Why Detroiters have a right to their parks — mostly

Detroiters regularly worry about many things being taken from them: their homes, their neighborhood schools, their beloved local buildings.

One asset that is more difficult to take away is parks. Thanks to funding sources that tie money to preservation, these parks are supposed to stay parks in perpetuity.

The City of Detroit has made extensive use of these funding sources, applying them to 50 parks to date.

“We go after a lot of grant funding because in a lot of cases that’s the only way we can have these beautiful public spaces,” said Crystal Perkins, director of the city’s General Services Department.

There is a mechanism for parcels to be sold off to developers. But to do that, the city has to convert land elsewhere to parkland .

The topic of park conversions was recently highlighted during a public meeting of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, which detailed a plan to offset the sale of three parks near downtown that had received grant money. In exchange, the city would develop a large plot in northwest Detroit into a new park — a 20-minute drive away.

Here’s more about conservation grants and how they work.

What are the funds?

There are several funding sources that tie their use to land preservation in Detroit. One is the state’s Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund (MNRTF), which provides around $15 million to $20 million in grants every year for park projects in the state. It’s funded thousands since its creation in 1976.

The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), a nationwide fund created in 1965, has also funded thousands of projects across the country. Royalties from energy companies drilling for offshore oil and gas maintain the fund at $900 million a year. Notable recipients of this funding in Detroit include the RiverWalk and Palmer Park.

What are the restrictions placed on land use?

The total value of land must remain consistent when municipalities receive funding from these sources, whether it’s for the creation of a park or improvements later on.

“Value” is not necessarily straightforward and can mean total acreage or access to recreation. If the city sells a well-used but small plot of land near downtown, it might not be able to replace it with a park the same size somewhere else because its value in terms of both market and access wouldn’t be as high.

The goal , according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), is to “permanently increase public outdoor recreation opportunities in the state.”

Many of these deed restrictions date back decades.

Erin Campbell, recreation grants conversion officer for the DNR, said by email it’s common for the process to begin after the original parkland has already been converted “some years ago.”

“Once discovered, we work closely with the community to resolve the conversion,” she said. “The city has been a true partner in this coordinated, lengthy and complicated process. We are all looking forward to wrapping up the conversions.”

Detroit is currently suffering a penalty on future grant applications because of conversion delays. The funds award grants based on a scoring system, and municipalities that don’t do a conversion properly will have points docked in future applications, jeopardizing funding.

“They are still eligible to apply for grants, but the point deduction is significant,” Campbell said.

How does the process work?

When converting a park, the municipality identifies both the land it wants to sell or convert to another use and the land it will acquire to offset that conversion. It submits these plans to the DNR and National Park Service, which determines whether the replacement maintains the same level of recreation.

The municipality then conducts an environmental assessment that it submits to the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). It must also get the land appraised to make sure it’s of at least equal value and undergo a 30-day public review.

The DNR and National Park Service then provide a final approval of the conversion.

What conversions are taking place in Detroit?

The city wants to convert three parks in the Midtown and Brush Park neighborhoods: Wick Park, Wigle Playfield and Brush-Adelaide Park. It would mitigate the loss of land from all three parks with the redevelopment of the former Rogell Golf Course as Rogell Park on the city’s northwest side.

So far, the city has gotten preliminary approval of the plan from the DNR, even though it already sold at least some of these three parks. The city sold Wick Park way back in 2008, and it’s now a parking lot near Cass Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard for a nearby apartment building. A developer purchased and redeveloped Wigle Playfield into Midtown West. The city sold the north parcel of Brush-Adelaide and put the south parcel up for sale.

Not everyone is thrilled about the conversion plan.

“In my opinion it is less about how much park space is kept in the neighborhood and much more about which park space is kept,” Rebecca Wheeler, 48, a lifelong Cass Corridor resident, said in a message.

Wheeler doesn’t think there’s enough publicly accessible outdoor space in her neighborhood because so many desirable plots have been sold to developers.

“Our homes and parks and spaces are not just cogs in a machine that can be interchangeable at will.”

Tell me more about Rogell Park

The Rogell Park project would convert a former golf course between Grand River Avenue and 7 Mile Road into a 98-acre park with an additional 22 acres set aside for private development.

The redevelopment has been in the works for years. The city published a master plan in 2018 detailing a series of trails and wetlands, with the potential for pavilions in the future.

Perkins of the General Services Department said the city will spend $7.5 million to bring about many of the same near-term park features outlined in the master plan. She didn’t describe which because the city hasn’t finalized the new plan yet.

The project has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rising construction costs, but Perkins is thrilled now that it’s close to reality.

“It’s a very exciting project,” she said. “It’s a desolate property that’s sat there for years without any care at all. And now it’s going to fill a big need in the area.”

The city is currently awaiting environmental approval from EGLE. Perkins said the city hopes to begin development on Rogell Park by the end of the year, eyeing a fall 2025 opening.

Detroit Documenters Colleen Cirocco and Shawntay Lewis contributed to this story.

Why Detroiters have a right to their parks — mostly · by Aaron Mondry · Outlier Media