Tree Huggers plan garden on Belle Isle to stop GP

A tree hugger will go to any length to win

Organizers of the Detroit Grand Prix are facing a new obstacle to bringing the event back after this year.

The site that landscape designer Piet Oudolf has chosen for the garden he's designing for Belle Isle is located where the grandstands are set up during the Grand Prix.

"If the Grand Prix continued, we obviously wouldn't be able to put a grandstand there any longer," Race Chairman Bud Denker said Thursday.

"The grandstands would have to be moved somewhere else."

Changing the race route is not an option, he said, as the current route has been surveyed and examined by race officials.

"We would just have to understand how we're going to work with the garden if we continue on, and we haven't determined that yet," said Denker, who is president of Penske Corp.

The Detroit Grand Prix has been held in recent years on Belle Isle, a state park and island in the Detroit River managed by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Led by Penske, race organizers and supporters have invested $13 million in the event since its 2007 relaunch.

They knew the Oudolf garden was in the works, but didn't know a year ago where it would go, Denker said.

It's yet one more thing organizers are looking at as they decide whether to bring the race back after this year's event, he said.

They're also considering public opposition to the race on Belle Isle because of the environmental impact it's believed to have and decreased access to the island's west side during the weeks surrounding the event, as well as the event's positive impact, Denker said.

In 2014, Crain's reported the event has a $50 million impact on the local economy.

After last year's race, organizers said they planned to decrease the number of weeks they would shut down parts of Belle Isle from 11 to nine for setup and tear-down.

The DNR is in the midst of doing an assessment of the Grand Prix's impact on Belle Isle, Ronald Olson, chief of parks and recreation for the Michigan DNR and Parks and Recreation Division, said in an email.

Whether or not the Grand Prix will continue "is dependent upon the organizers' desire to propose a plan to continue," he said, noting the DNR has not received a proposal to extend the race on the island beyond this year.

"This is all part of the decision-making process of do we move forward with the Grand Prix or not," Denker said.

Alternative plans to take the race back to Detroit's streets or to another location have not proven feasible, he said.

"All factors need to be considered for the continuation of the event, which we are reviewing currently. Our hope and our intent after a complete consideration of all these factors is to submit a proposal in the future," Denker said.

"It's going to be a decision of … is it on Belle or not (at all), frankly." Crains Detroit Business