Proposed resorts will hurt Highway 120 communities

As members of the tiny and nearly century-old communities of Sawmill Mountain and Hardin Flat, we are shocked and disappointed by the apparent political cronyism being displayed by the outgoing Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission.

Yosemite Under Canvas was approved after being rushed past the community with inadequate time to review the very flawed EIR. The three most important opposition letters from Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center (CSERC), Tuolumne River Trust and an allegation regarding a potentially illegal subdivision were held back until the last days and were therefore missed by many.

The Planning Commission completely ignored the unanimous and adamant opposition of nearly 30 speakers in executing what seemed like a preordained decision.

Even worse, the same thing is happening with Terra Vi Lodge. This 3,000-plus page package was dumped on the public last Friday night, which was the same tactic used for Under Canvas. Six of these 10 review days are weekends or holidays. And, now we have learned that the county is closed this week due to COVID, so there are in effect zero business days in which the county is available to support the community as we review these documents.

What we see is a lame-duck board and commission attempting to ram through these huge commercial developments before the newly elected board can take office.

Why? For money, of course, in the form of Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT). Approving these huge developments from out-of-area developers could be counterproductive; this explosion of new hotel rooms could well drive the existing and struggling hotels out of business, plus drive away the developers of The Scar, which is long overdue for improvement and actually can benefit the community rather than completely detract from it.

These are big decisions with long-term impacts to our environment and our community and should not be rushed through. Let the duly elected incoming board take this up. After all, as County Administrator Tracie Riggs stated, there will be no funding mechanism for fire and emergency services for this area until after the new board is seated. For this reason, the county should not be rushing through these important long-term and consequential decisions. For more info go to: www.savesawmillmountain.org.

Signed,

Dan Courtney; Nancy Constantino; Tom Constantino; Nicholas Constantino; Sophia Constantino; Rosalina George; Laura George; William Mcmahon and Maria Porges; Lou and Margene Rivara; Betty Erickson; Eric and Sally Erickson; Ingrid Erickson Carlson; Lars Erickson; Elizabeth Erickson; Peter Erickson; Carl Erickson: Patrick and Jill Pfeiffer; Bob Asquith; Bill and Angie Norquist; and Bill Flanery.