The Pelican Winter 2024 -- Reducing Swan Lake-- A Road Realignment Impacts Swan Lake

By Tina Nappe

Will a trafficked and paved road by the lake edge be safe for birds? Photo of reinforced berm by Diane Wong-Kone

Only by chance was LAS made aware of a second hearing on August 29th regarding a Lemmon Drive road realignment proposal adjacent to Swan Lake Nature Study Area. The community meeting was less an inquiry and more of an announcement– The Washoe County Regional Transportation Authority proposes to raise Lemmon Drive above the flood line using a natural embankment adjacent to Swan Lake and landfill. A visit to Swan Lake revealed that berms had already been built into Swan Lake cutting off a small portion of the lake and placing fill next to some of the bank areas. The proposal includes overflow sites.

The realignment will shear off a small part of the lake and place the road embankment into a small portion of the western border where trash and other spills can affect the already polluted water. A letter of protest has been written, but the plans are far down the road. There are multiple land owners; berms already have cut off some of the shoreline.

Google Maps already shows the new proposed road (accessed 12/10/2024).

A hurried meeting of the Swan Lake Advisory Board members revealed that none of them had heard about the proposal.  Washoe County owns only about 40 acres at the entrance to Swan Lake- The BLM land is not impacted by the project. Several parcels are still owned by General Services and some are privately owned.  

After submitting our letter of concern, Jane Burnham, Diane Wong-Kone, Linda St-Cyr and I have been invited to meet with RTC.  An Environmental Assessment report that the public can comment on for a limited time will be published in Spring 2025. If you have concerns about the environmental impacts of this project, please follow this project on the RTC webpage for Lemmon Drive Traffic Improvements to learn more.