Editor,
The media has been swarming with stories about a purported land swap enabling the development of an 83-acre up-scale residential complex on Hazelgreen Ranch, providing quick access into Yosemite Valley.
This has come up before at Hazelgreen: previously to build a hotel complex. This time appears to be similar but with the new twist: potentially of being a vacation rental village.
A planned community where wealthy people from elsewhere purchase a getaway on the edge of Yosemite to enjoy two weeks a year and rent out the remainder. It doesn’t appear to be affordable housing for park staff or workers in Groveland.
The federal statutes that govern such transactions on park land provide some measure of confidence regarding the due diligence owed the people of Mariposa and beyond.
Title 54 of the United States Code requires the Secretary of the Interior to, “…consult with affected agencies of state and local governments, surrounding communities, affected landowners, and private national, regional, and local organizations”.
This consultation is usually done through field hearings.
Through these means, the people in the gateway communities can resolve their questions. Questions like the ones swirling around right now:
• Will people in Mariposa be able to afford these residential properties as homeowners or are they designed for distant owners from places like the Bay Area and LA?
• Is this really a residential development or a pretext for hotel development as before?
• Will visitors still frequent existing hotels and businesses in Mariposa if Hazelgreen visitors never have to wait in an entrance station line?
• Would a shift of business to the north create unfair market advantage?
• Will the new hotel in Fish Camp be allowed to punch an access road down Big Creek and come out in Wawona so its guests can avoid the line at South Entrance? What’s to stop it?
We’re called a gateway community for a reason: 80 percent of our economic well-being comes from our special relationship with Yosemite and its protected status, unimpaired, forever.
Regardless of the details, decision-makers’ in this transaction must respectfully ensure the public’s concerns are considered, by law.
Steve Shackleton
Bootjack
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