Can Metro Parks save Detroit's State Fair?

Metro Detroit is about to score the green space hat trick now that Huron-Clinton Metro Parks is making moves to take over the State Fairgrounds in Detroit.

The scores would include Detroit receiving its first Metro Park, establishing the first inner-city Metro Park in the region, and saving the annual Michigan State Fair.

"The State Fair has been one of our regional jewels for more than 100 years," says Tim Greimel, an Oakland County Commissioner representing Pontiac, Auburn Hills, and Rochester Hills, who is helping push the deal forward. "It provides family friendly entertainment to hundreds of thousands of people. It would be a great shame if we lost the State Fair."

Under the deal, the state would lease the State Fairgrounds at Woodward Avenue and 8 Mile Road to Metro Parks for $1 a year. Metro Parks would agree to run the State Fair and create a year-round park with the rest of the 135 acres. That park could include amenities such as a fishing area, cross country skiing, and athletic fields.

"One of the challenges southern Oakland County has is the lack of large-acreage parkland," Greimel says. "The alternative is our southeast Oakland County communities would have a vacant eyesore across the road."

One of the major complaints Detroit and the inner-ring suburbs have had is that they pay taxes for Metro Parks, but most of that parkland is at the outer fringes of the region. Turning the State Fair into a Metro Park would go a long way toward remedying that complaint.

The Metro Parks Board of Commissioners tabled the proposal yesterday afternoon and will revisit it after 60 days.

Source: Tim Greimel, Oakland County Commissioner
Writer: Jon Zemke

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Can Metro Parks save Detroit's State Fair?

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