Art center on Detroit border in court again

Encroachment on drain easement at heart of lawsuit

Concerns about the construction of a controversial art center on the Detroit and Grosse Pointe Park border, specifically its encroachment on a drain easement, is the heart of a lawsuit in Wayne County.

Wayne County and the Fox Creek Drain Drainage District filed a complaint in March to stop work at the site, among other requests, after the project encroached into an easement — the second time the project has landed in court in addition to concerns raised by historic preservation advocates. The project owner is Urban Renewal Initiative Foundation, a nonprofit in Royal Oak. Other defendants are PCI Industries Inc., doing business as PCI-Dailey Company of Oak Park, and CBRE Inc. of Los Angeles.

A hearing Friday was adjourned until April 24 after attorneys said the parties reached an interim agreement at about 6 p.m. Thursday. John Brennan, an attorney representing the county and drainage district, said the Urban Renewal Initiative agreed that its contractor, PCI, will not work in the disputed easement area as the parties try to work out a settlement.

He said the plaintiffs will be permitted to inspect the site to make sure the interim agreement is honored, and the defendants agreed to confirm where they are discharging stormwater and to obtain any necessary permits to do so.

“We feel that we’ve made some significant progress in the ability to do what we can do with regard to the easement area. That’s the significant problem,” Brennan told Circuit Judge Sheila Ann Gibson.

Gary August, an attorney for PCI, said he was confident the sides could reach an agreement.

“Work hard to try to resolve it and let me know as soon as you can,” Gibson told the attorneys.

The site includes a 1906 drainage easement

The complaint says that the center sits on 2.44 acres, with plans calling for a 49,000square-foot building with an art gallery and 424-seat theater.

It’s to be called the A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Center for the Performing Arts and the Richard and Jane Manoogian Art Gallery, known as the Schaap Center, at 15005 E. Jefferson Ave. The cost of the center, just east of Alter Road, is estimated to be $45 million. The vision is for a 2025 opening and for the center to have year-round programming.

Some people have supported the center, saying it will help unite Grosse Pointe Park with Detroit, but critics said it does the opposite, according to prior Free Press reporting.

Wayne County and the drainage district complaint alleges that the project encroached into a drain easement. They said the Fox

Creek Drain is a 15-foot diameter sanitary and storm sewer interceptor with manholes at the location of the project and that easements have been on file with the county drain commissioner since at least December 1906.

The complaint stated PCI applied for a permit from the county’s Department of Public Services in November 2022, but the submitted plan was limited to areas of the project that would impact the county’s road right-of-way. No stormwater discharges to county infrastructure were shown and the plans didn’t show impacts on county drains even though Fox Creek Drain traversed the site and construction was planned near the drain, it stated.

Initial work started without a permit, leading Detroit to sue

The county’s Department of Public Services said in December 2022 that aspects of the application and site plan needed to be addressed under the county’s stormwater regulations for construction permits, per the complaint.

Demolition at the site started in March 2023 without a permit from the city of Detroit, which issued a stop work order and filed a lawsuit against the Urban Renewal Initiative in April 2023. Detroit also alleged the initiative was planning to construct the center without a permit from the Detroit Historic District Commission, which was necessary to build in the Jefferson Chalmers Historic Business District.

That lawsuit was resolved in May 2023, when Detroit approved and issued a demolition permit subject to approval from the historic commission.

It voted 6-0 to approve the continued construction of the building, with modifications, including bringing a plaza near Jefferson to a larger scale, reflecting community engagement, and adding amenities to the plaza to increase its use as a gathering space.

A memorial marker also will be required to acknowledge the cultural significance of a lost building, the Deck Bar, which was among Detroit’s first LGBTQ+ spaces.

Meanwhile, the county’s Department of Public Services and its engineering consultants reviewed the construction plans and in June 2023 issued a revised comment letter again requesting construction plans for the entire project, including impacts on county drains, not just partial plans submitted with its initial application. Later that month, the county sent a follow-up inquiring on the state of PCI’s response.

The plaintiffs said more complete plans were submitted in July 2023, indicating the location of Fox Creek Drain but did not show the drain easement, which the county said is 100 feet wide. The plaintiffs said the building is planned to be built “well within the 100-foot easement.”

‘Full speed ahead’ — but without a county building permit

The county issued a third comment letter in August 2023 with comments from the drain commissioner regarding encroachments that the construction plans showed into the easement, including that no permanent structures are permitted within the drain easement. The county requested the structures, including the building, be moved outside the easement.

The complaint states discussions continued between September 2023 and February 2024, including questions about the validity of the easement.

In November, the county asked PCI to respond to site plan review comments and warned that continuing construction activities without a county construction permit would be at the contractor’s own risk.

That was around the same time the historic commission approved resuming demolition and beginning construction in the area under its jurisdiction. The plaintiffs said the defendants moved “full speed ahead” without a construction permit from the county.

They said communications continued into January and the county demanded PCI provide an update.

In February, the Urban Renewal Initiative’s executive director was warned that a stop work order was likely because of a lack of response to the plan review comments. A stop work order was issued Feb. 26.

County staff saw construction March 1, with building foundations installed well within the easement “a mere 17 feet away from the drain pipe of the Fox Creek Drain.” The plaintiffs said the building foundations “severely limit access to perform maintenance and improvement” to the drain, and access would be further impeded should the building be completed under existing plans, according to the complaint.

Revised plans submitted April 1 by PCI showed only a 50-foot easement as opposed to the 100-foot easement. The plaintiffs said construction continues at the site despite a lack of a construction permit from the county, per the complaint.

The plaintiffs were asking for many things, including an injunction ordering the defendants to remove the foundation constructed within the easement and to modify their construction plans.