A quarter-mile strip of land inside Yosemite National Park's western boundary is at the center of a proposal that would let a private developer punch a shortcut road straight into the park, connecting an 83-acre property to a central park thoroughfare instead of the winding, hours-long route drivers currently use. The land in question sits about five miles from the park's famous Mariposa Grove of giant sequoias, and the plan has drawn fierce pushback from conservation groups, former park officials and members of Congress who say it would set an unprecedented precedent for carving private access out of protected federal land.
The proposal, first reported by The New York Times, centers on a land swap that would transfer the small parcel inside Yosemite's western boundary to a Las Vegas-based company called Sanctuary at Yosemite, a limited liability corporation controlled by Kingsbarn Realty Capital, a real-estate private equity firm. In exchange, the company would purchase land of equivalent value elsewhere and transfer it to the National Park Service. Kingsbarn bought the underlying parcels — historically known as Hazel Green Ranch — for $4 million in 2024, according to the Times, and the firm has said it plans to develop two 40-acre parcels near the park.
Reaching Yosemite Valley from the property currently means a winding 90-minute drive that runs more than 10 miles from the nearest park entrance, largely over U.S. Forest Service roads, according to reporting from Times Now. A direct road cut through the park strip would shave that trip down to a private shortcut, which is precisely what makes the quarter-mile parcel so valuable to the developer.
A Deal Courts Have Already Rejected Once
This is not the first time someone has tried to build a road through this stretch of Yosemite. Federal district and appellate courts ruled in 2007 and 2012 that former owner Lewis Geyser had no legal right to build a road through the park because the property already had access via surrounding Forest Service land, according to NOTUS. The Park Service itself rejected a similar proposal in the early 2000s, and a court upheld that rejection, per the seed reporting in the Times.
High-profile Democratic attorney Lanny Davis, who served as counsel to former President Bill Clinton, has confirmed he now represents Kingsbarn Realty Capital and said he petitioned the Interior Department, arguing the direct road access amounts to a pro-environmental measure because a shorter route would avoid endangering local species, per NOTUS reporting. Conservationists and former federal officials have broadly opposed development in the park, according to the Times.
Former Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon, who stepped down in 2025, has noted that Kingsbarn attempted to reopen the road project shortly before her departure, while current Superintendent Ray McPadden has faced pressure from Interior Department officials to advance the proposal, NOTUS reports. Don Neubacher, a former Yosemite superintendent who now sits on the executive council of the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, did not mince words, telling the Times the proposal is “ridiculous.”
A Donor's Timeline Raises Questions
NOTUS reporting also flags a shift in the political giving of Kingsbarn CEO Jeff Pori, who had no record of federal political campaign contributions before October 2024. After that point, he began making monthly contributions to Republican party committees and to President Trump's campaign, according to federal election records cited by the outlet.
The financing mechanism for the swap has become its own flashpoint. The Interior Department notified Congress that it was considering paying for the exchange through the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a pool of money intended to pay for conservation programs on public lands, per the Times. Members of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee were notified of the proposed transaction early in 2026, but Ranking Member Jeff Merkley explicitly objected and excluded the Yosemite deal from the subcommittee's endorsed project list, according to NOTUS.
Democrats have criticized using the conservation fund for the exchange, and Senator Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, said opposition has come from the public, Congress and the courts, and that the administration nonetheless appears determined to proceed. Schiff called Yosemite “one of California's natural wonders,” per the Times' reporting.
Interior Department Pushes Back on ‘Secret’ Framing
Aubrie Spady, a spokeswoman for the Interior Department, rejected claims that political leaders are secretly handing over park land, telling the Guardian that no final decision has been made and that any formal proposal would go through required public notification and environmental review processes. The Times likewise reports that the Interior Department has made no final decision on the proposal, and that any land exchange or access arrangement would be subject to applicable federal laws, regulations and departmental policies, including environmental review.
Conservation advocates at the National Parks Conservation Association argue the stakes go well beyond one quarter-mile strip. They note that transferring national park land to a private developer would break roughly 150 years of precedent dating back to President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the 1864 Yosemite Grant Act, as reported by The New Republic — the law that laid the foundation for the entire national park system.
What happens next remains unsettled. It is not yet clear whether the Interior Department will formally launch the environmental review process, how officials would value the Yosemite parcel against substitute land elsewhere in California, or whether congressional appropriators who oversee the Land and Water Conservation Fund will move to block funding for the project outright.
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