Funds untapped for crystal cove low-cost lodging

More than $2 million is sitting unused in the state Treasury, earmarked for a hostel and other low-cost lodging in rustic cottages at Crystal Cove State Park, the spot where a luxury resort

is now planned. The cheap lodgings were not built, and cottages once intended to house bicyclists, hikers, families and other thrifty travelers are scheduled to become part of a $23-million

private project with rooms ranging from $100 to $400 a night. A contract between the state Department of Parks and Recreation and a developer could be signed by the end of August for a

resort within the park, between Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach. Current plans call for a restaurant and as many as three swimming pools. But a plan for low-cost overnight lodgings in the

cottages is laid out in a 1991 signed agreement between the state Coastal Commission and the parks department. The agreement expired last year. A 1993 draft of an amended agreement, calling

for low-cost lodging within the park but not necessarily in the cottages, was never signed, according to Coastal Commission records. Meanwhile, the money allotted for the low-cost lodging

has grown from $1.4 million at the time of the original agreement to $2.2 million. State officials said the hostel plan is not dead, but they do not know when and where the project would be

built at bluff-lined Crystal Cove, one of the most scenic coastal parks in Southern California. “We fully intend to do it, and to do it in the park,” parks spokesman Ken Colombini said. The

state solicited proposals for a Crystal Cove resort in 1995 and accepted one in April 1996, two months before the 1991 agreement expired. Laura Reimche, staff counsel for the parks

department, said her agency did nothing wrong by pursuing the resort project. The parties to that agreement--parks department and the Coastal Commission--had already agreed that the cottages

were unsuited for a hostel, she said. The expense of restoring the historic cottages made them an unlikely hostel site, Colombini said, and conversations with prospective hostel operators

were not encouraging. Peter Douglas, Coastal Commission executive director, said he was surprised to learn that the 1991 agreement had expired. “I’m going to see to it that we update it and

extend it,” Douglas said. However, Douglas agreed that the cottages are an unlikely site for the low-cost lodging because of the high cost of renovating them. Douglas defended parks

officials for agreeing to a resort at Crystal Cove, saying the state didn’t have the money to restore the cottages. ” . . . So turning to the private sector is the last resort we have,” he

said. “The department, they’re obviously between a rock and a hard spot.” Since The Times reported details of the resort plan last week, environmentalists and some park advocates have argued

that public park land is no place for a pricey private resort, even if it would pay the state $1 million a year, as projected. “It’s another example of bureaucrats and politicians giving

away and otherwise divesting the public of our resources,” said Mark Massara, director of coastal programs for the Sierra Club. He envisions bicyclists wending their way down the coast and

staying at Crystal Cove. “I can’t think of a higher or best use for those bungalows than a hostel,” Massara said. “But the reality is, none of us will be staying there if these bungalows are

$300 a night.” Parks officials have confirmed they are in final negotiations for a resort with 60 to 90 units centered in the Crystal Cove Historic District, more than 40 cottages listed on

the National Register of Historic Places. The cottage colony is “the last survivor of its type and period along the Southern California coast,” according to National Register records in

Washington. Under a 55-year contract that would be the longest in the parks system, the resort would be developed by Crystal Cove Preservation Partners, made up of Santa Barbara-based

Investec and Resort Design Group of San Francisco. Resort Design Group helped develop the expensive Post Ranch Inn in Big Sur, known for its elegantly natural architecture. A different

vision for the cottages is described in the memorandum of understanding signed in May and June 1991 by Douglas and Les McCargo, then chief deputy director of the parks department. “In

entering this agreement, the parties agree that hostel and low-cost overnight visitor facilities shall be established in existing cottages,” states the 5-year pact. It committed $1,440,720

to the project. That money stems from a 1988 Coastal Commission permit that granted a firm permission to develop on the Orange County but required it to set aside money for lower-cost

lodging, commission staff members said. The 1991 agreement called for cheap lodging for at least 132 people in Crystal Cove’s historic district. It specifies a hostel for bikers, hikers and

other travelers as well as other lodging for individuals, families or groups, at rates lower than similar commercial facilities. Now that the cottages are to be used for the resort, the

low-cost housing will have to be moved out of the historic district to another area of the park, officials said. The most likely spot is the site of the El Morro Beach Mobile Home Park,

although the Los Trancos area across Coast Highway from the cottages has also been mentioned, parks employees said. El Morro, split between the beach side and inland side of the highway,

contains 294 mobile homes on state park land. Leases expire Dec. 31, 1999. Bill Peyton, an operator of El Morro, said he has not heard what the state plans for the land. Lower-cost

recreation opportunities are badly needed along the Orange County coast, said Massara of the Sierra Club. “The last thing you’d think of there is more exclusivity. Don’t they have enough of

it in Corona del Mar and Newport Beach?” MORE TO READ