El Morro Beach Mobilehome Park

Rolly Pulaski plans to take in one long, last view of the Pacific on Tuesday as he and his neighbors prepare to leave El Morro Village beachfront mobile home park. "Come by on the 28th; we'll be saying goodbye to the last sunset," said Pulaski, who fondly recalled many a late afternoon sitting on his hilltop terrace with his wife, Madine, who died last year. "From our favorite alcove we saw whales, hawks flying by, even a bobcat once."

A standoff between state park rangers and a rowdy crowd at El Morro Village trailer park ended peacefully early Sunday, authorities said Monday. Police from Laguna Beach and Newport Beach were called in after 11:30 p.m. Saturday to help disperse an estimated 300 to 1,000 people. The group was "blowing off steam" over the mobile-home site being converted to a state park, said a parks official.

The deadline for more than 100 remaining residents to move out of El Morro Village mobile home park north of Laguna Beach has been extended a day, authorities said Tuesday. The action by state park officials, who plan to convert the property into a campground and RV camping facility, marks yet another delay--albeit a brief one--in one of the state's longest disputes involving public beach property. Most of the residents have already gone.

By day's end Wednesday, there was little left at the El Morro Village mobile home park besides vacant trailers and makeshift memorials of sprawled lawn chairs and sun umbrellas. But on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, about 50 of the last tenants stood together. They cheered, wiped away tears and raised their glasses to the setting sun.

Residents of El Morro Village seaside mobile home park, evicted by the state this month after a 26-year battle, may have to pay for damage found after they departed. Picture windows were broken on some of the expensive homes left behind at the park north of Laguna Beach at Crystal Cove State Park. Holes were punched through interior and exterior walls. Fireplaces were removed. Sinks and cabinets were ripped from their locations. Trash is strewn about. On Wednesday, park Supt.

A group of residents that winters at the El Morro Village mobile home park emerged Monday as the latest obstacle to the state's plan to turn the south Orange County park into a campground. They stand about ankle high, go by the formal name of charadrius alexandrinus nivosus and are being defended by a conservative commentator and lawyer who has never been confused with an environment crusader.

A federal judge on Friday reaffirmed his tentative ruling and denied a request from El Morro Village tenants to stop the state from evicting them from their beachfront mobile homes. U.S. District Judge David O.Carter determined that the removal or demolition of the trailers would not violate the U.S. Endangered Species Act, which tenants had alleged in a lawsuit. The suit was one of the last-minute efforts to remain at Crystal Cove State Park.

On the surface, this latest dispute between authorities at Crystal Cove State Park and tenants fighting to stay at El Morro Village mobile home park wouldn't seem to reach beyond the quaint beachfront enclave. An Orange County assemblyman has accused three park employees living in renovated Crystal Cove cottages of improperly using state-owned facilities and has proposed legislation to kick them out.

An Orange County assemblyman has dropped legislation aimed at helping residents of a coastal trailer park stave off eviction in the face of state plans to make the site a public campground. Republican Chuck DeVore of Irvine had introduced two bills to extend tenant leases at El Morro Village Mobile Home Park, a quaint beachfront enclave in Crystal Cove State Park, for 10 to 30 years.

Residents of a beachfront mobile home park north of Laguna Beach have ended their 25-year dispute with the state and agreed to leave by March 1, according to a settlement announced Friday. This ends one of Southern California's longest battles over public beaches. It pitted the state, which has long planned to turn the public land into a campground and RV park, against residents of El Morro Village, a quaint enclave in Crystal Cove State Park.