The Baton Rouge Area Foundation will work to create a plan to preserve the University and City Park lakes, keeping them from reverting to swampland and making them a more usable public space for its 50-year anniversary.
According to a news release, the primary reason for the lake preservation is the slow increase of sediment within the lakes, which over time will turn them back into swamps.
John Davies, the president and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, said the plan for the lakes will include new walking and biking paths that protect runners and walkers from vehicles.
Davies said the lakes were first dug up from a swamp in the 1930s, and restoring them can increase the quality of living in the parish.
The foundation will hire an engineering firm to survey the lake bed’s depth and soil composition first to determine how much material will need to be cleaned out and how it can be used to build amenities like walking paths. The plan will also build on a blueprint created in 2008 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for digging the lakes to an average depth of five feet, the release said.
The foundation will need to identify sources of funding for the lake project and also design a plan for the lake’s upkeep after the preservation plan is initially completed, the release said.
The foundation plans to begin the engineering study this month and will search for a landscape architecture firm to complete the project this summer.