California lawmakers are trying to kill a less-than-half-mile road into Yosemite that supporters say could cut pollution, ease traffic and make access safer.
The proposed shortcut is at the center of a reported federal land-swap plan involving Nevada-based Kingsbarn Realty Capital.
The Trump administration is reportedly considering giving Kingsbarn 1.1 acres of federal land in Yosemite in exchange for an equivalent parcel elsewhere in California.
The swap would allow the developer to connect its 83-acre Hazel Green property, just outside Yosemite’s western boundary, to the park’s existing highway network with a road measuring less than half a mile.
“Without a direct access route, every trip from the Hazel Green area requires a significantly longer drive—twice as long, at a minimum—on unpaved forest roads and thus more air pollution,” Lanny J. Davis, the high-profile attorney representing Kingsbarn, told Newsweek. “The new access road would be safer for drivers and generate substantially less vehicle emissions.”
He said the company spent six months working with National Park Service staff on an environmentally sound access plan.
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“Working with these Yosemite Park Service professionals, and always seeking a pro-environmental, community-supported decision, we identified a land exchange for an access road under a half mile,” Davis said.
Despite the groundwork, a group of 61 California lawmakers are now urging the Trump administration to reject the proposal.
“61 of California’s 118 legislators joined my call to urge Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to halt and reject the proposed Yosemite land exchange benefiting a private developer,” Coachella Valley Republican Assemblymember Greg Wallis said in a letter Wednesday.
The proposal comes as Yosemite is already buckling under its own popularity.
More than 4 million people visit the park each year, flocking to sights including El Capitan, one of the world’s largest exposed granite monoliths, and Yosemite Falls, one of North America’s highest waterfalls.
Visitors can spend hours waiting to get through the entrance, only to face another traffic nightmare once inside.
“We have people already waiting for hours just to get inside the park, and then they get inside the park and they spend another hour circling around looking for parking. Yosemite right now is in complete chaos,” Neal Desai, the senior program director for the National Parks Conservation Association told The Washington Post.
The Hazel Green project could also give visitors another lodging option away from Yosemite’s overcrowded areas.
Kingsbarn hopes to build short-term rental accommodations and a tourist lodge on the property, although those plans have yet to be designed
Kingsbarn purchased the property Feb. 1, 2024. It sits in the Stanislaus National Forest, roughly five miles from one of Yosemite’s giant sequoia groves, and is surrounded by public land that makes access difficult.
But lawmakers and environmental groups argue the land exchange would benefit a private developer at the expense of public land, and could create a troubling precedent for development near protected areas.
Any formal agreement would still have to undergo comprehensive environmental reviews and public comment.
