EDITORIALThe state's
decision to deny a permit for a bridge across the North Channel of the St. Clair River comes as good news, if only because it's still unclear where most Harsens Islanders stand on the issue.
It is the islanders, after all, whose lives and land values will be most affected.
Many of them sought out Harsens Island for its slow-paced charm. "It's neat to feel like you're four hours away from the city and only be one hour away," islander
Steve Levrick said in a 2004 interview with the Macomb Daily.
Of course, the island hasn't always been so laid-back. In the first half of the 20th century, Detroiters flocked to
Tashmoo Amusement Park and filled the island's hotels and restaurants.
Depending on one's point of view, a bridge - and the development it might bring - would either destroy Harsens Island's lifestyle or restore it.
The idea for a bridge is not new. In 1980, for example, East Detroit hair stylist
Steve LaRue tried to form a private corporation, the
Harsens Island Bridge and Tunnel Association Inc., to raise money for a 70-foot-tall suspension bridge.
The current proposal is rather better funded. The bridge would be built by 80-year-old
Matty Moroun, a trucking tycoon who already owns the
Ambassador Bridge.
Moroun's
next-door neighbor in Grosse Pointe Shores is
Mike Malik, a former Algonac city councilman and a close associate of Detroit's influential
Ilitch family.
Malik is the chief promoter of a proposed casino at the
Thomas Edison Inn in Port Huron. He also has big plans for the 430 acres he controls on Harsens Island. For starters, he wants to dig a boat basin and surround it with scores of McMansions and townhouses.
Fifteen years ago, Malik and wealthy toolmaker
Fred Smith of Mount Clemens proposed transforming old
Camp Drusilla Farwell into a Victorian-style resort called
Grande Pointe Marina. The $100 million development would have included a hotel, 18-hole golf course and a sprawling marina with at least 1,150 boat slips.
The
Harsens Island Preservation Association, led by
A.J. Feeney, put up spirited opposition. On March 4, 1992, when the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed the public-comment portion of its permit process, it had received 275 letters of opposition and only 12 in favor of Grande Pointe Marina. The project died.
Last week, state officials rejected
Moroun's plan to build a 1,950-foot bridge near the foot of Island Drive, west of the
Champion's Auto Ferry landing. At midstream, the structure would include a 130-foot bascule bridge, similar to the railroad drawbridge across the mouth of the Black River in Port Huron.
The state Department of Environmental Quality based
its rejection of the permit on issues such as riparian rights and healthy fisheries. Public opinion wasn't a relevant factor, but perhaps it should be.
Local endorsement of the bridge is unnecessary, legally speaking, but it presumably would carry weight with elected leaders and the larger public.
It only seems fair and proper to ask islanders for their opinion on such a vital issue, perhaps via a nonbinding advisory referendum similar to the 2001 casino vote in Port Huron.
