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Yosemite National ParkPlanning UpdateVolume 3, Winter 1997 |
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| What the Flood Means to Park Planning! |
The key to rebuilding intelligently is learning from the mistakes of the past. The flood provided validation for the extensive planning efforts that have been ongoing since 1980. We knew where problems were. The flood underscored the fact that facilities need to be moved out of the floodplain. Many of the structures and facilities damaged or destroyed had been damaged by much smaller floods. The precepts of the 1980 General Management Plan still hold true today. The National Park Service has no intention of deviating from existing plans as we deal with recovery efforts.
We now have an opportunity to act on the General Management Plan. The recovery plan is estimated at $178 million dollars. About $70 million of this represents relocation of facilities according to the General Management Plan. Fortunately, we have already spent a lot of time over the last three years working through alternative solutions to deal with some of these problems. Alternatives for moving employee housing to more appropriate locations are presented in the Draft Yosemite Valley Housing Plan, which is currently available for public comment until March 13. The Draft Valley Implementation Plan was scheduled to be released in February. This plan was to further define implementation of the 1980 General Management Plan and will present alternatives to move facilities out of the floodplains, river corridors and meadows, or in many cases out of the Valley altogether. We are now hard at work refining this plan to incorporate new information from the flood. Included in the Valley Implementation Plan will be alternatives for locations of the reconstructed campgrounds, reconfiguring circulation patterns to eliminate unnecessary roads, and methods to reduce congestion. We are going to move the Valley Implementation Plan forward as quickly as we can to serve as a guide for most of the restoration work. At Yosemite Lodge, we already knew that many lodging and employee housing units needed to be moved out of the floodplain. The flood put them out of commission. To return the Lodge to full service sooner than might be expected we have decided to separate the specific planning for Yosemite Lodge and accelerate it. By accelerating this part of the Valley planning, we hope to meet visitor lodging needs, reduce the size of the lodge footprint, improve circulation, and provide a coherent plan for reconstruction. An Environmental Assessment will be completed for this project and we will conform to the overall reductions in lodging units set forth in the General Management Plan. We will provide information, in the near future, possibly in the form of a newsletter. This flood does not mean the General Management Plan and subsequent planning can now be fully implemented without public review. This is an opportunity to take actions called for in the General Management Plan. We intend to move forward with those elements of the plans that intersect with recovery efforts after we have had your input and guidance. In the coming months you will receive additional newsletters that will provide information on the alternatives in the Valley Implementation Plan and Yosemite Lodge Development Concept Plan. The Draft Valley Implementation Plan will be available for your review in April and we will need your thoughtful comments. In many ways this flood has presented us with opportunities--opportunities to work together to implement the General Management Plan’s vision as we move into the 21st century |
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