It is as binding as any legal restriction on a property deed recorded at the county courthouse. If the luxury subdivision project goes through as proposed, this favorite recreation spot south of Detroit will be a memory.
Housing is planned for both sides, along with a golf course at the far end.
Rather than enforce a conservation easement that protects the last, large Great Lakes coastal wetland in downriver Detroit, the Department of Environmental Quality may allow a developer to build luxury houses there. Russell Harding, director of the DEQ, has the full legal authority to uphold the easement on the Humbug Marsh, located at the mouth of the Detroit River where it empties into Lake Erie. Yet he agreed to hear the developer's proposal at a public hearing on Sept. 15 in Gibraltar that attracted more than 1,200 people, almost all of them opposed to the project. Among those testifying at the hearing was Tim Roby, spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources, who urged the DEQ to reject the permit applications. Mr. Roby was cheered and received a standing ovation from the crowd.