Environmental and Social Impact Assessment of Alley Maintenance in the City of Detroit

Abstract

The city of Detroit suffered a significant decline since the 1950s. As the city continues to recover, development has spurred growth, particularly in the Villages of Detroit. The alleys in the city house essential utility systems such as: sewer, electric, phone systems. These areas have fallen into disrepair, erased through vacancy, or illicit activities. In addition, city infrastructure systems, some reaching capacity, are in need of repairs and attention by city officials. Through the course of this project, revelations about the city’s complex infrastructure systems and governmental structure became apparent, as limitations were imposed on access to information, design restrictions, and new knowledge on stormwater systems. The objective of this project is to understand and provide potential solutions to the use of the alley networks in the Villages of Detroit. By studying the role of alley infrastructure from case study cities, we gain an understanding of the alley potentials that use social and green interventions. At the site scale, we sought to understand the existing systems, opinions and uses by residents. Analysis and survey information from community members demonstrate a need to repair alleyways as residents continue to use alleys despite existing conditions. Developing sustainable interventions in a legacy city allowed the group to understand design barriers and the role of constant conversation among municipal partners and organizations. For instance, the placement of the storm sewer network within the depreciating alley network creates a barrier to the implementation of green infrastructure per the request of the Detroit Water and Sewer Department (DWSD). This constant identification of blockades reconfigured this project from one of design interventions to designing towards policy tolerance and acceptance by location officials. Our study focuses on developing potential solutions to answer these observations and provide a possible framework for the alleys of the Village in Detroit. This project sought to understand the Villages through a landscape design lens by analyzing the various dynamics that provide a sense of place. Explorations into case study cities like Chicago, Philadelphia, and current projects in Detroit, this project gained an understanding of the diverse potential of alley uses in contemporary design. This project also examined social components by analyzing the feedback from the community through an on-line survey. Our approached embraced social media as an inclusive platform to deliver community feedback. The current state of the alley network in the Villages ranges from non-existent due to vegetation to centers of commercial activities. Through this study, this project will provide potential interventions and support for alley revitalization, noting the feedback from the community organization, residents and the constraints identified by DWSD.