There has been strong opposition and backlash to reported efforts by the Trump administration to trade a piece of Yosemite National Park for a private road leading to a resort project by private developer Kingsbarn Realty Capital. The private equity group owns an 83-acre parcel next to the park, Hazel Green Ranch.
Previous owners of the parcel have tried the same, and the courts have shot them down. Now that the administration is seeking deregulation of a long-standing Roadless Rule, road construction could occur on forest lands. At this time, the developer has had to use 11 miles of rough forestry roads to access their property which is surrounded by the Stanislaus National Forest. Abolishing the Roadless Rule opens up the surrounding forest to heavy industrial logging, mining, and road-building right on Yosemite’s doorstep.
“I’ve heard from many of you across the district strongly opposing reported efforts by the Administration to sell off a piece of Yosemite National Park for private development, said Congressman Kevin Kiley. “I want you to know that I agree with you–Yosemite is not for sale.”
Kiley’s is not alone in his fight against the idea of removing part of the park for a Trump supporter’s project. A group of 61 bipartisan California legislators sent a letter to Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Wednesday.
Yosemite was founded in 1864, creating a park for public use and protection for the first time in American history. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Yosemite Grant, protecting Yosemite Valley and the Mariposa Grove as public trust land managed by California, followed in 1890 when Congress established the surrounding land as a national park signed into law by President Benjamin Harrison.
Yosemite will be celebrating its 136th birthday on October 1.
“What is being proposed now runs directly against that founding principle, more than a century and a half later,” the letter states. “Our national parks belong equally to every American. They are not the Department’s to trade away, and they are not for sale.”
“Yosemite is a national treasure that belongs to the public, and I am absolutely opposed to selling off any part of it,” said Kiley. “I addressed my colleagues in the House and called on the Secretary of the Interior to abandon any sales plans. President Lincoln was right when he said this national treasure is “inalienable for all time.”
According to SFGate, Kingsbarn Capital & Development, a division of Kingsbarn Realty Capital, is proposing a 9-acre development in the middle of Kings Beach, named 39 Degrees North, which will include a luxury hotel, townhomes, retail and commercial space, and some workforce housing.
