|
|
|
|
|
| |
|||
Existing system had been criticized
By Carolyn
Lochhead
San Francisco Chronicle - December 8, 1998
Yosemite National Park's fractured planning process will be unified into one
coherent blueprint that addresses housing, transportation and other areas
critical to the park's future, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt announced
yesterday.
In setting a May deadline, Babbitt said the review will give special consideration
to the controversial trade-off between visitor use and park protection.
Until now, Yosemite's planning process was separated into four parts: transportation,
housing, rebuilding Yosemite Lodge and the Yosemite Falls project to convert
a parking lot to a pedestrian walkway.
Babbitt was joined at a Washington news conference by leaders of three environmental
groups: the Wilderness Society, the National Parks and Conservation Association
and the Natural Resources Defense Council, which praised the move.
CRITICS RELENT
"Stepping back and taking a fresh look at land use, housing and transportation
issues in a unified plan is the right decision at the right time,'' said Jay
Watson, regional director for the Wilderness Society.
Environmental groups have complained about a fragmented planning process that
fails to consider the ramifications of housing decisions on transportation
or other needs.
"All that had been separate and had generated a lot of confusion and a lot
of unnecessary controversy,'' Watson said. The new process, Watson also said,
``holds great promise but will require great finesse from the park service
in balancing all the interests that care about the park, and just as important
will require an honest sense of give and take from the public."
SIERRA CLUB LEFT OUT
The Sierra Club was not invited to the press conference, having earlier won
a court injunction to stop the rebuilding of Yosemite Lodge on the grounds
that realigning roads and expanding the lodging would harm the environment.
Joyce Eden, speaking for the Sierra Club's Yosemite Committee, applauded the
new process.
|
"We're encouraged that they're bundling these plans in a comprehensive plan,
and we are going to watch closely what's going on," Eden said. "If the proposal
strays from or undermines the general management plan of protection of Yosemite
and if it degrades the park with further development, then we will be strong
opponents."
CLIMBER'S BASE CAMP
Babbitt said the court injunction "was surely a factor" in the decision to
unify the planning process. Jeanne Klobnak, legislative liaison for the American
Alpine Club, a climbing group, questioned Babbitt about whether the new process
would take into consideration the preservation of Camp Four at the base of
El Capitan.
The world-renowned climber's hangout was threatened by a National Park Service
proposal to build a parking lot and motel-style units near the campsite to
replace lodging lost during the 1997 flooding. The climbers filed suit, later
joined by the Sierra Club.
Babbitt said preservation of Camp Four would be considered in the new plan,
saying he had personally visited the area with a climbing aficionado who informed
him that the place "was a great historic shrine comparable to Constitution
Hall."
R. Kevin Cann, the park service's flood recovery manager for Yosemite, said
that public comments will be considered after the draft proposal is released
in May and that a final plan should be finished by the end of 1999.
"We're pretty excited by the secretary's level of involvement," Cann said.
"His commitment to time lines is a signal that this plan is going to get completed.''
|
|
|
|