A walk in the park
Opening of $20 million Downs River Park celebrated in Northville
Northville residents and officials helped celebrate the official opening of the long-anticipated Downs River Park last week.
While the new 10-acre, $19.6 million park offers pedestrian bridges, walking and cycling trails, drinking fountains and bike stations, the most popular attraction is the restored section of the Rouge River. Restoration of the waterway required unearthing the river which had been buried under the former Northville Downs racetrack for decades. Funding for the massive project included millions in American Rescue Plan dollars from Wayne County and money from the state Environment, Great Lakes and Energy (EGLE) department, along with funding from Hunter Pasteur and Toll Brothers developers of the $350 million Northville Downs project.
Darga told reporters that the success of the long, complicated process exceeded her expectations. Restoring the river, she said, was due in part to the strong support of city residents.
“They wanted it to restore it to a healthy watercourse, and so we just kept pushing and getting people to start working together on it," Darga said.
"It is a lifetime achievement. There are so many people that worked on this in the task force. I would say it is our greatest achievement for this decade, for the future children and the descendants of the children," Darga said.
Northville Mayor Brian Turnbull said the new park will benefit more than just Northville. He said the park would help connect regional pathways north to Mackinaw City, south to Ohio, and east-west through Wayne and Oakland counties, including Maybury State Park and Hines Drive. He added that the construction of two 5-acre bioswales and the floodplain pond were designed to help reduce downstream flooding in Wayne County communities all the way to Dearborn and the Detroit River.
Wayne County CEO Warren Evans helped celebrate the opening of the new park and said a partnership of the city, the state, the county and the developer were key to success of the project.
"Collaboration is really the new currency," Evans said.
"This is a generational asset for the city of Northville," said Seth Herkowitz, COO of Hunter Pasteur. He told the crowd at the officials opening that work planned for the next two years includes completing two additional sections of riverwalk north of the park, with partners like DTE and SEMCOG. He said the park would be linked to the new Oakland County Nine Mile pathway project and that additional parking and drainage improvements are planned along with $1.6 million in development of better park access.
