Todd Scott saw something unexpected while riding his bike to a Joe Louis Greenway informational meeting in southwest Detroit: construction equipment moving dirt.
The Detroit Greenways Coalition director's sighting in 2019 has led to an ongoing legal battle the city has said will hold up progress in creating a 28-mile neighborhood-connecting loop around the city.
The pathway, envisioned in 2007 and named after legendary Detroit boxer Joe Louis in 2017, is expected to start the first phase of its construction in May. The finished trail — previously estimated at $50 million but lacking a final cost — will stretch from the riverfront up to Hamtramck, Highland Park, along Livernois Avenue and connect to Dearborn.
Proponents hope it leads to new business and development alongside it. But moving the trail forward hasn't come without roadblocks, including a physical one that could affect future phases of the plan near Oakman Boulevard and Livernois Avenue in northwest Detroit.
Both the city and a commercial property owner claim they own 1.7 acres of land needed for the trail. So Detroit in March sued Dexter Doris LLC and the companies it leases to, Sun Valley Foods Co. and the Great Lakes Baking Co., over their encroachment on the land. The companies installed a gravel parking lot and barbed wire fencing on the property, cut trees there and piled contaminated soil and railroad ties 20-30 feet high, according to court documents. Dexter Doris' attorney did not respond to a request for comment, and neither did Sun Valley Foods. A Great Lakes Baking representative and a city of Detroit representative both declined to comment.
Urban greenways cut through acres of land and that means they often wind through property to which someone else has laid claim. This brings arguments and legal battles often made more complex when former railroad lines are involved — as in the case of the Joe Louis Greenway. These disputes are common and while they can slow down these projects, they rarely ruin them altogether.
"The city argues that defendants' continued trespass and encroachment will delay construction on the Greenway and will jeopardize funding for the project, causing significant harm to the city," Judge Muriel Hughes wrote in an August judgment on the Wayne County Circuit Court case.
The city of Detroit is still working to resolve the lawsuit, though Hughes did deny the city's motion for a mandatory injunction in the case, saying more evidence was needed to assess each party's interests in the property and that the city couldn't prove it would be irreparably harmed if the defendants continued to allegedly trespass. A settlement conference was originally scheduled for Wednesday but has since been rescheduled to Sept. 1.
The companies, the city alleged, were unlawfully encroaching on a small slice of 76 acres the city bought from Conrail Inc. with state grants to fill in a 7.5-mile gap in the trail. Meanwhile, the defendants see the land as theirs.
The city first learned of the alleged encroachment after it was glimpsed in September 2019 by Scott, who leads the coalition that has fought for the Joe Louis Greenway for more than a decade.
"I happened to be going down, I think it was Dexter (Avenue)," Scott said. "I noticed there was heavy equipment moving dirt on the property I was quite certain was the former Conrail property."
Construction hadn't started, so activity on the site seemed odd. Scott mentioned it to a city official, and said he was later thanked for making them aware.
The city ordered the defendants to stop using the disputed land several times the next month, according to a summary of the lawsuit provided in Hughes' order. It didn't take.
Detroit says it acquired the property in April 2019. The deal contained some exceptions, though, including the rights of other involved parties like Dexter Doris LLC. So, the defendants argue that because the land in question falls under these exceptions, the city was not actually allowed to obtain it in the first place.
The greenway is a fine idea, the businesses say in court documents, but counter that "depriving private businesses of their property via injunctive relief" would be harmful not just because the property is theirs but also because they employ 100 people, including Detroit residents, and use those lots to provide food services in the area.
This is nowhere near the first time a dispute over property has slowed down an urban or even suburban trail project as governments forge paths in populated areas.
On Detroit's near-east side, a planned rail-to-trail dubbed the Beltline Greenway has been stopped in its tracks; property owners changed their mind on selling their land.
"It's been postponed until we can get ahold of the land," Scott said of the trail from Detroit's Islandview and Villages area to the riverfront.
In another case much farther north, Scott said there was "tremendous pushback" from adjacent landowners when it came to the creation of the 23.5-mile Macomb Orchard Trail that finished construction in 2011 between Rochester and Richmond.
"This is very common to trail development all over the country," said Eric Oberg, Midwest director for the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit Rails-to-Trails Conservancy that assists communities converting rail corridors to paths.
Rail-to-trail conversions are popular; there are more than 24,000 miles of them across the U.S., according to the conservancy. But they're also rife with property disputes, though generally not with ill intent and not without a solution.
"The opportunity for disputes around land on rail corridors is just easier than other types of property, because it's been there for so long, it's been used for one use for so long and typically the active use is such a small part of the actual land and that's where misunderstanding of where the land lines are makes it easy to encroach on," Oberg said. "It's not like a regular business or any private person buying a piece of property ... You're putting together ... 50- to 100-foot-wide corridors."
The Joe Louis Greenway would run through five of the seven Detroit City Council districts, with 70 percent of the trail off-street. In some areas it connects with other existing paths such as the Detroit RiverWalk, Dequindre Cut and Iron Belle Trail. The city has $34 million in public funding so far and expects philanthropic and private funds.
"As we work on the final construction documentation we will have a stronger cost estimate of the full route," the city said in a statement to Crain's.
The city expects to break ground in in May on the first phase of the greenway, pending state environmental approval, and finish in late 2021. Crews have already started clearing out a pathway for the first leg, a 2.8-mile chunk of the former rail line from Warren Avenue to Fullerton Avenue that intersects with Grand River Avenue near the Dearborn border. It doesn't include the disputed land.
"So why are we starting here?" Christina Peltier, project manager in the General Services Department's public spaces planning unit, said in an October community presentation. "It's one of the most difficult spots due to environmental, vacancy, but we think it'll have the greatest impact ... We're hoping with environmental remediation and enforcement on some of the businesses this will improve the quality of life for residents. There's so much potential for new businesses along the major roads and we're just really excited to see the impact from this section."
The creation of a framework plan, funded through a $2 million Ralph C. Wilson Jr. foundation grant, has been delayed; it was expected to finish in early 2020 but is now expected to come out in February. Detroit-based SmithGroup was chosen in 2019 to for the work. Scott said the coronavirus pandemic greatly slowed the public engagement process.
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Detroit greenway trail set to start construction, but city in land dispute - Crain's Detroit Business
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