Macomb County Paves Way for Environmentally Sound Parking
Lot Using Low Impact Development Applications

The Macomb County Department of Planning & Economic Development has been busy assisting with environmentally sound land use applications that employ an investment into our long-range future.  As local municipalities continue developing policies and programs in response to stricter rules by State and Federal environmental authorities, the County is assisting in implementing guidelines, model ordinances, and demonstration sites to help educate decision makers, as well as the general public, of effective tools to employ.   With greater restrictions on storm water drainage and increased effort to deal with pollutants, soil erosion, and flash flooding, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) are encouraging “Low Impact Development” methods for parking lots and other hard surface areas similar to this demonstration site that has been developed in Downtown Mount Clemens.  

The former brownfield site of the now demolished Bell Forklift Building that is directly adjacent to the Macomb County Administration Building in Downtown Mt. Clemens has been transformed into an environmentally sound site that captures, holds, and filters storm water from wet weather events.   With the advent of  “Low Impact Development” practices, there is a remarkable improvement from the former conditions on the site and the traditional method in developing a parking lot that allows road salt, automotive oils and fluid leakages, and other debris from draining directly from the site into the Clinton River through the catch basins.   Four “rain gardens” and approximately 400 linear feet of biologically-engineered swales (bio-swales) have been constructed on the site and utilize native plant materials that are very effective at holding storm water in deep root systems and filtering out negative pathogens and pollutants.

 

This project was constructed in 2007 and assists in alleviating the crowded parking conditions near the Macomb County Government Campus.  The rain gardens and bio-swales are completed and include all native Michigan plant materials that will take up to 2-3 full years to mature.  Some of the realized benefits by including the use of native species are that they require little to no watering or fertilization, have greater storm water detention and absorption which lessen the chances of flooding and pollutant discharges into the Clinton River and Lake St.Clair.  The price of the project was very similar in cost to a conventional development, but less maintenance over the lifetime of this site will realize a more significant savings.

 

Business owners, local government representatives, and the general public are invited to make a stop at this site, which is north off of Terry Street between Main Street and Northbound Gratiot Avenue just south of Cass/Crocker Avenue in Mount Clemens. 

 

To learn more about “Low Impact Development” techniques that might be employed on other sites throughout the County, please see the link below for additional tips on how to protect our rivers, lakes, and quality of life.