DETROIT (WXYZ) — On Wednesday, 7 Action News walked down Lawton Street in Detroit's Core City neighborhood with resident Eleanor Parnell.
As we spoke, dust blew in Parnell's face and she said: "You feel the dust and the wind and you can smell it because they’re working over there illegally."
Parnell is referring to the lot we were next to at 4445 Lawton Street. The lot is full of mounds of dust and concrete that residents say blow into their homes and the community vegetable garden.
"I’m not comfortable sitting on my porch, I’m not comfortable with what’s being spread to my daughter for her health concerns," Parnell said. "Is this something that will affect her today or five to 10 years from now?"
The lot and the dust is part of a years-long fight between Detroit's Core City residents and local developer Murray Wikol.
Back in 2022 Wikol requested a permit to turn the lot into a concrete crushing site. The permit was denied and in April 2023, the city of Detroit sued Wikol after issuing him 57 blight tickets for the lot.
Now almost a year later, Core City residents that are a part of the group Core City Strong say they are seeing illegal construction activity at the lot once again.
They're calling for it to end and pushing forward a downzoning proposal co-sponsored by the City Planning Commission.
At a press conference Wednesday Co-founder of Core City Strong Vanessa Serna said: "While we won the fight against him to stop his toxic concrete crusher, he’s now working on this site without a permit and without any fugitive dust controls."
We reached out to Wikol to hear his side of the story.
He told us he had no idea the residents were having problems with the lot recently.
He said that the lot has recently been targeted by illegal dumping and any work at the lot recently is his team trying to clean it up.
"I think it’s probably a misunderstanding because we’ve been told by the city of Detroit to remove the concrete. We’ve taken precautions to minimize any dust," Wikol said. "I’ve gotten 0 phone calls about dust. Again, we’re the victims."
We asked Serna if Core City Strong has talked to Wikol since April 2023. She said no and that they've been lied to in the past.
When asked his future plans for the lot, Wikol said: "We’d like to see economic development, something go there that the community wants, the city wants."
"What we’d like to see is that he cleans up the lot with fugitive dust mitigation strategies that will protect our lungs," Serna said. "Then donates it to a local Black-led organization."
There will be two public hearings on the down sizing proposal, the first will be on April 4.
Until then, it seems the dust in this dispute refuses to settle.
