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Jurist to
view park's disputed
development area Tuesday
By Mike Lewis
The Fresno Bee - September 26, 1998
Saying he needed to refresh his memory of Yosemite National Park, a Federal
district court judge Friday canceled a scheduled hearing over a disputed development
and told warring attorneys to meet him in the park Tuesday.
"I think it would be useful to look at the site," Judge Charles R. Breyer
said at the outset of what was supposed to be a hearing over a park service
proposal to move and rebuild portions of flood-damaged Yosemite Lodge and
access roads. "It's been awhile since I've been there, and I'd like to see
the area."
The decision surprised federal attorneys defending the park proposal, called
the Lodge Plan, and lawyers for the Sierra Club, which was seeking an injunction
against construction.
"It's heartening to see a judge with this level of interest, but it is a surprise
that he wants to go to the park," said Joseph J. Brecher, an attorney representing
the Sierra Club's Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund.
"This was unexpected," said Martin J. Lalonde, a Department of Justice attorney
defending the park proposal.
Both sides had expected Breyer to rule Friday on the Sierra Club's request
for a preliminary injunction against a park service plan to build 248 motel
rooms, 96 cottage rooms, 60 cabins with baths, a new road and parking areas
in the Merced River flood plain near the existing lodge.
Buildings, roads and campgrounds suffered extensive damage when the swollen
Merced River broke its banks and flooded the valley floor in 1997.
Sierra Club attorneys contend the construction violates the park's general
management plan, which requires removal of all unnecessary development from
the flood plain and valley, according to court papers.
Federal attorneys countered that the management plan allows for development
of "no significant impact." They say these buildings are replacements for
existing guest lodging and therefore fit within that legal standard.
But instead of ruling on the arguments, Breyer said it would be best for him
to look at the site of the proposed development and hear informal arguments
there.
He invited both factions to meet him at 9 a.m. Tuesday in the Yosemite Lodge
registration office, provided they "don't send more than two representatives."
Lalonde said a judge personally visiting the site of a land dispute isn't
unprecedented, but it is unusual. Neither side would say whether having Breyer
in the park helped or hurt their cases.
"I don't know the judge," Brecher said. "I really can't call it."
Breyer said that after the visit and tour, he would hold the hearing on either
Thursday or Oct. 6, depending on the attorneys' schedules.
Construction on the road and buildings was supposed to have started Sept.
1.
During the brief hearing, the judge and the plaintiffs' attorneys indicated
that another lawsuit against the Lodge Plan likely would be consolidated with
the Sierra Club action because both raised similar points.
In May, a group of the park's veteran climbers sued the National Park Service
over the building plan because the proposed buildings would interfere with
Camp Four, the valley's famed rock climbing mecca.
"We wouldn't have a problem with [combining the lawsuits]," said Mark
Parnes, a lawyer with Duane, Lyman, Seltzer & Gorelick, the climbers'
attorneys.
In their lawsuit, Parnes said, the climbers assert the new development would
encroach on one of Yosemite's premier "historical and cultural resources."
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