Mayor Mike Duggan on Wednesday announced the two remaining neighborhoods that will have land converted into solar farms, which are expected to generate energy for Detroit’s 127 municipal buildings.
Eastside neighborhoods Houston-Whittier/Hayes and Greenfield Park were selected as the last of five finalists for the initiative, pending City Council approval. Officials in December 2024 unveiled the final designs for the first three neighborhoods, which are Gratiot-Findlay, Van Dyke-Lynch and State Fair.
“We are building clean energy,” Duggan said at the Detroit Recovery Project in Greenfield Park. “We’re gonna power 127 buildings. We are also adding to Michigan’s power grid, and Michigan’s power grid is being stretched to the limit right now. We all know around here how often we have blackouts at the slightest sight of a storm.”
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Houston-Whittier resident Sandra Turner-Handy has lived in the neighborhood for 25 years, watching the illegal dumping challenges the area faced over the years. She praised Duggan for listening to residents when they wanted the former Detroit Renewable Power incinerator to come down, along with pushing for solar energy.
‘What is a boat doing over there?’
“I have seen my community go down. But what I tell the story of is that I can look out of my back window and see six blocks over of nothing but vacant land that people continue to dump on. To put that land back into active, productive use is awesome to me,” Turner-Handy said. “I can look out my back window and now see things growing.”
Greenfield Park resident Mary Davis has lived in the neighborhood since 1975, she told the Free Press. Illegal dumping has also been a challenge in her neighborhood, and she contemplated moving away because of the blight, along with safety issues, until a police officer convinced her that they’re enhancing the area.
“It used to be a nice area,” Davis said, adding that around 2014, things started going downhill.
Davis lives near vacant lots, a few of which she and her daughter own and attempt to keep clean, but down the street is an eyesore.
“It’s just terrible, it’s a mess,” Davis said. “One day I drove up Brush … here’s a boat. What is a boat doing over here? How did that boat get over here? stuff like that. Cars, tires, just trash.”
She added that she hopes the solar neighborhood takes care of the dumping and blight issues percolating in her neighborhood.
Relocation assistance and vegetables
The city acquired at least 95% of the land needed in the first phase, Duggan said. Residents played a role in deciding the solar farm boundaries. Participating homeowners agreed to sell their homes and relocate, but those who did not want to leave were able to stay, leading the city to draw boundaries around their properties.
Homeowners outside of the areas, dubbed community benefit homeowners, will be given $15,000 to $25,000 for energy-efficient home improvements. Options include new windows, roof repairs, residential solar panels, appliances, home insulation or air sealing, energy-efficient furnaces and hot water heaters, smart thermostats, lighting or battery backup.
Renters who agreed to relocate will receive 18 months free rent, moving expenses and relocation support in a comparable area, Duggan added. Construction of solar panels in the first three neighborhoods is expected to begin later this summer, and the second phase will begin later this year or early next year.
Greenfield Park will comprise 42 acres of solar fields. Nine homeowners decided to relocate and 36 others outside the boundaries will receive at least $25,000 in energy efficient upgrades to their homes.
Houston-Whittier/Hayes will contain nearly 19 acres of solar fields. Two homeowners will relocate and 70 community benefit homeowners will each receive at least $15,000 in upgrades.
Boston-based Lightstar will develop 19 acres in Houston-Whittier/Hayes, while DTE will develop 43 acres in Greenfield Park. Both companies are developing lots in the first three neighborhoods selected during the first phase.
“We’ve taken the area that’s the most blighted that probably only has one house every block or two, and we’re going to turn that into beautiful fields,” Duggan said. “If you’ve seen some of the designs the neighbors have picked with the landscaping, in some cases, vegetables growing underneath the solar panels, but all the other neighbors, where people stay, they’re going to have their houses upgraded. We’re going to have stronger neighborhoods surrounding the solar fields than we’ve had in many, many years.”
City Councilmembers Latisha Johnson and Scott Benson praised the environmental aspect of the project alongside Duggan and Ray Solomon, director of the neighborhoods department. Johnson added that her district has “bore the brunt of climate change” and the impacts on residents, especially with heavy rainfalls.
“It is certainly a way for us to not only address energy and the municipal buildings being taken off the grid, but we also have to consider the impact of climate that this will have,” Johnson said, adding that Solomon and his colleagues in the neighborhoods department knocked on doors to hear from the residents.
“And I may have had one resident say, ‘I have a challenge with this,’ but overwhelmingly, the residents in our communities have stepped up and said, ‘This is what we need,’ ” Johnson said.
The initiative is expected to be on City Council’s next public health and safety committee meeting agenda.
Dana Afana is the Detroit city hall reporter for the Free Press. Contact: dafana@freepress.com. Follow her: @DanaAfana
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Mike Duggan announces next phase of solar neighborhoods