DETROIT (WXYZ) — "The noise is incredible. The pounding. The banging. It's just terrible," Irma Saldivar said about the trucks behind her house that use the Ambassador Bridge to cross into Canada.
Saldivar's family has been living on St. Anne Street in Southwest Detroit for decades.
"All that property behind me is the Bridge Company's," Saldivar said.
And the Bridge Company, owned by the Moroun family, is expecting city council to vote to transfer some land at Riverside Park to them when they vote Tuesday.
But Saldivar and other residents are hoping council votes no until the Detroit International Bridge Company agrees to certain conditions, including not seeking to close off St. Anne Street from Fort Street to Lafayette in an attempt to connect their properties.
The fear is that would delay first responders and turn some side streets into dead ends.
"They're getting too close. Too close for comfort for me anyhow," said Reuben Romero who, like Salvidar, also lives on St. Anne.
"I hope city council says no, they vote it down. I really do," Romero added.
On Monday, community groups including the Hubbard Richard Residents Association (HRRA) held a rally to inform and mobilize neighbors to let city council know that they want community protections in place before they approve the land transfer.
Council member Gabriela Santiago-Romero (6th District) has said she would be voting no until those protections are in place.
In a call to action, the HRRA said, "Make no mistake, if Council approves the land transfer, our hard work to secure community benefits protections in the face of a second Ambassador Bridge and the expansion of a customs plaza will be lost."
In a statement to 7 Action News Monday, Ambassador Bridge owner Matt Moroun said the city is not "giving" the bridge anything.
"A contract was made for the city to exchange the property after we performed our obligations. We’ve done everything we were supposed to under the contract and the city needs to fulfill its end of the agreement," Moroun wrote. "The Ste Anne’s St. area and HRRA is a separate issue that we will be happy to discuss but it is not reasonable to breach the Riverside Park agreement to gain leverage on a different matter."
Jennifer Giroux of the Hubbard Richard Residents Association said they are not against the land transfer. She said they support it but that community protections must be put in place.
"If they want to do the land deal and the land exchange, we're for that. We're supportive, but we just say, first, agree that you will not seek to expand that wall and seek to displace all the residents along the street," Giroux said. "That's where we're drawing that line in the sand and that's what we want city government to support us on."
