Resort Proposed Near Yosemite by Dorothy Korber The Fresno Bee - July 28, 2000 While planners wrestle with the future of Yosemite Valley, a proposal is quietly advancing for a new upscale resort along Highway 120--inside the national park gates and just 16 miles from the valley's heart. The 300-unit development is penciled in for 80 acres called Hazel Green, a forest and meadow that has been privately owned since stagecoaches stopped there as they rattled along the dusty old Coulterville Road into Yosemite. The National Park Service has encouraged the development-- which promises an 800-space parking lot for Yosemite Valley day-trippers--but some environmentalists say the plan endangers rare Sierra meadowland and the creatures living there. Developer Lewis Geyser of Destination Villages LLC envisions a new kind of stage stop for Hazel Green. He proposes a rustic but posh resort, nestled in the woods near the meadow, where visitors will enjoy a nostalgic night in a log cottage for $300 or rough it in a tent cabin for $150. He reckons the project win cost roughly $25 million and take about 15 months to construct--if he gets the approvals he needs from the park service and Mariposa:County. From Geyser's perspective, there's one catch: A 600-foot-wide swath of Yosemite National Park lies between his property and Highway 120. He wants an easement across the federal land to connect the resort to the busy northern route into the park. What I want is a straight-line road to 120," Geyser said. "What I have is patience. I want to build something nice here and really wonderful for people--to take them back to the turn of the 20th century when John Muir slept at Hazel Green." To sweeten the deal, Geyser is offering to provide--free--8 acres for public parking. Geyser hopes his proposal will be incorporated into the final Yosemite Valley Plan, due in December, which aims to reduce traffic congestion in the narrow, spectacular valley.