Overview
- Monday reporting showed the Interior Department and National Park Service are actively considering a proposal and have started an appraisal of a roughly quarter-mile strip of park land that could allow a short connector road.
- Nevada-based Kingsbarn Realty Capital bought the 83-acre Hazel Green Ranch in 2024 and through attorney Lanny Davis has confirmed it is pursuing a land exchange to link the parcel to a Yosemite road.
- Under the proposal the Park Service would receive land of equal value elsewhere in California but must complete a difficult valuation, comply with federal environmental review rules, and provide public notice before any transfer.
- Conservation groups, Yosemite employees and California senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff have publicly opposed the plan and legal challenges are expected if an exchange is approved.
- The idea revives a long-running dispute: a prior owner sued in 2007 over a similar access request and lost on appeal in 2012, and that history underscores both the legal hurdles and the political sensitivity of ceding park land.