Where the addresses are
- South Lakeshore
- South Lakeshore Drive
- Blanchard Road
- Lakeshore Drive
- Mallard Bay Drive
- Blanchard, to the north
Lakes We Serve · Shreveport, LA
Boat docks, piers and boathouses on Cross Lake.
Shreveport's drinking water sits immediately west of the city, and the City owns it. Everything inside the 172-foot contour line runs on a City permit — but that same ordinance grants a 300-foot pier allowance, the longest around, because on skinny cypress water you need the length.
The Line That Matters
Everything turns on the 172-foot contour.
That contour is the City's boundary around Cross Lake, and any construction within it requires a one-time City construction permit.
Cross Lake is owned, operated and maintained by the City of Shreveport as its drinking water reservoir. There is no lake commission and no river authority — LDWF's own management plan records the lake commission as none — so the permitting question is entirely municipal, and it is set out in Shreveport Code Chapter 78, Article VIII.
Section 78-357 authorizes piers, boathouses and docks for the exclusive use of owners, or of those holding the owner's consent, only by permit. Application forms come from Permits and Inspections or the Cross Lake Patrol office, and the application must be accompanied by a sketch showing location, dimension and construction plans. Approval then requires sign-off from Permits and Inspections, from the Director of Water and Sewerage, and from any other applicable city departments. That second signature is the one people underestimate: the water utility has a real vote here, because this is the city's drinking supply. Structures built without a permit face demolition at the owner's expense.
The length allowance is unusually generous. Stationary or floating piers, wharves and other facilities extending into the reservoir are limited to a maximum total length of not more than 300 feet measured from the 172-foot contour line, and the City Council has waived even that by ordinance in individual cases. Section 78-359 separately directs the City to prescribe construction regulations that minimize obstruction of the passage and view of adjoining riparian property owners — so a neighbor's sightline is a stated review criterion rather than a courtesy. Destruction, damage or removal of city property within the 172-foot contour is prohibited outright.
Two things the published article does not settle: bulkheads, seawalls, retaining walls, dredging and fill are not addressed in terms, and the exact legal relationship between the 172-foot contour and private ownership is not spelled out publicly. Shoretech confirms both with the Director of Water and Sewerage before scoping, rather than reasoning by analogy from another lake. Any dredge-or-fill work also brings the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers into the picture independently. And a practical note for anyone new to the lake: boats here, including non-motorized ones, need a separate City boating permit from the Cross Lake Patrol Office at 2900 Municipal Pier Road.
Around the Lake
An in-town waterfront, about three-quarters developed.
What began in the 1920s and 30s as scattered fishing camps and boathouses matured into a year-round residential neighborhood inside the city limits.
Landings, parks and marinas
- Municipal Pier and Boat Launch
- Ford Park
- Richard Fleming Park
- Melvin's Landing
- Barron's Landing & Marina
- Ark-La-Tex Landing
- Johnson's Fishing Camp
- Shreveport Yacht Club
Cross Lake impounds Cross Bayou in Caddo Parish, with Fordney Bayou entering on one arm, and covers roughly 8,575 to 8,576 acres — about 13.4 square miles. It was impounded in 1926, and raising the spillway one foot in 1962 brought it to its present size. Ford Park runs 85 acres at 5784 South Lakeshore Drive with two ballfields, two playgrounds and a fishing pier on the lake; Richard Fleming Park occupies 15 acres where Fordney Bayou empties in, with two boat ramps, a 60-foot dock, paved parking, an accessible fishing pier, restrooms, a pavilion, picnic tables and two playgrounds; the Municipal Pier and Boat Launch is at 2900 Municipal Pier Road. LDWF lists lake residents, anglers, watersport enthusiasts and waterfowl hunters as the primary stakeholders alongside the City. Published shoreline mileage for Cross Lake varies widely between secondary sources and none of it traces back to LDWF or the City, so no figure is quoted here.
What a Contractor Actually Hits
Skinny cypress water that never goes down.
Average depth at normal pool is 7.7 feet against a 22-foot maximum, over 6,500 acres of it open water and the rest standing bald cypress. The lake sits at or very near pool year-round — so every consideration below is a design consideration, not a scheduling one.
1
No dry window, ever
The 1962 tainter gates cap drawdown capability at three feet below normal pool stage, the two original sluice gates have never been used and are inoperable, and LDWF states plainly that drawdowns are not viable because the lake is the city's water source. Everything happens from floating plant on a full lake. That is a real cost and schedule difference from lakes with a managed drawdown, and it should be in the estimate from day one.
2
Length is how you reach water
With an average of under eight feet, the useful depth off many lots is a long way out. That is precisely why the ordinance allows up to 300 feet from the 172-foot contour. Pier length here is not extravagance — it is the difference between a slip that floats a boat and one that sits on the bottom.
3
Cypress and stumps set the pile layout
Bald cypress lines the banks, dense cypress forest fills the west end and the upper reaches of coves and canals, and old water levels are readable as staining on the stumps. Pile placement gets worked around living trees and submerged wood rather than laid out on a drawing-board grid.
4
Soft margins and marginal vegetation
Submersed vegetation is hard to find on this lake, but the shoreline margins carry giant cutgrass, duck potato, Cuban bulrush and wild taro on undeveloped stretches, with alligator weed, water primrose, spatterdock, fragrant water lily and water pennywort on protected shorelines. Soft, vegetated margins mean bank work and pile embedment get designed to what is actually under the mat, not what is visible from the yard.
Scope of Work
What Shoretech can build on Cross Lake.
Designed for a full lake, a shallow cypress bottom, and a permit that three City departments have to sign.
Long-reach piers & docks
Fixed and floating piers built out to real water inside the 300-foot allowance, laid out around cypress and stumps, and drawn so the neighbor sightline criterion in Section 78-359 is satisfied on the face of the application.
Boathouses & covered slips
Covered moorage engineered for shallow water and a bottom that varies from open lakebed to standing timber — permitted as a boathouse under Section 78-357 with the sketch, dimensions and construction plans the ordinance requires.
Shoreline & bank stabilization
Bank retention on soft, vegetated margins. Because the City article does not address seawalls and bulkheads in terms, the scope and authorization for this work get confirmed with the Director of Water and Sewerage before anything is designed.
Precision dredging
Slip and channel dredging with material pumped for reuse rather than trucked. On a drinking water reservoir this is the most carefully permitted work on the lake — City review and a Corps of Engineers determination both come first.
Questions We Hear
Cross Lake FAQ.
Do I need a City permit to build a pier or boathouse on Cross Lake?
Yes, for anything inside the 172-foot contour line. Shreveport Code Chapter 78, Article VIII, Section 78-357 authorizes piers, boathouses and docks for the exclusive use of owners, or of those with the owner's consent, only by permit. Forms come from Permits and Inspections or the Cross Lake Patrol office, and the application must be accompanied by a sketch showing location, dimension and construction plans. Structures built without a permit face demolition at the owner's expense.
Who has to sign off on the application?
Three parties: Permits and Inspections, the Director of Water and Sewerage, and any other applicable city departments. The water utility having a real vote is the detail people miss — Cross Lake is Shreveport's drinking water reservoir, and that shapes what gets approved. There is no lake commission here; LDWF's own management plan records the lake commission as none.
How long can a pier be on Cross Lake?
Generous by regional standards. Stationary or floating piers, wharves and other facilities extending into the reservoir are limited to a maximum total length of not more than 300 feet from the 172-foot contour line, and the City Council has waived even that by ordinance in individual cases. Section 78-359 also directs the City to prescribe construction regulations that minimize obstruction of the passage and view of adjoining riparian property owners, so a neighbor's sightline is an explicit review criterion, not an afterthought.
Does Cross Lake get drawn down so shoreline work can be done in the dry?
No. The 1962 tainter gates cap maximum drawdown capability at three feet below normal pool stage, the two original sluice gates have never been used and are inoperable, and LDWF states plainly that drawdowns are not a viable management strategy because the lake is the city's water source. Plan every project around a full lake — barge access, floating plant and in-water pile driving, not a dry window that is not coming.
What about a bulkhead, seawall or dredging?
The Cross Lake article addresses piers, boathouses, docks and “other improvements and developments,” but does not spell out bulkheads, seawalls, retaining walls, dredging or fill in terms. Those should be confirmed directly with the Director of Water and Sewerage rather than assumed, and any dredge-or-fill work in a navigable water body will also implicate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Shoretech settles that question in writing before scoping the job.
Nearby Water
More Ark-La-Tex lakes.
Start With a Conversation
Planning a project on Cross Lake?
Tell Dave where your frontage sits, how far out the water gets usable, and what the cypress looks like off the bank. The design, the length and the City application follow from that.