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Plan: Relocate rim parking: Rim Village parking may leave Crater Lake’s edge

Herald and News

Klamath Falls, Oregon
November 22, 2002
By LEE JUILLERAT
A project that’s been decades in the making — relocating the Rim Village parking area away from the rim of Crater Lake — is moving closer to reality.

Chuck Lundy, Crater Lake National Park’s superintendent, said it’s hoped the parking lot relocation and rehabilitation of the cafeteria and gift shop will begin in 2004. Estimated cost of the project is $7.2 million.
Currently, the first thing visitors to Rim Village see when they arrive is not Crater Lake, but a massive parking lot capable of holding 152 vehicles.
Relocation of the parking area is aimed at creating pedestrian walkways in the present parking lot, which will be moved behind the cafeteria and gift shop.
“It will be one of the most satisfying things that people associate with Crater Lake, to arrive at the rim of Crater Lake and see that body of water, and not a sea of windshields,” predicts Lundy of the parking lot relocation. He also believes the redesign of the buildings, which includes viewing areas of the lake from the second floor, will enhance winter visits.

“To be able to look out over a field of snow that flows into the caldera will be terrific,” said Lundy.

The park is reviewing an environmental assessment that became necessary when previous plans were modified. Under a new proposed alternative, a portion of the existing cafeteria-gift shop will be rehabilitated and redesigned, instead of being torn down and replaced with a new building.

Lundy said the cafeteria and gift shop is actually a connected “building complex,” consisting of the original 1928 building and additions completed in 1958, 1969 and 1972. Under the new plan, the 1928 and 1972 buildings could be adaptively reused.

Previously, a plan prepared in 1999 had called for demolishing the new structures and constructing a new visitor contact station.

The environmental assessment is expected to be released for public review in January. Preliminary design work for the relocated parking lot has already been done.
t’s a very important project for the future of the park and visitors,” said Lundy. “It will complete the vision for redeveloping and rehabilitating the rim.”
Construction is expected to take two seasons. A new parking lot will be built before the existing lot is removed, naturalized with trees and plants and converted into a “pedestrian plaza.”

Regional Editor Lee Juillerat covers Lake, Siskiyou, Modoc and northern Klamath counties. He can be reached at 885-4421, (800) 275-0982, or by e-mail at lee@heraldandnews.com.

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