Six Rivers may partner in preserving 70 acres of nature in Troy

TROY — Oakland County Parks and Recreation Department officials are asking Troy residents for their input regarding the future of a 70-acre land parcel known as Turtle Woods.

They hosted a public meeting Feb. 16 to share their plans for the space and to speak to residents at Evanswood Church, on Square Lake Road, which is adjacent to the property.

“We’re here today to update the public on what’s been happening in the conversation regarding Turtle Woods, which is this beautiful 70-acre property that is adjacent to where we are at right now,” Melissa Prowse, the manager of planning and development for Oakland County Parks and Recreation, explained at the meeting. “We have been working with the Six Rivers Land Conservancy and the Troy School District for a couple of years regarding this property and figuring out how we can preserve it for future generations. It’s one of the last large natural parcels in southeast Oakland County, so we’ve had our eyes on it for a while.”

Turtle Woods is located between John R Road and Dequindre Road, north of Square Lake Road. The land previously belonged to the Troy School District. Nicole Wilson, the vice president of the Troy Board of Education, said that the district has been in the process of selling the land since 2016, when they concluded they would never need the land for future school space.

“The school district decided to sell the land in 2016, and the funds that were gained for that land were primarily used to fund our preschool,” Wilson said. “We wanted to build the preschool without raising taxes. We had this vacant land that was able to be developed. We knew we couldn’t put schools on it because of the aging population of Troy, and we wanted to be fiscally responsible with our options. When people in the community responded to a survey back in 2016 about what they wanted in this area of the city, many said they wanted the Turtle Woods property preserved because of all of the amazing nature features of that land. There’s wetlands and prairie lands and a lot of flora and fauna on the land, so the district decided in 2018, to split the property and to sell the 6 acres on Square Lake for development but preserve the bulk of the property, which is over 70 acres. It’s taken us four years to find the right partners in Six Rivers and Oakland County Parks so we can fulfill that goal.”

The Oakland County Parks and Recreation Department is currently applying for a grant from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund to purchase Turtle Woods. However, by paying for it in this manner, they were prohibited by law from using those funds to buy it directly from the district. This is why Six Rivers was invited to participate as a partner in the exchange.

“The grant (we are applying for) would be from the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund,” said Prowse. “When the property is held by the school district, we can’t use trust fund dollars to purchase it because it’s considered publicly held. You can’t use public grant dollars to purchase something that is already publicly held. Six Rivers steps in then as an intermediary, since they are not a public entity and they can hold the purchase until we have the grant dollars to buy it from them.”

Six Rivers began in 1990 as the Oakland Land Conservancy. Kristen Myers, the deputy director of Six Rivers, said that the organization’s job is to preserve and sustain local lands, areas and waters that make the community special.

“We contacted Oakland County Parks last year to see if they wanted to add this property to their portfolio, and they went out and did a site visit,” Myers said. “They didn’t have much of a presence in southeastern Oakland County, and this was something they could do development on without having to put forth a significant investment in buildings or development on the land.”

Prowse said that the Turtle Woods land, which they appraised as being worth approximately $3.75 million, has been of great interest in the last several years to residents curious about the future of the space.

“This project has been of interest to the community, particularly in the last year since the new Robertson Brothers (residential) development started going up on Square Lake Road, because that used to be part of the land as well,” she said. “The school district sold the front six or so acres to them so they could have the funding they needed to sell the rest of the property to us at a lower price. Everyone in the area has been curious about what is going to happen to the rest of the property.”

Oakland Parks officials said that they intend to try to preserve the land as best as possible, and they hope to have it declared a nature preserve.

“We do actively manage our natural areas for things like monitoring for invasive species and prescribed burning to make sure that it is the most robust ecosystem it can be,” said Prowse. “There are trails that area residents have cut through over time. We will evaluate those to make sure they are in good spots and they are not encroaching on wetlands or cutting through sensitive areas, so you will probably see a little bit of trail development in the future, but that is it. The most development we would do on this property is a small restroom structure at some point and some parking lot space.”

Troy School District said that the money has already been used for its preschool, since they knew the sale would go through.

“We’re excited that things are finally coming into play and we can fulfill our promise to preserve this land,” said Wilson. “With the money we get from the grant, we will repay the money we borrowed from ourselves for our addition of the preschool a couple of years ago, and if there is money left over it will go into our general fund so it can be used to support day-to-day operations and programs.”

Turtle Woods is landlocked within residential housing, a golf course and other developments on Square Lake Road. Prowse said they are currently figuring out the best access points to the property and where the parking lot would be, but that the Robertson Development already has a few parking spaces that they were required by the city to put inside their new subdivision.

“If people wish to reach out or have questions about Turtle Lake, they can go to www.oaklandcountyparks.com and go to our planning page,” she said. “There’s information about the property and a link to an online survey that they can send in. People can tell us what they think about the property and what they would like to see or not see.”

With more than 300,000 people living within a 15-minute drive of Turtle Woods, Oakland County, the school district, and Six Rivers all said they are invested in ensuring that this land remains protected.

“We will know by the end of the year whether we are awarded the grant,” said Prowse. “The process takes a while for grant approval and for us to close on the property, so the best-case scenario is we would take ownership toward the end of 2024 and then we would open it within 30 days, because we have to open it that quickly by law if trust fund dollars are used.”

“Our motto is ‘nature near you,’ and I would tell people that this might be a great tax base, but people can’t just look at it from a money standpoint,” added Myers. “You can’t calculate the benefits in terms of mental health, physical health, climate change and so forth. We need open land areas and forested areas for kids to go, play and get to know nature.”