Outrage over huge housing development plans by Yosemite — as developers murky past is revealed

A 110-unit housing plan close to the border of Yosemite National Park is drawing outrage as its mysterious developers press forward.

The 31-acre property will be handled by Camp Yosemite LLC, a Fullerton company with an oft-disciplined former attorney and former plastic surgeon at the helm.

But the area can only be accessed by traveling through the park on Park Service-managed roadways, causing concern.

“This doesn’t just fail the common sense test. It’s irresponsible and dangerous,” Neal Desai, Pacific regional director at the National Parks Conservation Association, told SF Gate.

“This proposal is out of step with local, state and national goals to preserve our national parks, and this application is coming at a point when Yosemite is in a major crisis.”

Bill Podolsky, a longtime Yosemite West homeowner, told the outlet that having just one road is a hazard if a fire were to occur.

“The single biggest concern is safety in the event of fire or other emergency,” Podolsky said. “Basically, it’s a very bad idea, and hopefully it’ll be shot down.”

The developers, Ben Eilenberg and Craig Martin Smith, have murky pasts.

Eilenberg has been disbarred from practicing law in California and has faced a myriad of discipline for his past conduct. In a past life, Smith was formerly Dr. Craig Alan Bittner, a Beverly Hills liposuction surgeon who bragged that he could convert fat to biofuel, or what he called Lipodiesel.

But Lipodiesel outraged the public in 2008, leading Smith and his wife to move to South America and change their names.

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“We have the rare honor of being dox’d a decade before the term was invented.  When we began to get death threats from anonymous online sources, it was terrifying. After an employee was stalked and we had protesters visit our home, we moved and eventually changed our last names,” they said on their website.

But he also faced trouble within his practice when several patients filed complaints that he allowed unlicensed staff to perform cosmetic surgery, which led to him surrendering his medical license, the Mariposa Gazette reported.

The two men have partnered together on Camp Yosemite and Mission LLC, a different development company which sued Santa Barbara County over property taxes. The company attempted to invoke the builder’s remedy to erect an apartment building in the area.

The company is attempting to enact the same builder’s remedy, which bypasses local planning regulations to build housing units.

“It really makes people question what’s going on and what are the real intentions,” Desai told SF Gate.