TRUCKEE - The state parks department has clearance to build a controversial museum on the eastern end of Donner Lake, but that does not mean the museum is a sure bet.

Mounting opposition to the 10,000-square-foot Donner Pass history project has convinced the agency to reconsider, even as the project cleared the final environmental hurdle.

If the museum does not go ahead as proposed, the parks department will either build nothing or renovate and reconstruct the existing museum, said Hayden Sohm, superintendent for the Sierra District of the California Department of Parks and Recreation.

The prospect of a new museum within 175 feet of the east shore of Donner Lake brought little discussion when it was aired to the public. But in the final weeks of the environmental process, opposition piled up fast. The day before the public input period was scheduled to close, the town of Truckee weighed in, asking the parks department to consider building a new museum at the current museum location.

The museum project would cost more than $6 million, most of which would be financed by federal highway funds, and add more than 70 parking spaces and a second entrance to the park.

The state parks department had settled on the lakeside location after land negotiations for a museum on the A. Teichert and Sons property in Coldstream Canyon fell through. A plan for the museum going between the two campsites in Donner Memorial State Park was discarded because it would conflict with campsites and was too far from Donner Pass Road

Marcy Dolan said she knew there were a lot of people around town who had not bothered to write a letter opposing the museum plans. So in the two weeks before the public comment period was slated to close, she gathered about 750 signatures on a petition opposing the new museum.

"This is about saving a beach," Dolan said. "I would hate to lose that beach."

Mountain Area Preservation Foundation President John Eaton wrote several letters to the state parks department, urging the department to come up with another location away from the shoreline.

"That, to me, would solve a lot of problems," Eaton said.

But it is not just the environmental impacts of building so close to the shoreline that worries people. Others are concerned that a second entrance off of Donner Pass Road, coupled with bike and pedestrian traffic, could cause a safety hazard.

"The safety issue is a very prime concern to me," said Truckee Town Councilwoman Barbara Green.