith’s San Juan

Capistrano ranch Friday to air their ideas for a letter to the California

Parks and Recreation Department about the future of Crystal Cove State

Park.

“Strength will be in unity with respect to this coalition of

environmental groups,” Smith said after the lunchtime brainstorming

session. “It was a very productive meeting.”

According to several people who attended the meeting, including Smith

herself, the groups also plan to continue pressuring state parks

officials to ensure a controversial luxury resort plan never happens.

State parks officials are negotiating with San Francisco developer

Michael Freed on a $2-million buyout of the concessionaire’s contract,

signed in 1997, that is at the heart of the plan for a $375-a-night

hotel.

The California Coastal Conservancy is set to consider using state

park-bond money for the buyout at its March 22 meeting. Gov. Gray Davis

also has asked his administration to find money for the buyout.

California State Parks spokesman Roy Stearns welcomed the letter from

the environmentalists. Stearns said notices for public workshops are set

to go out in April.

“We don’t want to delay this,” Stearns said. “We’re trying to get a

lot done in a short period.”

The state is also moving ahead with evictions of the cottage dwellers

who live on the state-owned land. The residents remaining in the 46

historic cottages have until April 1 to leave their cabins or face

$25,000 fines.

In addition to hosting the Friday meeting, Smith also has formed a

nonprofit group geared toward educating the public about Crystal Cove --

a historic and ecologically significant stretch of shoreline.

Smith formed the Crystal Cove Conservancy on Wednesday and is working

to secure tax-exempt status.

Any new plan for the historic district, placed on the National

Register of Historic Places in 1979, must secure several state approvals.

The Irvine Co., which sold the land to the state for $32.6 million in

1979, also has a legal right to approve any new developer.

Some environmentalists have fretted publicly that Smith is engineering

a secret deal, but the heiress and others denied the charge.

“The point that needs to be emphasized is that there will be no

subversion of the public process,” said Susan Jordan of the League for

Coastal Protection. “There are no backdoor deals.”