Politics & Government
Here Come the Yurts Again
Those Mongolian-style yurts, purchased for seasonal farmworker housing more than 10 years ago, may return as visitor lodgings in the threatened state parks Upvalley. How much should the yurts cost a night? Take our poll to let the local park groups know.
Updated Jan. 7
In 2001, a shortage of housing for migrant vineyard workers led the Napa County Housing Authority—aided by private donations from vintners and grape-growers—to spend $130,000 on yurt housing for 40 workers, according to a 2007 Jill Decker column in the
This year, the Register reports, a shortage of funding for state parks may see the long-stored yurts return, this time as visitor lodgings to help preserve a pair of Upvalley parks currently slated for closure.
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What about these yurts?
The traditional dwelling of Mongolian nomads, a yurt is a sturdy but packable, circle-shaped platform tent with a pointed dome. One yurt can provide living space for from three to 10 people, and you can book a stay in a yurt at resorts in 30 states including California and Hawaii, according to the website yurtlodging.com.
Find out what's happening in Napa Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.
Napa County bought 10 yurts for migrant vineyard workers, according to a 2002 report in the New York Times; but they were needed for only two seasons, Decker wrote in 2007.
New residential facilities built under voter-approved Measure L, which in 2001 made it legal to construct farmworker housing on agricultural land, meant that by 2003 the county no longer needed to set up its nomadic yurt village as it had done in Yountville and Lake Hennessy in previous years.
But the county didn't want to scrap its yurt investment, a housing official told Decker in 2007, so the yurts have have remained in storage for almost a decade.
Return of the yurts
Now comes news that the yurts may be back, this time in the state parks in Calistoga as part of a strategy to keep the facilities open despite Sacramento budget cuts.
Buried in a Register article about community efforts to preserve access to Bale Grist Mill State Park and Bothe Napa Valley State Park is this tantalizing tidbit, attributed to John Woodbury of the :
"They also plan to install 13 yurts, 10 of which Napa County owns and once used as emergency farmworker shelters, and charge fees for people to stay in them, Woodbury said.
'They appeal to the modern consumer,' Woodbury said."
The Park and Open Space District and the Napa Valley State Parks Association are proposing that the state allow them to take over the two Calistoga parks, instead of closing them, according to the Register report.
What's the next move?
If the groups succeed at the state level, they could be running Bothe Napa Valley by April 1 and Bale Grist Mill soon afterward, Woodbury told the newspaper.
It's an ambitious mission that will need community support every step of the way to keep the parks safe, attractive and successful.
Do you think the yurts will help? And how much should they cost? Take our poll, and maybe we can provide some useful feedback to the parks' next proprietors.
