Downriver plan maps phased cleanup and reuse for Riverview’s Arkema site

Jasmine Dancy, economic development administrator for the Downriver Community Conference, and John De Adana, the DCC’s Brownfield program manager, presented a multi-phase brownfield strategy for the Jefferson Avenue riverfront corridor that centers on the Arkema properties in Riverview and Wyandotte.

Dancy said the DCC has been working on an Economic Development Administration (EDA) planning grant for several years and that the grant "goes through the end of this year." She told the council the planning work aims to convert community engagement and market analysis into implementable projects across five riverfront cities between River Rouge and Trenton.

The plan presented by DCC consultant teams — branded “Downriver Forward” — recommends treating the Arkema holdings as three distinct parcels (the brine field, the West plant and the East plant) and sequencing cleanup and redevelopment. "The brine field is perceived right now as being probably the cleanliest of the three properties," De Adana said. He described a phased approach that begins with remediation and private development on the West brine field and moves, over multiple phases, toward riverfront park and mixed uses on the East plant.

Why it matters: presenters said the corridor’s industrial closures created both contamination challenges and an unusual…