Destination: The Lakes

Destination: The Lakes, the most recent initiative of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation (BRAF) designed to establish a master plan to save and improve the LSU Lakes, has reached an important juncture. Following a request for proposals that attracted fifteen submissions from national and local landscape design firms, a final four have been selected. As part of the process for choosing the winning proposal, BRAF would like to invite the public to attend presentations by the finalists at the Manship Theatre on June 30.

The LSU Lakes, in actuality a series of six lakes strung loosely together between the LSU campus and City-Brooks Community Park, are geographical and cultural anchors in an ever-expanding city. It would be difficult to find a resident of Baton Rouge—longtime or recent transplant alike—that doesn't have some memory or association that features the lakes. 

John Spain, executive vice president of BRAF, is no different: "I think I'm like most Baton Rouge people. At various times I've played golf [at City Park]. I used the lakes when I was a student to sit and study. I enjoy just riding by it. If [the lakes are] not there, we've lost something that's very, very important." 

Calling it one of Baton Rouge's "crown jewels," Spain explained that the lakes weren't always the site of carefree recreation. They were once mosquito-infested swamps, dredged into lakes as a stipulation of their donation to LSU in 1933. That they are not natural lakes, however, poses a problem now, since runoff from Bayou Duplantier and high phosphorus loads emptied from surrounding lawns is causing them to revert back to swampland. Healthy lakes should be at least five feet deep; the average depth of the LSU Lakes is a little more than two-and-a-half feet deep. 

A Corps of Engineers study, completed in 2008, described the precarious status of the lakes and made recommendations for ameliorating their deterioration; but since then, no further action has been taken—due in large part to the cost of the effort, which Spain said was in the eighteen to twenty million-dollar range in 2008—so the lakes are now six years further into their demise. 

The Corps' report—an engineering blueprint only—was limited to re-establishing the depth of the lakes; it did not plan for the disposal of the dredged materials nor did it suggest any improvements that could be made to the surrounding forty-five acres of open space. And anyone who has braved the walking/biking/running paths around the heavily trafficked lakes understands that there could stand to be some very basic improvements, if only to address the safety issues. This is where BRAF saw an opportunity. "Obviously, the first step is fixing them[the lakes]," said Spain. "But we also know that's not all there is to it."

The website for the project (batonrougelakes.org), a thorough account of both the origins and mission of the endeavor, describes BRAF's plans, which are essentially limited to funding the development of a master plan at a cost of about $750,000. Whoever is hired to complete the master plan will be tasked with creating a specific vision that would—among many other things—plan for recreational improvements, landscaping, healthy water quality, the protection of bird and fish habitats, and the identification of funding streams to make and maintain the improvements.

The plan will also aim to represent the broad desires of the larger community. With the first opportunity for public input planned on June 30, Spain said the finished master plan will be an "honest reflection of what people in this community want." That is, if the public shows up. 

The June 30 presentations will offer the public the chance to chime in at the outset, placing support behind one of the four final teams (batonrougelakes.org/finalists/), each of which will make presentations from 9 am–2 pm at the Manship Theatre in the Shaw Center for the Arts, 100 Lafayette Street. BRAF is asking that individuals RSVP at this link: batonrougelakes.org/rsvp.