The State : Housing for Yosemite Hit

Environmentalists are complaining that a plan to build $10 million worth of new housing for concessionaire workers in Yosemite Valley could ruin the park’s master plan. George Whitmore of the Sierra Club and Patti Schifferie of the Wilderness Society say the plan that calls for building a series of dormitories to house 452 employees of Yosemite Park and Curry Co. is in direct conflict with the park’s 1980 general mangement plan, which calls for the eventual removal of artificial structures from Yosemite Valley. The project, which is being proposed by the National Park Service and the Curry Co. would replace tent cabins at four sites in the valley with multistory dormitories near Yosemite Lodge. Whitmore and Schifferie say the plan for the permanent housing represents the abandonment of the park’s general management plan that took nearly 10 years and cost almost $2 million to formulate.