Map shows where Yosemite developer wants to build private road

The National Park Service has quietly been working on a controversial land swap that would give a private developer unprecedented access to Yosemite National Park. 

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The developer is Nevada-based Kingsbarn Realty Capital, and it owns 83 acres just outside of Yosemite National Park’s western boundary, in Mariposa County. NOTUS was the first to report last week that the National Park Service is working on a land swap that would either give up a piece of land inside Yosemite or give the developer an easement to build a short road inside the national park. 

Kingsbarn CEO Jeff Pori reportedly wishes to build a road that would connect the property to Highway 120, effectively giving Kingsbarn private access to Yosemite. The property’s existing access road is more than 10 miles from a park entrance, NOTUS reported.

Kingsbarn’s proposal is backed by the Trump administration, according to NOTUS. Kingsbarn purchased the land just outside of Yosemite in 2024 for $4 million through a limited liability company. It named the area “Sanctuary at Yosemite,” but the property was previously called Hazel Green Ranch. Before Kingsbarn purchased the land, its previous owner was another developer who also tried to persuade the National Park Service to let him build a private road that would access Yosemite. That effort was ultimately blocked by the courts, but now, with the backing of the Trump administration, the private road is once again being proposed. 

News of Kingsbarn’s deal-making in Yosemite has sparked backlash in recent days, with former park officials and public lands advocates criticizing the developer and the Trump administration: “The Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle America’s conservation legacy are now taking aim at Yosemite with this secretive, backroom deal that would turn over Park Service land to a private developer,” said Mark Rose, senior Sierra Nevada program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association, in a statement to SFGATE. 

“This is an attack on the American people that own this national park,” Rose continued. “It would also be unlawful, and a court previously rejected a road development proposal.”

Former Yosemite Superintendent Cicely Muldoon also weighed in, telling NOTUS: “Our basic purpose in the national parks is to preserve these places unimpaired for future generations, not letting go of that for the purpose of private profit.”

Those critics don’t have to look far to find another controversial development proposed by Kingsbarn that would transform a beloved and beautiful place: Lake Tahoe. 

Kingsbarn Capital & Development, a division of Kingsbarn Realty Capital, is proposing a 9-acre development in the middle of Kings Beach, a community situated on Lake Tahoe’s north shore. The proposed development, called 39 Degrees North, includes a luxury hotel, townhomes, retail and commercial space and some workforce housing. 

A group of Tahoe locals have been fighting Kingsbarn for several years, since the developer took over the project. They say the project would transform a town that’s long housed Tahoe’s workforce and that it doesn’t reflect the community’s desires. They have also criticized the developer for not being more communicative with the community. After a meeting earlier this summer with Kingsbarn, where the developer spoke about changes to scale down its proposal, a Tahoe-based community group called Strong North Tahoe expressed skepticism and concern over the developer’s transparency and integrity.

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“Community members expressed lingering frustration with how the project has unfolded behind closed doors for years,” Strong North Tahoe wrote in an update on its website after the meeting on June 5. 

North Tahoe resident Ann Nichols has been tracking Kingsbarn and its proposed development in Kings Beach for years. When she read about the plans in Yosemite, she said it gave her another reason to watch them closely.

“The Yosemite reporting doesn’t prove wrongdoing by Kingsbarn, but it certainly gives me another reason to scrutinize very carefully how this developer seeks access to public resources and governmental approvals,” Nichols wrote in a text message to SFGATE on Monday.

Near Yosemite, maps show the property that Kingsbarn purchased is in the Stanislaus National Forest. Highway 120 passes close to the property, but currently does not access it. The property is located near the Big Oak Flat Entrance, the main western gateway to Yosemite.

Lanny Davis, an attorney for Kingsbarn, told NOTUS that a road between Kingsbarn’s property and Yosemite would be a “pro-environmental decision” because it would reduce the number of miles that property residents would have to drive to access the park and it “does not endanger any endangered species.” 

A spokesperson for the National Park Service told NOTUS that no decision on a land swap with Kingsbarn has been made.