WAWONA -- To renovate their beloved mountain camp, Seventh-day Adventists have faced what might test anyone's faith -- 15 years of planning to satisfy neighbors, the National Park Service and Mariposa County.
Now another battle looms -- some neighbors have filed a lawsuit.
They worry that the planned improvements will turn Camp Wawona into a sprawling resort that will attract a horde of tourists.
That not only would ruin the quiet, but also would pose a danger if anyone had to escape a fire down a narrow, one-lane road from the camp, they say.
The camp owners counter that this project is a remodeling job, not an expansion. The Clovis-based Central California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists says there would be no more visitors than in the past, in fact there would be fewer.
"The last thing we want is a big resort," said conference President Jerry Page. "We want to get out into nature and commune with God."
Town surrounded by park
Welcome to Wawona, a quiet, Mariposa County hamlet surrounded by Yosemite National Park. It's a mountain getaway that is far less tranquil than it might seem these days.
Wawona landowners cherish their pocket of paradise. Private land ownership here predates the park. About 300 cabins dot the landscape near the Merced River's scenic south fork, amid soaring ponderosa pines and incense cedars.
About 130 property owners live in the community year-round. They send their children to a small elementary school in the community. Other owners live elsewhere and often rent their cabins to tourists.
Such an island of private land is not unusual in national parks. Wilsonia is a private community within Kings Canyon National Park.
By all accounts, the 30-plus-acre Adventist camp, tucked into a far corner of Wawona, has coexisted peacefully with neighbors and landowners for 79 years.
It has been a religious retreat and a summer camp for children. It is open year-round. Church officials say 80 percent of the camp's use occurs in fall, winter and spring.
But opponents say they believe the camp is most heavily used during summer. They say the new buildings in the project would turn it into a year-round tourist attraction.
They worry that snow and ice will clog the narrow road and imperil motorists in winter and make it impossible to get rescue or fire crews into the area as people flee along the one-lane road.
They say intense use of the camp year-round would create more noise and pollution and place more of a burden on the waste-water system. It wouldn't be the same church camp after the work is completed, they say.
"All you'll have to do is call and make a reservation," said nearby cabin owner Diana Escola Watson, one of the residents who filed the lawsuit in Mariposa County Superior Court. "This camp is expanding into a resort, not just remodeling."
Church: Visitors won't increase
Church officials reply that they never have planned a resort and that the camp has been used year-round for many years.
Adventists say visitor levels would be no higher than they have been at peak times in the past several years -- 338 in summer. And the county would limit the camp to lower numbers during fall, winter and spring.
For instance, 230 guests would be allowed on winter weekends, and 150 during winter days. Those figures represent a rollback, not an expansion, church officials say.
"We will have the same number of beds," said spokeswoman Caron Oswald of the church's Central California Conference. "These days, church couples don't like to sleep eight or 10 in one room, as they did in the past. We need to build new lodges."
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