Wayne County is asking a court to put a halt to a major construction project in progress at the Detroit-Grosse Pointe Park city border.
The county is suing the developers behind the Schaap Center, who describe it as an “exceptional regional arts center” that’s scheduled to open in 2025. But Wayne County maintains the project never should have been started in the first place, and is asking for a court-ordered injunction to bring it to a halt.
The lawsuit and its claims are straightforward.
“This case is about the Defendants’ brazen and willful conduct which, in an effort to rush a desired construction project to completion, Defendants have flaunted Wayne County’s ordinances and construction permit rules and constructed a building foundation squarely within a county drain easement containing a critical sanitary and storm sewer pipeline,” the county’s brief supporting a motion for preliminary injunction begins.
It continues: “Worse, Defendants have recently doubled down on its unauthorized construction plans that anticipate building a portion of a 49,000 square foot facility permanently within the Drain Easement…Yet despite being explicitly advised for months of the conflict, Defendants have turned a deaf ear and are rushing headlong to complete the Project before anything can be done to stop them.”
The lawsuit says that sewer pipe is “15 feet in diameter and thus a significant piece of regional infrastructure.” It normally directs sewage and stormwater to the region’s major sewage treatment plant in southwest Detroit, except in the case of heavy rainfall, where overflow is discharged directly into the Detroit River nearby. Therefore, “Failure of the Drain could pose a significant hazard to public health and safety,” the county claims.
The county says the developers, a group called the Urban Renewal Initiative Foundation, initially sought a county construction permit in 2022. In August 2023, they were advised that the project would encroach on the drain easement. However, they continued work on the site without any of the county permits, leading the county to issue a stop-work order on February 26, 2024. According to the lawsuit, which was filed March 15, that order was ignored and construction continued.
Wayne County says this is untenable, because the 100-foot wide easement is meant to provide space for any needed pipe maintenance or upgrades. But with things as they are, “the building foundations limit access to perform maintenance and improvement to the Drain,” county lawyers wrote. “Defendants’ refusal to acknowledge the (Fox Creek) Drainage District’s valid, century-old Drain Easement is baffling and without excuse.”
In addition to the Urban Renewal Initiative Foundation (URIF), the lawsuit names construction contractors and site managers PCI Industries and CBRE, Inc. as defendants. While the city of Grosse Pointe Park is not a defendant in the case, the URIF has close ties to some members of city government. URIF Board member Barbara Detwiler is a former City Council member, and the city’s former city manager, Dale Krajniak, was the URIF’s former resident agent, according to state filings.
The Schaap Center project has been controversial within the small community, and also generated some opposition in neighboring Detroit. Its namesake and major donor is A. Paul Schaap, a Grosse Pointe Park resident and founder of Lumigen, a company that supplies chemical reagents for medical and research purposes.
In a statement, current Grosse Pointe Park city manager Nick Sizeland said Thursday that “The City of Grosse Pointe Park is not a party to any lawsuit between the Urban Renewal Initiative Foundation and Wayne County. We are hopeful both parties can work together to resolve any issues between them. We will not comment further as we are not a party to any pending litigation.”
A URIF spokeswoman, Jaime Rae Turnbull, said by email Thursday afternoon that she had been unaware of the lawsuit, and declined comment.
