California state parks officials have decided to abandon the idea of constructing a museum near the eastern shore of Donner Lake after meeting with Truckee and Nevada County officials.

“We all decided that building the museum in the site that was proposed was not going to happen,” said Hayden Sohm, Sierra district superintendent for the California Department of Parks and Recreation.

The proposed 10,000-square-foot museum raised a public outcry in the Truckee community earlier this year, with many area residents letting the state parks department know that they wanted the eastern lake shore preserved as an undeveloped area.

The most promising location for a new museum is now the piece of land between the current museum and Donner Pass Road, as discussed by town and park officials when they walked through the park on May 6, Sohm said.

“Rather than tear down the existing museum and put something in its place, we would build something next to the museum,” Sohm said.

The Town of Truckee, in a letter to the parks department, said they saw no problem with a museum between Donner Pass Road and the existing buildings.

“This specific area is flat and has been impacted by past and current development,” read the letter signed by Truckee Mayor Craig Threshie. “It also centralizes the most heavily visited attractions in the park to a single area.”

Truckee residents can expect a public meeting on a new museum site in the fall or early winter.

“When we have a proposed design we would bring that out for public comment,” Sohm said.

Abandoning the lakefront location so far into the planning process cost the state parks approximately $200,000 in design and study work, Sohm estimated. The approximately $6 million project will be funded by state proposition 40 funds, bond money and a federal transportation grant.