Staying Put : Couple Visit Congress in Effort to Keep Cabin Home in Yosemite

For the last two years, George and Lucille Lange have fought attempts by the federal government to kick them out of the small A-frame cabin they built three decades ago in Yosemite National Park.

On Thursday the elderly couple took their battle to Capitol Hill, where George Lange appeared before a Senate subcommittee and accused the National Park Service of reneging on a verbal agreement to allow him and his wife to live in the one-room rustic house for the rest of their lives.

“By God, I never felt I would have to come to Congress to keep a place to live in,” Lange, 72, a retired trucking operator, said in an interview. “I felt the government was honest enough that when they made a deal, it should be a deal.”

But Park Service officials said the Langes never received a lifetime occupancy agreement in writing when they sold the property to the government in 1976. The officials said they need the 600-square-foot cabin to help alleviate a severe shortage of employee housing after a 1990 firestorm destroyed more than 70 houses, including 13 government-owned dwellings. The Lange home was among 17 residences that were saved in Foresta, Calif., five miles west of Yosemite Valley.

The housing crunch has forced some Park Service employees to quit their jobs. Others have resorted to sleeping in cars and tents, said Jerry Rogers, associate director of the National Park Service.

“We believe our need now is so compelling that we have an obligation to take this action,” he said of the eviction proceedings.

Although Rogers said it was “inappropriate” to give the Langes a lifetime occupancy permit, he disclosed Thursday that the Bush Administration has withdrawn its objection to legislation introduced by Sen. John Seymour (R-California) that would specifically allow the Langes to live in the cabin until they die.

Rogers’ remarks amounted to a partial victory for the Langes, who traveled to Washington at their own expense. The Park Service appears to be willing to allow the couple to continue to occupy the cabin, but not without threatening to raise the rent so high that the Langes may not be able to afford to remain there.

At Thursday’s Senate hearing, park officials estimated the fair market rental value of the Lange residence at $500 per month--an amount that Lange said he and his wife could not afford on their monthly Social Security checks. He said he was willing to negotiate a compromise of about $250 per month, a twelve-fold increase over the $261 they pay each year.

“This matter should have been resolved a year ago. . . ,” said Seymour, who strongly urged Park Service officials to work out a reasonable compromise with the Langes. “We have an elderly, retired couple on a fixed income who are about to be evicted from their only home in order to supply the Park Service with one unit of ranger housing. That makes no sense.”

The Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, National Parks and Forests took no action on the proposed legislation, pending a possible settlement between the Langes and park officials.

Lange has persuaded several congressman, including Reps. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura), Gary Condit (D-Ceres) and Richard H. Lehman (D-Sanger) to help him in his effort to keep his house.

“Here they are in their 70s with a few years left to live out there,” said Condit, who introduced a bill in the House on the Langes’ behalf. “I think they ought to be able to do that without going through this. They are good people, good neighbors and not intrusive to the park.”

The Langes purchased the small property in Foresta in 1959 and built the A-frame for recreation and weekend use. They sold their cabin in 1975 to the Park Service for $26,100 with what they believed was an agreement that they could continue to live there under a special-use permit at an annual cost of $261, or 1% of the sales amount as provided by federal regulations.

A decade later, the Langes left the San Jose area to retire in Foresta, one of three “in-holdings” of privately owned land that existed before Yosemite became a national park.

Park officials have made no secret of their desire to acquire private property in Foresta, the closest of the in-holdings to Yosemite Valley and a potential location for new buildings the park would like to locate outside the valley.

When the fires hit two summers ago, property owners in Foresta were critical of long delays in Yosemite’s approval of building permits.

George Lange--as one of only two full-time residents in Foresta who isn’t a Park Service employee--assumed the title of unofficial mayor and caretaker of the small hamlet.

He said he has volunteered countless hours in helping local residents rebuild their houses since the fire.

These activities have put him at odds with Park Service officials and is the reason Yosemite Supt. Michael Finley began eviction proceedings early last year, Lange said.

“He’s got a vendetta against me,” Lange said. “He wants me out. It’s as simple as that.”

Finley, who has denied the existence of a vendetta, and his spokeswoman did not return phone calls to their Yosemite offices this week.