Lafayette Park residents sue Detroit Thermal over controversial steam project
The lawsuit alleges the company is trespassing, causing property damage, and threatening the historic landscape
Audio By Carbonatix
[
{
"name": "GPT - Leaderboard - Inline - Content",
"component": "35519556",
"insertPoint": "5th",
"startingPoint": "3",
"requiredCountToDisplay": "3",
"maxInsertions": 100,
"adList": [
{
"adPreset": "LeaderboardInline"
}
]
}
]
Residents of Lafayette Park have filed a lawsuit against Detroit Thermal, accusing the utility of trespassing on their property, damaging historic landscaping, and pursuing an illegal plan to extend steam service through protected greenspace without the necessary rights or approvals.
The complaint, filed Tuesday in Wayne County Circuit Court, asks a judge to block Detroit Thermal’s proposed project to reconnect the 1300 Lafayette East Cooperative to its underground heating system. The plaintiffs, which includes three townhouse cooperatives that share ownership of the landscape, say Detroit Thermal has no legal easement to access their land and failed to obtain required permissions.
“Detroit Thermal seeks to, quite literally, tear apart this historic landmark to take a shortcut,” the complaint states. “This shortcut is not only damaging, but illegal.”
Detroit Thermal plans to reline and reactivate a long-abandoned steam pipe that runs through an 18-acre communal landscape designed by famed architect Mies van der Rohe and landscape architect Alfred Caldwell. The land is part of the nationally designated Mies van der Rohe Residential District and is protected under Detroit’s local historic preservation ordinance.
“Detroit Thermal does not own the land it seeks to tear apart,” the suit argues, adding that the utility has “not shown that it acquired rights to the steam easement or title to the pipe” when it bought the system from Detroit Edison in 2003.
Detroit Thermal dismissed the lawsuit as meritless.
“This is a baseless and frivolous lawsuit selfishly filed by a few misguided Lafayette Park residents who seem determined to prevent 600 of their neighbors at 1300 East Lafayette Cooperative from receiving safe, reliable, clean and affordable heat in time for winter,” Detroit Thermal spokesman Harvey Hollins III said in a statement Wednesday. “The suit is riddled with falsehoods, ignoring multiple updates to our application based on input from the community, including the plaintiffs themselves.”
Residents dismissed the accusations of falsehoods, saying their objections are based on facts and serious risks. While Detroit Thermal has made minor revisions to its proposals, residents said, the core issues remain unresolved, including the company’s lack of legal access to private property, the threat to a National Historic Landmark, and the failure to comply with preservation and environmental standards.
“We are compelled to act to protect our community and a cherished National Historic Landmark,” Sammy Sater, president of the Board of Directors for the Joliet Townhouses Cooperative Association. “Detroit Thermal’s plan to ‘tear apart’ our greenspace is not only damaging to a site of national historic significance but, in our view, illegal.”
The lawsuit was filed just as the Detroit Historic District Commission plans to vote on whether to approve the revised project plans at a meeting Wednesday. City officials had issued a stop-work order in April after Detroit Thermal began preliminary work without HDC approval.
According to the complaint, Detroit Thermal's original plan “involved placing above-ground steam-venting stacks within the greenspace, in particular on and around areas where children play.” Revised plans submitted in June removed those stacks from the playground, but residents say they still don’t know where venting will occur.
“Any steam venting on the Cooperatives’ property will be a significant harm to the Cooperative’s property and residents,” the lawsuit says. “The venting of 350-degree pipes filled with pressurized steam will cause constantly billowing steam at eye level … [and] can cause severe burns.”
In March 2017, high-pressure steam from Detroit Thermal ripped through a street next to Cass Tech High School in Detroit, sending blinding and scalding vapor into the air. Steam can also cause large sinkholes.
The suit also alleges physical damage has already occurred. In March, Detroit Thermal employees allegedly entered the property without permission and destroyed part of a mature magnolia tree and damaged a historic concrete bench near the playground.
“Detroit Thermal does not own the property, nor does it have a valid easement to enter,” the complaint states.
Residents took aim at Detroit Thermal for framing the project as a dispute between neighbors. They said the narrative, promoted by Detroit Thermal’s public relations firm, downplays the broader concern that a private utility is being allowed to damage a nationally significant cultural site.
“A jury trial is essential to fully resolve this,” Sater said. “We are committed to preserving our historic community and will pursue all legal avenues to ensure its protection.”
The lawsuit asks the court to formally declare that the cooperatives own the property and that Detroit Thermal has no legal right to access it.
If the HDC approves the project, a lawsuit will be filed against the city, according to the co-ops.
“Detroit Thermal’s plan to tear apart a landmark greenspace can, and still may be, blocked by the City of Detroit,” the lawsuit states. “If the city erroneously grants approval, the Cooperatives will add claims against the city and seek injunctive relief.”
