Riverfront casino site losing support

Thursday, March 12, 1998 | 9:36 a.m.

"The decision appears to have been made without the input of key planning professionals, major stakeholders, business leadership and many others who have been integrally involved in planning for the downtown and riverfront areas," the commission said in a report made public Wednesday.

Archer decided last month to relocate the casinos - after a study committee recommended one in the Greektown district and the others on the western edge of downtown. The mayor's action appears at odds with years of efforts to revitalize the east riverfront and the central business district, the commission said.

There's also little evidence Archer evaluated all his options, the report said.

The 27-page report marked the first comprehensive review of the mayor's handling of Detroit's nearly $2 billion casino project, the Detroit Free Press reported in Thursday editions.

The report will likely figure in a decision by the City Council, which has the final say on Archer's plan. Some council members already have spoken out against placing the three huge casino-hotel complexes along the river.

General Motors Corp., which is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to renovate its Renaissance Center headquarters nearby, also has expressed concerns about Archer's plan.

Concerns about the casinos will be addressed when the mayor presents his development plans to the council next month, Archer spokesman Anthony Neely told The Detroit News.

Larry Marantette, Archer's top land use adviser, added his opposition to the east riverfront site, saying putting casinos there would create "a wall of buildings and parking decks" between the river and Jefferson Avenue, the main east-west throroughfare through downtown.

The Planning Commission said that with casinos on the riverfront, neighboring parks and open space likely will be deserted at night "like Atlantic City's boardwalk."

The commission suggested locating the casinos in the central business district or on an 87-acre plot near the Ambassador Bridge controlled by businessman Don Barden, who operates a casino in Indiana.

Barden proposed what would have been Detroit's only black-owned casino, but it was one of eight proposals Archer rejected in the fall.

Meanwhile Wednesday, City Clerk Jackie Currie invalidated most of the more than 7,000 signatures on petitions seeking a referendum on the issue of a black-owned casino.

The petitions had been circulated by the Community Coalition, a group of Barden supporters. Their proposal called for a vote on whether one casino license should go to a Detroit-based business already involved in casinos.

The coalition didn't specify Barden, although he is the only person meeting its criteria.

Currie also said there were "defects" in the petitions that would prevent her from certifying them, even if the coalition obtained additional valid signatures.

"It's a setback, but we ain't finished yet," coalition organizer Ernest Johnson told the Free Press. "We'll just pick ourselves up, and the struggle continues."