When visitors travel to Yosemite Park along Highway 120, they drive through Big Oak Flat and Groveland, with their stores, restaurants, and hotel facilities. Once beyond Groveland, however, travelers currently see mostly natural forest scenery for the next 20+ miles as they drive to the Park’s entrance. Within 10 miles of Yosemite, only a single commercial lodge (Rush Creek) intrudes on the sense of going deeper into the forest for Yosemite visitors.
That would change significantly if a major new development project – the Terra Vi Lodge - is approved by Tuolumne County and a second adjacent “glamping” project also gains approval. The Hansji Corporation proposes to construct a massive lodging development on a 63-acre site near Hardin Flat. The property directly borders Highway 120, so everything on the site would be highly visible. It would include 140 guest rooms in the main lodge buildings, plus 25 four-bedroom two-story cabins, a market, an event space, and assorted support buildings. Altogether, by providing 240 bedrooms, the development would serve 600 or more visitors at a time, not even counting all of the needed staff and maintenance crews.
Directly adjacent to the north side of the site, some small forested parcels currently have cabins that primarily are summer-use properties that have been owned in some cases for many decades. Those cabin owners each depend on wells. Because the Terra Vi Lodge project has no access to public water at the site, the developers plan to use two major wells. Relying on wells is highly risky since periodic drought is “the new norm” in California, and wells can fail. Second, a giant lodge facility that serves 700 or more visitors and staff daily would use a huge amount of water, not even considering the large pool, landscaping water, and other demands. Such high water use poses the risk of drying up the wells of existing cabin owners.
In addition, the giant Lodge facility would be totally dependent on a fancy septic system intended to treat the waste of 700 people (a small community). If the system fails and contaminates underground water, that could pollute the neighbors’ wells and also pollute water needed for Lodge guests and staff.
Directly across the street, a separate commercial development proposal envisions a glamour camping facility that would provide luxurious tents, showers, food service, etc. in what is known as “glamping.” Adding to the noise, lights, traffic, and well water demands of the Terra Vi Lodge across the street, this glamping project would also rely on a fancy septic system with no option for connecting to a public sewer system if the septic system fails. The private land at this location is some of the very limited private property along many miles of Highway 120 leading to Yosemite. Each new development that gets approved by County supervisors will diminish the scenic value of the corridor for visitors heading to Yosemite and replace a natural forest setting with commercial operations, signs, lighting, and pavement.
The site plan as posted on the Tuolumne County website (above) shows how dense the lodging buildings will be on the north side of Highway 120 in this highly rural local.
A safety concern about the giant Terra Vi Lodge and adjacent glamping project is the fact that the area already burned intensely during the 2013 Rim Fire -- proving that the site has extremely high fire risk. There also is the problem of no fire department or ambulance company being within many miles of the proposed lodge, and the hundreds of guests and staff who at times will inarguably need emergency services.
Members of the public who have perspectives about proposed development on the route to Yosemite can communicate their views to the Tuolumne County Community Resources Agency (link here for contact info). CSERC believes both of these project would be acceptable if they were built close to Big Oak Flat and Groveland area, where development would be infill instead of leapfrog development far out into a scenic corridor area with no public water or public sewer.