Yosemite Lodge Rebuilding Plans Blocked

SAN FRANCISCO —  The National Park Service has rescinded its approval for a plan to restore a popular lodge at Yosemite National Park that was destroyed during flooding in 1997.

But the park refused Friday to withdraw its plans to replace a sewer line, and was asked by a judge to meet with the Sierra Club to work out an agreement.

The ongoing court battle over the Yosemite Lodge plan focused Friday on the sewer line, three weeks after U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer issued a temporary injunction to halt construction.

Both sides agreed to meet Monday, park spokesman Kendell Thompson said. An attorney for the Sierra Club did not return a phone call Friday.

Replacing the sewer line is part of a grand plan to rebuild Yosemite Lodge, one of the most popular lodges in Yosemite Valley. Nearly half the lodge’s 495 rooms were soaked, and roads and sewer lines were wiped out when the Merced River flooded its banks last winter.

In May, mountaineering and environmental groups filed a federal lawsuit over the park’s plan to build motel-style units and a parking lot, saying they would be built too close to a climbers’ campground.

The Sierra Club followed with its own lawsuit in August.

By rescinding its approval for the plan, the park service now has the option of revamping the proposal, continuing with it or scrapping the plan altogether, Thompson said.