West River Site Project

Purpose

The vision of the West River Street Site Project has been to celebrate the Truckee River as a public asset, provide public riverfront access, utilize riparian restoration and native landscaping and catalyze river corridor improvement. The redevelopment site, located at 10257 West River Street, will be a mixed-use project along the Truckee River, featuring a riverfront park and river-oriented commercial offerings.

The park is named DEWBEYÚMUWEɁ, a Washoe Tribe name meaning “the water running out,” honoring the Truckee River as the sole outlet of Lake Tahoe. You can access a video that breaks down the pronunciation in our YouTube video, How to Pronounce DEWBEYÚMUWEɁ PARK. 

Birds-eye view of the West River Street Project location along the Truckee River

  1. 1 Rendering of the Dewbeyumuwe Park above showing the street view towards the river.
  2. 2 Rendering of the Dewbeyumuwe Park above with the river below and vegetation and lookouts within.

Project Design & Status 

Construction of DEWBEYÚMUWEɁ PARK started in late May 2024 and opened to the public in October 2025. 

  • The Town offered a public design workshop and community design survey in the summer of 2020. The design team used the workshop and survey input to refine the final park design. You can review a summary of the July 2020 West River Park Design Survey (PDF).
  • The project developed two Streetscape Options (PDF) for parking and pedestrian/bicycle circulation. These options were presented to the Town Council in March 2020 and parallel parking with Class II bike lanes were selected.
  • The Town worked with landscape architecture firm Melton Design Group to design the park.
  • The Planning Commission approved the Development Permit, Use Permit, and Sign Permit for the park on November 21, 2023.
  • The project went to Town Council on January 23, 2024, and was authorized to go to bid. At this meeting, Town Council decided to remove direct access to the Truckee River from the park as recommended by the Truckee River Watershed Council. Therefore, the park will have a handrail along the lowest paths restricting direct access to the Truckee River.
  • On April 23, 2024, Town Council awarded and executed a contract with Ruppert, Inc for construction of the park.

Background

The West River Site was occupied by the Truckee Lumber Company from 1885-1901. The property then serviced as the Nevada County Department of Transportation and Sanitation maintenance yard from approximately 1964-1994. The Town acquired the site from Nevada County in 2004 for future redevelopment.

In 2010-2011 the Redevelopment Agency hosted a series of three public workshops to solicit the community's vision and to investigate the appropriate mix of open space and development on the West River Site. The community vision that emerged was for a mixed-use site, on which a public park and river-oriented commercial development will work together to activate the site and provide public access to and views of the Truckee River. This plan is articulated in the 2011 Redevelopment Feasibility Study (PDF). This project was paused from 2011-2016 during completion of environmental cleanup of the site.

In 2017, the Town held a public workshop to re-start this project and confirm the 2011 concept plan. The Town noticed the park site land available to other agencies as a part of the State’s surplus land requirements and received no interest. Using a public Request for Qualifications process, the Town then selected two development teams to partner with the Town on the site's commercial offerings. As of June 2024, the Town is still negotiating with the two development teams but has not sold any land. If terms for a purchase and sale agreement are reached with either developer, the agreement would be considered in a public Truckee Town Council meeting. Also, any future project on those sites would be reviewed and considered by the Planning Commission at an open, public meeting. 

Project background and related plans:

  1. Town of Truckee General Plan
  2. Downtown Truckee Plan and Appendices
  3. Downtown River Revitalization Strategy
  4. West River Site Redevelopment Feasibility Study (PDF)
  5. 2011 Workshop Summary (PDF) and 2017 Workshop Summary (PDF) 
  6. West River Site Parcel Map (PDF)
  7. West River Street Park Design Video (2020) - Please note that some changes have been made to the final design and this rendering was published in 2020. 

For additional information regarding this project, please contact Nola Mitchell, Associate Engineer or call 530-582-2904.