Master Plan for Palmer Park Unveiled

Master Plan for Palmer Park Unveiled Nov. 20: 

Community invited to see what may develop

At a glance, Palmer Park Master Plan unveiling

What: Community Meeting to Unveil the new Master Plan Proposal for Palmer Park
Where: Detroit Unity Temple, 17505 2nd Avenue, Detroit, Michigan 48203
When: Thursday, November 20, 6:30 pm
Who: People for Palmer Park and Robert Gibbs

See the future of Palmer Park — unveiled after a year of visioning and work.

Come hear the Master Plan proposal on Thursday, Nov. 20 at 6:30 p.m. at a community forum hosted by the People for Palmer Park at the Detroit Unity Temple. 

Planning for the future

The unveiling comes almost exactly one year after the process began. At the November 2013 “Dream, Envision, Plan” session local residents and stakeholders provided their thoughts, ideas and vision for Palmer Park. Then a team of architects, engineers, landscape architects and urban planners started developing alternate master plans and ideas for Palmer Park.Led by The Gibbs Planning Group, the group came together under a program of the Michigan Chapters of the American Society of Landscape Architects and the Congress for New Urbanism. This process was led by Robert Gibbs, managing principal of the Birmingham urban planning firm, and David Mangum, a Gibbs urban planning associate. 

In April, ten architectural firms presented alternative master plans at the PFPP Annual Meeting.  Since then, the PFPP board, several urban planners and other key stakeholders have reviewed and considered the plans and all the ideas were crystalized into a Master Plan Proposal.  

On Nov. 20, residents will get their first look at it from: 

• Robert Gibbs, an expert in urban, economic and retail planning, will share the Master Plan.  
• Rochelle Lento, president of People for Palmer Park and a resident of Palmer Woods, will discuss the next steps for PFPP and area businesses and organizations.  

Residents and PFPP members will have the opportunity to ask questions and give their reactions. They also will be invited to sign up for a PFPP committee or task force to advance these improvements for Palmer Park.

“This Master Plan will provide a roadmap and guiding principals for the future development of Palmer Park. It will provide a valuable tool for future planning and fundraising to make dreams become a reality in Palmer Park,” said Ms. Lento.

PFPP wants to thank the firms that gave time, energy and ideas to the master plan: Archive DS, ASTI Environmental, Campbell Planning & Architecture, Conservative Design Forum, Downtown Solutions LLC, dPOP, Hamilton Anderson Associates, Kenneth Weikal Landscape Architecture, LivingLAB: Detroit, McIntosh Poris Associates, and Gibbs Planning Group. 

“Palmer Park, designed in 1892 by America’s leading landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted while in the prime of his career, represents one of the most beautiful natural urban settings in the Midwest. The park’s proposed master plan and restoration will create an extraordinary recreational resource for its surrounding neighborhoods as well as southeast Michigan,” said Gibbs, whose Birmingham planning firm led the master plan effort. 

Detroit Unity Temple, an institute for higher learning that uses spiritual tools and principles for successful living, is located at 17505 2nd Avenue, Detroit, MI 48203, at the south end of the park.

People for Palmer Park is a non-profit organization committed to the preservation, reinvention, and revitalization of Palmer Park, for the good of all. Palmer Park is comprised of 296 acres of lawns and historic woodlands, a public golf course and more. Located between 6 and 7 Mile Roads and west of Woodward Avenue in Detroit, it has been a treasured nature park and recreation site for more than 100 years. More details are available at www.peopleforpalmer.org.

For more information or interviews on the Master Plan, contact Rochelle Lento, PFPP president, (313) 727-9925