NORTHVILLE, Mich. (WXYZ) — The first piece of the massive Northville Downs redevelopment is now open to the public, transforming a former race track site into a riverfront park.
Watch Christiana Ford's video report:
The 10-acre Downs River Park features pedestrian bridges, walking and cycling trails, drinking fountains, and bike stations, all connected to downtown Northville. The park itself cost $19.6 million in total. In addition to city and developer funds, cleanup and daylighting of the river included millions in American Rescue Plan dollars from Wayne County and money from EGLE.
A central feature of the park is the restored Rouge River, which had been buried under cement since the 1960s.
Nancy Darga, a licensed landscape architect, founding member of Friends of the Rouge, and chair of the city's River Restoration Task Force, advocated for years to see the river restored and a public riverwalk connecting nearby parks included in the redevelopment plans.
"It became a very imperative to me that we restore this river that was buried in the 1960s and bring it back alive and make a park. You can build houses anywhere, but when you pave paradise and put in a parking lot, it's gone forever, and so we wanted to bring it back," Darga said.
Darga described the long road to making the park a reality.
"It's a very long, complicated process that had many challenges, but what really helped is that the residents of Northville really wanted something positive to happen with the river. 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.
She said the results have exceeded expectations.
"Look at it now. It has sinuosity. It has ripple pools. It has root balls that are anchoring the shores in a natural way. It has riparian plants, 9 species of fish already," Darga said. "It's amazing. It was almost like Mother Nature, once they realized the river was free and it was open, and it was open to sunlight, it just charged forward."
Darga called the project a defining accomplishment.
"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 residents Chuck and Oletta Holmes were among those enjoying the park after its ribbon-cutting.
"We're really excited about it. It's so nice to have the river open," Chuck Holmes said.
Resident Lenore Lewandowski also took in the new space.
"It's beautiful. It's much bigger area than I thought it would be. This will be a lovely place to come and walk," Lewandowski said.
Northville Mayor Brian Turnbull said the park was created to ensure the redevelopment included green space after earlier plans envisioned 650 homes without any.
"We're excited about it. On the southern part, we have our farmers' market, and that has 3,000 people that come to Northville every Thursday. Now they have someplace to recreate and enjoy life out there, too. So we're excited for the city. We're excited for all of Southeastern Michigan," Turnbull said.
Turnbull highlighted the park's scope and said it's been envisioned by past generations.
"I think the park is better than they ever anticipated. There's 2.5 miles worth of walk space with the sidewalks and all these walkways you see around you. And we're going to do parallel parking right next to the park up here," Turnbull said.
Wayne County CEO Warren Evans pointed to the partnership that made the project possible.
"Collaboration is really the new currency," Evans said.
The park marks a major milestone in the $350 million Northville Downs redevelopment project by Hunter Pasteur and Toll Brothers, which is nearing completion.
"This is a generational asset for the city of Northville," said Seth Herkowitz, COO of Hunter Pasteur.
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