Fewer Cabins, More Motels in Yosemite Plan

In a proposal intended to shape the future of Yosemite National Park into the next century, the National Park Service is calling for a major increase in the number of motel-style lodging rooms while drastically reducing cabins and other rustic accommodations.

At the same time, the park service said that some commercial facilities such as Degnan’s restaurant and fast-food outlet in Yosemite Village, which environmentalists had hoped to tear down, should remain.

The proposals, contained in a long-awaited concession services plan to be released today, offer the first glimpse into the park service’s thinking for Yosemite, the Sierra Nevada park that many consider the nation’s premier natural wonder.

Overall, the plan would reduce the number of lodging units by at least 13% throughout the park and by 20% in Yosemite Valley. There would be an increase of 340 hotel and lodge rooms, individual cottages and cabins with bathrooms--about a 30% increase in that category. New lodging rooms in the valley would be built at previously cleared areas near Yosemite Lodge.

The overall reduction would be achieved by doing away with indoor units without baths and 376 of the park’s 855 tent cabins.

For the hundreds of thousands of visitors who must make reservations as long as a year in advance to spend the night in Yosemite, the changes will mean more motel-style rooms with amenities like bathrooms, and fewer lodgings that allow campers to “rough it.” Campgrounds are not affected by the proposed lodging changes.

Over the past several years, Yosemite has become the focal point in an unfolding controversy over the future of the national parks, with environmentalists pushing for a radical departure from the parks’ commercial past, and concessionaires attempting to maximize a return on their investments in motels and other accommodations.

“The way Yosemite goes is the way the rest of the national parks will go,” said Joan Reiss of the Wilderness Society. “Are we going to have shopping malls and Coney Island-Carmel variations? Or are we going to give the visitor a natural experience that reflects the crown jewel that Yosemite really is?”

Equally vocal is John Pomiroo, a vice president of Yosemite Park & Curry Co., the firm that now operates lodging and other concessions in Yosemite. Pomiroo recently called for more hotel rooms in Yosemite Valley and more amenities like fitness centers and whirlpool spas.

He said that fewer hotel rooms in the park would mean an increase in the number of day visitors--and in motor vehicle traffic through the park.

The new proposal is certain to please neither side. But park service officials said in interviews that they are confident that it goes a long way toward honoring a 10-year-old blueprint for the park.

Release of the proposal sets in motion a series of steps leading to the awarding of a potentially lucrative 15-year concessions contract in the fall of 1993.

A series of public meetings on the proposal are planned in January and February. One of the meetings will be held in Los Angeles on Jan. 29. Others are scheduled in San Francisco, Fresno and Yosemite. After those meetings, the park service will make revisions and issue a final concession services plan by early next summer.

The final plan will greatly influence the requirements expected of bidders for the new concession services contract. The Yosemite Park & Curry Co. contract, which has governed operation of the park’s famed Ahwahnee Hotel and other commercial ventures since 1963, expires next year.

Under terms of an accord reached last January, the Curry Co. is selling its holdings in the park for $49.5 million to the nonprofit National Park Foundation, which would then deed the holdings to the National Park Service when the current contract expires. The new concessionaire would be required to repay the park foundation out of its income from operating the concessions.

Competition for the new contract is expected to be keen. Executives of the Curry Co. already have expressed interest, as has a coalition of businessmen and conservationists who have formed the Yosemite Restoration Trust. Others said to be interested include the Walt Disney Co. and Marriott Hotels.

Under the proposal, food service at Yosemite would continue at present levels. But gift, clothing and sports shops at the Village Store would be removed. A gift shop would remain at Yosemite Lodge, but clothing sales would be removed.

The proposal calls on the new concessionaire to continue providing a variety of recreational activities, including bicycle rentals, a mountaineering school, horseback rides, swimming pools, a seasonal ice rink, alpine and Nordic ski schools, alpine skiing facilities, and bus and tram tours.

In the valley, a shuttle bus system would be expanded.