Eliza Howell Park is a public park in Brightmoor,

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.Archambault, Dennis.
Brightmoor: 'Feisty' Neighbors Use Hope, Innovation to Face Struggles
" ''Model d''. Tuesday September 29, 2009. Retrieved November 12, 2009. The park lies just north of

Rouge Park Rouge National Urban Park is a national urban park in Ontario, Canada. The park is centred around the Rouge River and its tributaries in the Greater Toronto Area. The southern portion of the park is situated around the mouth of the river in ...

and contains the confluence point between the upper and main rouge branches. Howell Park, east of Telegraph Road between Fenkell Avenue and Schoolcraft Avenue, has of land, making it the fourth largest park in Detroit; this is about one fourth of the area of Belle Isle or . A greenway links Howell with Stoepel Park. Howell has a nature trail that, in 2009, was recently constructed.

History

The family of Eliza Howell, a real estate developer in

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, gave of that land to the City of Detroit in the 1936.Patton, Naomi.
Namesake's heirs challenge Detroit for neglected acres
" ''

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''. February 6, 2010. Retrieved on November 3, 2012. The 1936 deed restriction states that the city is required to maintain the land as a public park. In the Spring of 2009 the City of Detroit stopped mowing Howell and other parks in order to save money. In 2010 Chazz Miller, a Detroit artist, and several volunteers painted plywood cutouts of

butterflies Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

as part of the "Papillion Effect ("Papillon" is

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for butterfly"), an anti-blight campaign. Miller added several butterflies to the nature trail at Howell Park.

Kenneth Cheyne lawsuit

In August 2008, Howell Park Properties, the family owned business of Kenneth "Ken" Cheyne; a 65-year-old developer from

Beverly Hills, Michigan Beverly Hills is a village in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northern suburb of Detroit, Beverly Hills is located within Southfield Township, roughly northwest of downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 census, the village had a pop ...

, and a grandson of Eliza Howell; filed a lawsuit against the City of Detroit in circuit court, stating that the city is violating the deed restriction by not maintaining the park. Cheyne further argued that the city had willfully abandoned the park. Therefore, the city would have to return the Howell ownership back to the family. Officials from the City of Detroit said that Howell is still a park open to the public. Cheyne planned to convert the park into commercial development. MacDonald said "But the 138 acres that Cheyne lays claim to are the most suitable for redevelopment, since much of the city's share is in a flood plain." One week after ''

'' reported on the lawsuit, the City of Detroit placed concrete barricades around the park.Harrison, Sheena.
Developer displeased with concrete barricades placed outside Detroit's Eliza Howell Park
" ''

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''. November 24, 2009. Retrieved on November 3, 2012. Cheyne said that he had proposed developing commercial and residential properties to the administration of the

Mayor of Detroit This is a list of mayors of Detroit, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The current mayor is Mike Duggan, who was sworn into office on January 1, 2014. History of Detroit's executive authority During the earliest part of its history, Detroit was a ...

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by releasing the deed restrictions. Cheyne said that he proposed keeping 70% of the park as parkland and developing 30% of the park. Cheyne said that the staff members suggested that he hire the consultant they had selected, but Cheyne ignored that suggestion. According to Cheyne, for several years, the city never called back. By 2011 the City had won in the legal challenge. Cheyne said that he was going to appeal the verdict. In 2012 Cheyne was still maintaining the legal challenge. Cheyne said that "Last year, they mowed it once or twice. There are wild dogs that run in there. It isn’t treated like a park. It’s like a stepchild in a way. Nobody cared for it."Budget cuts could trim Detroit aesthetics
"
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'' at ''

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''. Friday May 18, 2012. Retrieved on November 3, 2012.

Composition

Eliza Howell primarily consists of riparian woodlands along the main branch of the rouge river. Near the southern end of the park the upper branch of the rouge joins with the main branch before exiting the park and continuing to Rouge Park. The park includes an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

field with goal posts. As of 2009 there is a lot of rusted and broken playground equipment. Wooded areas and vacant fields make up large portions of the park. That year, Christine MacDonald of ''

'' said "Nature has reclaimed much of the park, turning it into a de facto preserve, and some say that's a beautiful thing." The city had stopped mowing the park in 2009 to save money. Riet Schumack, a Brightmoor resident quoted in MacDonald's article, said that visitors often see coyotes, deer, foxes, blue herons, and great horned owls; and that

Indian pipe ''Monotropa uniflora'', also known as ghost plant, ghost pipe, or Indian pipe, is an herbaceous, parasitic, non-photosynthesizing, perennial flowering plant native to temperate regions of Asia, North America, and northern South America, but with ...

and

trillium ''Trillium'' (trillium, wakerobin, toadshade, tri flower, birthroot, birthwort, and sometimes "wood lily") is a genus of about fifty flowering plant species in the family Melanthiaceae. ''Trillium'' species are native to temperate regions of No ...

grow in the park.

References

External links

Friends of Eliza Howell Park
* Oosting, Jonathan.

" ''

''. November 18, 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Howell, Eliza Park Parks in Detroit 1936 establishments in Michigan