Two things come to mind: This will tend to push more traffic from SR120 onto SR140. That's going to get interesting for merchants on SR120. Secondly, 18 acres seems like a lot of land for a Visitor Center & Admin services. That's over 0.2 acres per employee - a decent residential lot size for each employee. Of course there's parking, but a couple acres is a lot of parking.
My first thought is that someone influential has a vacant parcel in Mariposa to unload. No cost to taxpayers? Do I hear "fee increase?"
This idea will need to fit into the Merced River Plan (version 3 currently under review after 2 failed attempts) which is dominating the future direction of Yosemite.
TODAY (DEC 14, 2012) IS THE DEADLINE TO COMMENT ON THE PLAN
http://www.whitneyzone.com/wz/ubbthreads.php/topics/19921/Yosemite_After_The_Flood_Of_19#Post19921
