Detroit Thermal declares premature victory while historic Lafayette Park residents keep fighting – Detroit Metro Times

Detroit Thermal is claiming a Wayne County jury handed it a “sweeping verdict” in a controversial case over whether the utility can run steam lines across Lafayette Park townhomes to heat a nearby high-rise

But the legal reality is far more complicated. 

The jury on Tuesday rejected one claim from townhome residents, finding Detroit Thermal did not abandon an easement when steam service ended decades ago. However, it did not resolve the broader fight over whether the company can lawfully use Lafayette Park’s historic townhome property to serve 1300 Lafayette East, a nearby high-rise that has been relying on temporary boilers, according to residents and prior court rulings.

In an early March ruling that remains in effect, Wayne County Circuit Judge Annette Berry ruled that Detroit Thermal cannot use the property to provide steam service to buildings outside the Mies van der Rohe district, writing that entering the property for that purpose “exceeds the scope of the easements and constitutes a trespass.” 

Berry also issued a temporary restraining order blocking the work while the case proceeds. Residents say they are now asking the court to convert that temporary order into a permanent injunction.

That is why residents say Detroit Thermal is overstating what the verdict means.

“Detroit Thermal landed a punch and is strutting around like it scored a knockout,” resident Randy Essex tells Metro Times. “The fight’s not over.”

Essex says the verdict was “narrow” and addressed only one issue – that Detroit Thermal has not abandoned the easement. Residents had argued that Detroit Thermal gave up any such right after the neighborhood stopped using steam heat in the 1980s.

But Essex says Detroit Thermal’s claim that there is now “no reason” it cannot move forward is disingenuous. In addition to Berry’s ruling, another judge has paused a Historic District Commission (HDC) vote that allowed the project to move forward. 

According to Detroit Thermal’s news release, the verdict was “sweeping” and allows the company to reconnect the building, giving “no reason why 1300 Lafayette East Cooperative and its 600-plus residents cannot be reconnected to the system as soon as possible.”

After residents objected, Detroit Thermal spokesman Harvin Hollins III softened the rhetoric somewhat on Wednesday, but still insisted the verdict confirmed the company’s position.

“The jury found that Detroit Thermal has the right to use dedicated public easements in Lafayette Park like every other public utility does,” Hollins said Wednesday. “We need access to those easements to provide clean, safe heat to 600-plus Lafayette Park residents who desperately need it. We hope this brings the dispute between neighbors to an end. But if the small group of residents blocking the project wants to proceed with procedural roadblocks, we look forward to the jury’s verdict being vindicated.”

Residents say Detroit Thermal’s claims are misleading because the lawsuit was never just about abandonment. In March, Berry ruled against Detroit Thermal’s plan to run steam lines across the townhomes to serve 1300 Lafayette East. 

Unless that order is overturned, residents say, the company cannot lawfully proceed on the route it wants.

There is also a second unresolved fight. In July 2025, the Detroit Historic District Commission approved Detroit Thermal’s project with conditions after a contentious public hearing in which residents warned the work would damage the historic landscape. But townhome residents challenged that decision, and a judge has paused the HDC after it was challenged. That means Detroit Thermal cannot simply point to the commission’s approval as settled authority to move ahead, residents say. 

The HDC fight has long been shadowed by questions about the city’s role under former Mayor Mike Duggan. As Metro Times previously reported, Duggan administration officials worked behind the scenes to push the steam project through the historic preservation process, despite serious warnings from preservation staff. The story also revealed that Duggan’s son, brother, and niece lived at or owned units in 1300 Lafayette East, the building that stood to benefit from the steam reconnection.

Some media outlets parroted Detroit Thermal’s version of events with little or no context. A WDIV-TV story on Wednesday, for example, erroneously said the jury verdict was “clearing the way” for Detroit Thermal to reconnect the building and repeated the company’s argument that the ruling removed a major obstacle to move forward. 

But the case is far from over. The jury verdict settled only one portion of a much larger dispute over easements, trespass, historic preservation, and whether Detroit Thermal can use private property in one part of Lafayette Park to serve a different property elsewhere.

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