The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission will hold a hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 4, to consider the Catalina Island Conservancy’s proposal to relocate and remodel Eagle’s Nest Lodge, the last surviving stage coach stop on the Island.
The Los Angeles County Regional Planning Commission will hold a hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 4, to consider the Catalina Island Conservancy’s proposal to relocate and remodel Eagle’s Nest Lodge, the last surviving stage coach stop on the Island.
The county agency will review what is called a “mitigated negative declaration,” which is a decision by a government agency that a project’s potential impact on the environment can be minimized. If the declaration is approved, no environmental impact report will be necessary. The California Environmental Quality Act requires that reviewing agencies make such decisions.
Conservancy officials expect the Eagle’s Nest Lodge project to be completed in 2015.
In 1995 an epic storm washed out sections of Middle Ranch Road and put Eagle’s Nest Lodge in peril. The road was rebuilt in 2001, but because of its low-lying location in the canyon, the structure continues to be at risk from water damage and flooding. The building has been closed to the public in its present location since 1995 due to its unsafe condition.
The California Cultural and Historical Endowment, recognizing the merit of the project, awarded the Conservancy a planning grant for the project, supplemented by another grant in 2011.
Eagle’s Nest Lodge is a valued historical and cultural asset, part of the fabric that makes Catalina the interesting destination it is today.
”This project a great example of public and private partnership that benefits the Island,” Muscat said. “It brings the lodge back to life and once again makes it available to the community and visitors alike.”
The Conservancy enlisted the aid of architectural firms, to find the new location, a little more than a mile and a half up the road, and on higher ground. When completed the public will once again experience the lodge as it originally looked.
“The CCHE grant recognized the cultural and historic value of Eagle’s Nest Lodge as the need to relocate it to a safe, permanent and accessible location,” said Joe Kalla, Conservancy chief operating officer responsible for the project. “This is an exciting and innovative solution that saves the lodge and its historic character while expanding its role at Middle Ranch.”
The Banning brothers built original structure in 1896. It served as a hunting lodge and stagecoach stop for people making the two-day trip from Avalon to Two Harbors.
It was then modified with additions in the early 1920s. The place took its name from two bald eagles that made their nest in a tree near the lodge.
Once construction begins, the build-out is expected to take at least 12 to 18 months. When completed, visitors will be able to explore exhibit and interpretive displays that showcase the cultural and natural history of the Island as well as Middle Ranch and the people who worked there.
According to the Conservancy, the rehabilitated lodge will include public space for recreation including a picnic area with small outdoor cooking facilities, a horseshoe pit, walking paths and outdoor stepped seating area for nature lectures or other presentations. The Conservancy’s Ackerman Native Plant Nursery staff has already begun propagating native plants to serve as landscaping throughout the entire area.
The legal notice announcing the Dec. 4 hearing said the new site will be 1.7 miles to the east of the lodge’s current location and that the lodge will be used as a visitors’ center. “Accessory structures and facilities, including an above-ground water tank, would also be constructed at the new location,” the document said.
As the Islander reported in January 2012, funding for the lodge came from two Ho Down events as well as the CCHE, the Schriener and Hagenah families, led by Blanny Hagenah.
That same month, architects began drawing detailed plans for the project.
At the time, Natalie Hazard, Conservancy capital projects manager, expected work to begin in October, subject to the process of getting permits.
