DETROIT (WXYZ) — In the near future, the Oak Grove portion of Rouge Park in Detroit will be home to the Detroit Pistons Recreation Center.
While there’s been a lot of excitement surrounding it, there has also been some controversy about exactly where the center will be placed inside the park.
“I don’t understand why the city purposely chose a controversial site," said Paul Stark, secretary for Friends of Rouge Park. "A site they knew the public would rise against.”
Stark has lived near Rouge Park for more than 35 years. He and other members of the Friends of Rouge Park organization recently wrote a letter to Detroit city officials urging them to not build the rec center on the park’s Oak Grove.
“There’s other options we’ve talked about like across the parking lot, there’s plenty of space for the rec center there,” said Stark.
Around 25 trees would be knocked down during the construction of the center. Stark says preserving the oak grove is so important because it has historical value and the trees help reduce flooding in the park.
“A 30-inch diameter tree will absorb 40,000 gallons of rainwater,” said Stark. “You take out all these trees and you see the pool is down in the flood plane, all that water is going to flood the pool.”
The city’s Chief Operating Officer, Brad Dick, says they chose to put the center on the oak grove because it’s adjacent to the pool area. The goal is to have pool staff help run the center which could help save money by not having to hire additional staff.
“In addition to the economy of scale, we already have parking, we have security there, we already have staff there,” said Dick. “It’s just a good steward of taxpayers' money to go ahead and build upon that campus,”
Dick says they will be planting some new trees around the center once it’s done being constructed. He added the most important thing is that a new rec center will soon be there for residents to use.
“The people of Rouge Park have been asking for one for a long time,” Dick added. “There’s a large population of youth around there… about 3,000 within a short walk of the park.”
As for Paul Stark, he says he hopes the community and city can come to an agreement that will save the trees and keep the rec center at the park.
“This is the time to come up with an alternative that will please everyone,” said Stark.
Construction on the rec center is expected to begin either summer or fall of next year.
