A formal plan for the revitalization of Ox Creek will be considered by Benton Harbor City Commissioners soon.
At a meeting of the city Public Safety and Public Works Committee this week, members heard from Marcy Hamilton of the Southwest Michigan Planning Commission about the long-term document establishing goals and a timeline for work to clean up the creek. It seeks to restore habitat, remove debris, and build trails along the waterway that she says has been polluted for years by runoff and illegal dumping.
“A lot of recreation, a lot of new developments that we want to bring to that corridor to really make it a gem again to this community,” Hamilton said. “Ox Creek, I think, used to be more important. People have kind of turned their backs to it.”
Hamilton said the Ox Creek Revitalization Plan has been years in the making with support from a wide variety of partners. She said more than $13 million has been awarded to the effort so far, with work already underway picking up debris and improving Hall Park, adjacent to the creek.
City Manager Alex Little said advancing the plan to fix up the corridor will attract residents and tax base.
“It’s not about gentrification as some people want to complain and say it is,” Little said. “Poor people enjoy a nice place to walk along and fish and have their kids play and so forth just like anybody else.”
Because Ox Creek starts out in farmland to the east of Benton Harbor, Hamilton said partners from all over the county are looking at ways it can be protected, but much of the work is happening right in the city. She said another big step in the process will be the demolition of the former Modern Plastics building, which is to start soon.