This story is part of Equity in Our Parks, a series highlighting the people and organizations advancing equity through Southeast Michigan’s parks and related programming. It is supported by Oakland County Parks and Recreation, Wayne County Parks and Recreation, Huron-Clinton Metroparks, City of Detroit, and Detroit Riverfront Conservancy.
Over 82 years, the
Huron-Clinton Metroparks has built a robust system of 13 parks spanning Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Wayne counties, but that system has never included a physical presence in the city of Detroit. That will change next year, when the Huron-Clinton Metroparks Water Garden opens at Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Centennial Park on Detroit's riverfront.
The 22-acre park represents a transformational redevelopment of Detroit's West Riverfront Park, led by the
Detroit Riverfront Conservancy (DRFC). The 2.5-acre Metroparks water garden will be one of four anchor destinations in the park, alongside the William Davidson Sport House, Delta Dental Play Garden, and the DTE Foundation Lawn. The water garden will pump in Detroit River water to create wildlife habitat surrounded by trails, seating, educational signage, a small dock, and open-air classrooms.
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Steve KossThe future site of the Huron-Clinton Metroparks Water Garden.
Metroparks Director Amy McMillan describes the water garden as a way to better extend Metropark services to Detroit residents who pay into the system via county taxes. She says it will benefit Detroiters both by establishing a new outdoor amenity to enjoy, as well as through the economic impact that strong parks systems bring to communities.
"Making this investment in this stellar signature park is going to serve the city forever into the future," she says. "[The park is] part of a virtuous circle of equity and how investments benefit folks who are living in the city."
Rachel Frierson, vice president of operations and programming for DRFC, says the water garden is "breaking down the barriers" between the Metroparks, the city, and city organizations like the conservancy.
"I think there's ... an understanding collaboration, and also a basis of trying to find trust between organizations that have felt separate for so long," she says.
Building a new partnership
McMillan says there have been discussions over the years about the Metroparks either operating an existing Detroit park or building a new one, but they never came to fruition for a few key reasons. One was that all current Metropark locations require visitors to buy a daily or annual pass to enter.
"Generating that revenue is what allows us to have such really beautifully maintained parks and to continue to develop our parks and support programming and those sorts of things. That was not a good fit for the city's model of operating their parks," McMillan says. "And so that tended to be where conversations fell apart in negotiations about the Metroparks operating and maintaining any of the existing parks in the city."
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Steve KossAmy McMillan at the future site of the Huron-Clinton Metroparks Water Garden.
McMillan says starting from scratch and building a whole new park also didn't make much sense, given Detroit's existing array of parks and the
revitalization they've seen in recent decades.
"It would be really hard to to rival some of those incredible opportunities that already exist in the city," she says.
So it made perfect sense for the Metroparks to sign on at the end of 2022 as a partner in the ongoing remaking of an existing park, which will remain free to enter for all visitors when it reopens in 2025.
"The whole park is not a Metropark ... but it is the first time that we'll have our own piece of a park in the city of Detroit that will have our name on it," McMillan says.
Frierson and McMillan describe the Metroparks and DRFC's partnership in Wilson Park as an outgrowth of the two organizations' programming collaborations. DRFC has frequently engaged the Metroparks to present interpretive programs in the city. Frierson describes the Metroparks' interpretive programming as "world-class and some of the best in the country."
"Our teams really just started talking about how we can get more Detroiters to the Metroparks and how we can get more of our suburban residents down to the riverfront to really be a part of an ecosystem together," Frierson says.
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Steve KossRachel Frierson at the future site of the Huron-Clinton Metroparks Water Garden.
She adds that McMillan's previous job as director of Genesee County Parks made her an ideal collaborator.
"Amy has a lot of background in Flint, Michigan, and really understands the value of urban parks and their connection to bringing folks closer into nature," Frierson says.
Alicia Bradford, director of Wayne County Parks, says the Metroparks' role in Wilson Park represents "progress." She adds that the Metroparks' involvement means the park system "is making strides to expand their footprint on other communities and creating those equitable green spaces for everyone."
"It provides access to a Metropark right in [Detroiters'] community, in their backyard," Bradford says. "Parks are unifiers, regardless of socioeconomic background, and to have a wonderful Metropark to complement all the beautiful city parks and riverfront is a win for all."
Serving the city
The Metroparks' commitment goes far beyond the reopening of Wilson Park next year. The Metroparks will participate in the operation and maintenance of the new park, and the water garden will become a new programming hub for the Metroparks. Frierson is excited for the space to host students from the Detroit Public Schools Community District to do water testing and learn about the habitats that are forming in the water garden.
"[The Metroparks are] actually looking at the best way to engage folks, and school kids specifically, into what stewardship looks like in the future," she says. "... They really see themselves more as a co-collaborator, versus someone who comes in, dictates the program, and walks out the door. These relationships are deep and meaningful. And that's exactly what we'd like to see out of partners, especially in a park space."
McMillan says the water garden will allow for another natural extension of the Metroparks' existing programming partnership with DRFC.
"That whole idea of connecting people to water – including the river, of course – was sort of the foundation of the original discussions that we had with the conservancy," she says.
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Steve KossThe future site of the Huron-Clinton Metroparks Water Garden.
Frierson says she's excited about the potential for water garden visitors to "layer" their riverfront experience with exploring the broader Metroparks system.
"The next time, they might be out at Lower Huron [Metropark] and doing maple tree tapping. They kind of understand that there's this ecosystem of parks and experiences that just keep getting broader and broader," she says. "So the water garden's a small microcosm of what the Metroparks can do, and then you go to their ring of parks throughout the metro area, and you'll be able to experience even more."
McMillan says she's most excited about continuing to build on the Metroparks' Detroit programming to make a stronger commitment to the city.
"It's all of these things that connect together that really have the biggest impact from an equity perspective and our responsibility to provide the citizens of the city of Detroit, who are paying taxes to the Metroparks just like everybody else, with services in the city of Detroit," she says.
Click here to read more from the Equity in Our Parks series.
Patrick Dunn is the lead writer for the Equity in Our Parks series. He's also the managing editor of Concentrate and an Ypsilanti-based freelance writer and editor.
Photos by Steve Koss.