A judge on Thursday upheld a temporary restraining order that blocks Detroit Thermal from running steam lines though the historic Lafayette Park neighborhood in Detroit, forcing 600 residents of a nearby high-rise apartment to find another source of heat for the winter.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Annette Berry sided with residents of the nearby townhomes, who filed a lawsuit on July 1 accusing the utility of trespassing and damaging a nationally and city-protected landscape to run steam lines to the nearby 1300 Lafayette high-rise.
Berry said the plaintiffs had a “likelihood” of prevailing in the case and warned that allowing the project to continue would cause “irreparable harm” to both residents and the property.
“The work on this cannot proceed until these matters have been resolved,” Berry said from the bench. “There is no question that there is interest on both sides of this issue, but that being said, the court will continue its temporary restraining order restraining the defendant from being able to begin work on the properties at issue.”
Berry scheduled the next hearing for Oct. 30, when she will decide whether to extend the restraining order. A jury trial is set for July 2026.
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Detroit Thermal spokesman Harvey Hollins III said the company is “undeterred in our commitment” to provide steam heat to residents of 1300 Lafayette. He added that the company “will pursue every appellate and legal option at our disposal to serve our neighbors at 1300 East Lafayette.”
The decision is a significant setback for Detroit Thermal and residents of 1300 Lafayette, where the building’s aging boilers failed in 2022. The high-rise has been relying on rented boilers while the company attempts to reconnect the building to the city’s underground steam network.
In a recent court filing, Detroit Thermal warned that if work doesn’t resume by Aug. 4, the project won’t be finished in time for winter, and 600 residents at 1300 Lafayette could go without heat.
Paul Saginaw, who lives at 1300 Lafayette, says he was disappointed in the ruling and is worried about residents who can’t afford expensive alternatives for heat.
“How do you put the rights of trees above the rights of human beings?” Saginaw asks Metro Times. “I don’t think those [townhome] residents have a real understanding about how much harm they are causing. I don’t think any reasonable, semi-compassionate human being would continue this if they understood the risk they are putting on folks.”
During Thursday’s hearing, Detroit Thermal attorney Khalilah V. Spencer tried to downplay the impact of construction.
“We’re talking about two trees and grass over a utility easement,” Spencer said. “That is not irreparable harm. It’s not. If there’s an impact on the landscape, Detroit Thermal is responsible for returning it to the state that it was in.”
But townhome residents have long argued that the landscape is historic, unique, and protected from harm. The shared greenspace was designed in the 1950s by famed modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and landscape architect Alfred Caldwell, whose layered arrangement of townhomes, honey locust trees, and concrete walkways was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2015.
Preservationists say it is one of the most important examples of modernist residential design in the country, and that damage to the landscape cannot be “replaced in kind.”
“Our neighborhood was at peace until Detroit Thermal, a foreign-owned company, inserted itself and started working on our private property to turn a profit, repeatedly trespassing without our permission,” Natalie Pruett, board director for the Nicolet Cooperative, said after the hearing. “Although Detroit Thermal has been evasive about its plans, it has been clear about its goal: taking a shortcut through our private property to minimize costs and maximize its profit.”
Leslie Lott, board director for the Julie Cooperative, said Detroit Thermal disregarded its impact on the community and did whatever it pleased.
“Detroit Thermal signed a contract to construct a new steam system. It then used that contract as an excuse to trespass on private property without notifying the property owners or obtaining the necessary permits,” Lott said. “It took the approach of asking for forgiveness rather than permission, then, Detroit Thermal acts surprised when the property owners object. This is an ongoing pattern of behavior. Detroit Thermal ignores the rules and then blames others when presented with the consequences.”
The plaintiff’s attorney, Jeff Turner, told the court that Detroit Thermal has no legal right to use a 70-year-old easement that was never intended for steam service. Detroit Thermal has argued it has a right to access those easements.
“This easement was abandoned,” Turner told the judge. “Even if one exists, it cannot be put to a different use and create a different burden that wasn’t contemplated.”
Turner argued that allowing Detroit Thermal to proceed would set a dangerous precedent, allowing a private utility to damage a nationally protected site.
The ruling doesn’t stop Detroit Thermal from continuing work on public property, so the company plans to continue some of the project.
“The court’s ruling extending its temporary restraining order is disappointing,” Hollins said. “But in keeping with the judge’s ruling to deny the plaintiff’s preliminary injunction, we will continue our work on this important project in the public right away. The court clarified this morning that such continued work is allowable under the temporary restraining order.”
The controversy heated up in April, when Detroit Thermal began preliminary work without full approvals from the Detroit Historic District Commission. After residents filed a complaint, the city issued a stop-work order and the cooperatives filed suit in Wayne County Circuit Court, alleging trespassing, damage to historic features, and intimidation by private security hired by the company.
Detroit Thermal has insisted that it is operating legally with full approval from city and state regulators. Hollins said the project received permission from the Michigan Public Service Commission, the Detroit Historic District Commission, and other agencies after public hearings and revisions based on community input.
But the plaintiffs say those approvals had conditions that the company violated, and that any work on private property without an easement is illegal.
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“I understand trees and grass can be replaced,” the judge said. “But I think there is more at play here.”
Whatever the case, Saginaw says the restraining order will force high-rise residents, especially seniors and others on a fixed income, to move because the costs of using alternatives to steam will be expensive.
Residents of the 30-story building hoped they had found a permanent and affordable solution through Detroit Thermal. Without steam as an option, Saginaw says it could cost residents $4 million for new boilers and to remove the old ones.
“My belief is that it will force many shareholders who are elderly and on a fixed income to go look for somewhere else to live,” Saginaw says. “It will push them out of the building. The longterm ramifications of that is going to be the gentrification of that building, where people with way more resources will move in, and you’re pushing out 20- and 30-year residents out of their homes. I think if the people at the Mies cooperatives really understood that, I think they would place the human lives above some trees and bushes and some temporary inconvenience due to the construction.”
Townhome residents have countered that high-rise residents deferred maintenance of boilers, kept their neighbors in the dark, and failed to follow laws intended to protect historic sites.
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This article appears in Jul 23 – Aug 5, 2025.