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A green space vision in Southeast Michigan’s most heavily industrialized area

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Abstract

In 2011, Marathon Petroleum Company LP, which has operated a refinery west of the Rouge River since 1959, initiated a voluntary property purchase program in the neighborhood known as the Oakwood Heights. Approximately 80 % of residents accepted the offers made to them. Around the same time, a group of community and nonprofit stakeholders was developing a vision for revitalizing the area adjacent to the new Fort Street Bridge, through celebrating cultural heritage, preserving natural Great Lake habitats and supporting recreational opportunities along the river. As a result of the collaboration that developed, parts of the 110-acre area are now slated to become a wildlife habitat and urban forest, supporting other green infrastructure along the Rouge and Detroit Rivers. The paper proceeds in four parts: 1) we first provide background and an overview of the history of the Rouge River and its importance to the development of the culture and industry of Detroit, Michigan; 2) we then describe the development of the idea for expanded green space in this area as the confluence of two concurrent investments, one by government and one by industry, and a series of discussions between local stakeholders and community residents; 3) we present the vision for two contiguous green space areas, including a small interpretive park and a landscape designed to maximize ecosystem services; and 4) we conclude with a discussion of this project’s significance as it relates to both the city of Detroit and other cities facing similar challenges, exploring how private industry can work with NGOs and public agencies to transform such interstitial areas into multifunctional landscapes that provide tangible benefits to community residents as well as measurable environmental outcomes.

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Notes

  1. “Detroit—Highest Urban Concentration of Poverty in the US Can Be Deadly,” by Jim Schaffer, April 26, 2016, the Detroit Free Press, accessed 3/28/2018 at https://nonprofitquarterly.org/2016/05/03/detroit-highest-urban-concentration-of-poverty-in-the-us-can-be-deadly/

  2. See US EPA (2017). What is Green Infrastructure? Accessed 3/27/2018 at https://www.epa.gov/green-infrastructure/what-green-infrastructureAccording to American Rivers (2018), “Green infrastructure incorporates both the natural environment and engineered systems to provide clean water, conserve ecosystem values and functions, and provide a wide array of benefits to people and wildlife.”

  3. To see the area using the GISP, go to the following link and select area 282: http://umich.maps.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=4b257ce673ed4a178d11b4a267a9967e

  4. For more information on the Heavy Oil Upgrade, see http://www.fluor.com/projects/heavy-oil-refinery-clean-fuels-epc

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Behavioral Sciences, The University of Michigan-Dearborn, Dearborn, MI, 48128, USA

    Paul Draus

  2. PEA, Inc., 7927 Nemco Way #115, Brighton, MI, 48116, USA

    Sam Lovall

  3. Marathon Petroleum Company LP, 1001 Oakwood, Detroit, MI, 48217, USA

    Treva Formby

  4. Michigan Department of Transportation, State Transportation Building, 425 W. Ottawa St., P.O. Box 30050, Lansing, MI, 48909, USA

    Lloyd Baldwin

  5. Boynton Subsector 48217 Core Group, P.O. Box 1278, Lincoln Park, MI, 48146, USA

    Wanda Lowe-Anderson

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  1. Paul Draus
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  2. Sam Lovall
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  3. Treva Formby
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  4. Lloyd Baldwin
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  5. Wanda Lowe-Anderson
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Correspondence to Paul Draus.

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Draus, P., Lovall, S., Formby, T. et al. A green space vision in Southeast Michigan’s most heavily industrialized area. Urban Ecosyst 22, 91–102 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-018-0765-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-018-0765-7

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