The National Park Service is scrambling to explain its construction last year of 19 employee homes in Yosemite National Park whose average cost exceeds half a million dollars.
In December, Interior Department auditors asked the service to document the costs of the single-family homes, which the DOI estimated cost at $584,000 apiece. In 1996, the national average cost for a home of the same size was $110,000. The Yosemite digs are far from luxurious -- at an average size of 1,750 square feet, they have no fireplaces and just three bedrooms. But they do contain "expensive" features such as rooftop solar panels and lots with mature trees.
Their remote location in the park also adds to their cost.
At Interior's request, the NPS highlighted some unusual aspects that rapidly increased costs, like building on a landslide-prone hillside, where crews also carved out a soccer field, basketball court, tennis court and playground. Cost per house: $32,789 (Frank Greve, Detroit Free Press, 8/21).
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