Public hearing scheduled for second Highway 120 resort
The son of the late logger and forester Tim Manly says his father saw the potential for the Highway 120 corridor as a tourism destination when he purchased land in the 1980s between Groveland and Yosemite National Park, where two separate resort projects are now proposed for construction.
One of the projects, a luxury camping getaway dubbed Yosemite Under Canvas, was approved by the Tuolumne County Planning Commission on Nov. 18. The other, a larger proposal known as the Terra Vi Lodge, is scheduled for consideration by the commission at a meeting on Tuesday.
Many neighboring property owners and others in the Groveland area are upset about the way the county’s process for reviewing and approving the projects has been carried out given the potential transformative impacts on their communities.
Joel Manly, of Goodyear, Arizona, said the project would fulfill a long-term vision his father had for the properties when he purchased them in 1986.
“He stood there and said there will be hotels here,” Joel Manly said. “Nobody else at that time was thinking anybody would be building up there.”
Tim Manly spent most of
his life working as a logger and forester despite originally going to college for business administration, his son said. He raised his family in Greeley Hill before moving to Moccasin in the mid1990s, where his other son, Bob, currently lives.
Joel Manly said his father bought and sold land around southern Tuolumne County on the side, which was how he came upon the properties where the resorts are now proposed.
“He was an extremely intelligent business person,” Joel Manly said. “He knew a lot about real estate and knew a lot about finding old deeds and being able to read old deeds.”
Tim Manly died of cancer in 2004 at age 59 and left the properties behind to his wife, Carol. He previously had the former timberland rezoned for commercial use about 30 years ago, though that has been a point of contention among some opponents.
Joel Manly said they were waiting for the right time and proposal to come along before doing anything with the properties, which happened about three years ago when two separate companies approached them with their ideas. He said they were previously in discussions with Marriott, but turned that down because they didn’t feel it would be the right fit.
“It just happened that both of them came together at the same time,” he said. “That part wasn’t planned out, it just so happened that the right companies approached my mom at the same time.”
Yosemite Under Canvas would be located at Hardin Flat Road and Highway 120 and feature 99 tents spread across 80 acres, along with a kitchen, reception tent, bathrooms and other communal facilities.
Under Canvas, the Montanabased company that would develop and operate the resort, bills itself as the “nation’s premier upscale camping experience provider” and currently has seven other similar campgrounds mostly near national parks throughout the United States.
Nearly 30 people pleaded for the commission to delay the project’s approval and address concerns they had about the environmental analysis at the meeting on Nov. 18, though it was approved by a 5-1-1 vote.
The opponents of the project have since filed an appeal of the commission’s decision to the county Board of Supervisors, though a public hearing has yet to be scheduled.
Terra Vi Lodge would be located almost across the street at Sawmill Mountain Road and Highway 120 and is proposed to feature a three-story lodge with 140 guestrooms, 25 detached cabins with 100 guest rooms, a public market, two-story event center, and helicopter landing pad.
The Anaheim-based Hansji Corp. would develop, own and operate the resort. Joel Manly said he was impressed with some of the work the company has done in the Phoenix area, which included the renovation of a historic building into a multi-milliondollar high-rise hotel.
Joel Manly said his family didn’t anticipate the level of controversy that the projects would generate among people in the community.
“Is it going to impact some of the people that are right there? Yes, it will. But like I say, the zoning was changed 30 years ago and the area has to grow,” he said. “There’s not a lot of young people staying up there because there’s not a lot to do. Tuolumne County is in desperate need for tax dollars, and these projects bring in big dollars.”
La Jolla resident Dan Courtney, who inherited land adjoining the proposed resort from his mother that has been in his family for nearly 100 years, said he and other multigenerational property owners opposed to the project were stunned when the public hearing for Terra Vi Lodge was announced just days after Yosemite Under Canvas was approved.
The final environmental impact report, or EIR, was released by the county shortly before 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 20.
Many county offices have been operating with limited hours and services due to a recent surge of coronavirus cases, combined with planned furloughs for county staff during the week of Thanksgiving that were part of costcutting measures to balance the current fiscal year’s budget.
Quincy Yaley, community development director for the county, said that staff in her department have been available throughout the week to answer questions about the project via telephone and email despite their building being physically closed to the public.
Yaley said the release of the final EIR was also not timed to occur over the holidays, but was done so to allow for a timely review by the commission before the meeting on Tuesday — in addition to the county Board of
Supervisors, because she anticipates the decision will be appealed like with Yosemite Under Canvas.
A letter from John Buckley, executive director of the Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center in Twain Harte, questioned why the meeting was being scheduled for Tuesday when the commission typically holds their meetings on Wednesdays.
Courtney said he believes the timing is intentional to ensure that the outgoing members of the county Board of Supervisors will be the ones to decide an appeal, before three newly elected members take their seats in the first week of January.
“We just don’t think it’s fair,” he said. “It’s no way to get input from the community, it’s a way to limit input from the community and the public.”
Opponents to the projects have argued that concerns are not being adequately addressed by the county with regard to their impacts on wildfire risk, traffic, water, infrastructure, and demands on local public services.
Lee Zimmerman, owner of the Rush Creek and Evergreen Lodges near the Highway 120 entrance to Yosemite, has also expressed opposition to the projects and echoed Courtney’s sentiments about the way the process has been handled in a letter submitted to the county on Friday.
“The approach reeks of backroom dealing, personal agendas and pushing projects through on a timeline driven by supervisor turnover date, rather than discipline and support for the interests of all concerned and respect for the process itself,” he wrote.
“We want to be part of a county and community that can hold our heads high and make thoughtful, conscientious decisions that balance all interests, particularly in times of such severe fire safety risk,” the letter continued. “This is achievable, and we can have responsible, safe development and increased TOT revenues within this context.”