Bill Laitner

Detroit Free Press

Off-roaders have few parks for four wheelin%27 and none near Detroit%2C say posts on the Wrangler forum.

But old gravel pits near Mt. Holly in north Oakland County could become county-run ORV heaven.

The DNR has asked the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund to grant %242.9 million for the land.

The Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund gets royalties from oil-and-gas drilling on state land.

Growling dune buggies and off-road vehicles tearing ruts in terra firma — it's probably not what most local officials want coming to town.

Except that in north Oakland County, where played-out gravel pits border I-75, that's a dream come true for long-time Groveland Township Supervisor Bob DiPalma.

"For us, this is a great way to get rid of these old gravel pits and make this a recreational area," DiPalma said.

The plan is a unique partnership between the state park officials in Lansing and Oakland County officials. They'd create an "adventure recreation area" aimed at drawing ORV enthusiasts from across the Midwest. It would be situated across the street from Groveland Oaks County Park and south of Mt. Holly's ski slopes.

Park users would be the noisy off-road buffs and dirt-bike motorcyclists that hikers and campers love to hate. Later would come fans of cable-powered water skiing and zip-line wake boarding — no boat needed — as well as scuba diving in the artificial lakes left by sand and gravel miners next to Dixie Highway, said planners with Oakland County Parks.

A test course on the park site will be open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday for ORV enthusiasts, their family members and anyone eager to watch off-roaders clamber up hills, scale boulders and scream down dales. Cost to enter the Dixie Gully Run is $20 per ORV or $5 per spectator.

"We'll have it rain, snow or anything else — people can get warm at our portable heaters and portable fire pits," while vendors sell coffee and grilled foods, said Desiree Stanfield, spokeswoman for Oakland County Parks.

An adventure park is "something southeast Michigan has badly needed for 40 years," said Dan Stencil, executive officer of Oakland County Parks. Last week, Stencil was in Lansing, imploring board members of the Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund to approve a $2.9-million state grant for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources when they meet Dec. 3.

The DNR would use the grant to purchase 312 acres from the gravel pit owner to create the adventure park. Groveland Township would add 90 acres, and with further additions of an old farm here and vacant county land there, planners could assemble 450 acres, to be split between ORVs and non-motorized uses such as hiking and mountain biking, Stencil said. The result would be a new state park leased for the county to operate.

"They won't need additional staff" because the county system already operates Groveland Oaks County Park "right across the street," said Ron Olson, chief of parks and recreation for the DNR, referring to Dixie Highway. The DNR has long hankered to create a state-of-the-art "ORV scramble-type of facility," he added.

And the location of this ORV mecca would fulfill a radical mandate thrust at the DNR by lawmakers in 2012. Starting in 2015, the Land Cap Bill discourages creating new parks north of the north borders of Mason and Arenac counties — roughly a line from Manistee on Lake Michigan to East Tawas on Lake Huron — but it encourages opening new ones south of there, DNR spokesman Ed Golder said.

"So much of Michigan's public land is, as we say, north of the knuckles" of the state's mitten shape, Golder said. "This project fits in with the new direction we're taking" to create more parks close to the population base in southeast Michigan, he said.

In August, staff members of Oakland County Parks, assisted by one of the sand-and-gravel mining firms, set up a test course at the site to see if it would excite guests from a select list of ORV buffs. The event drew a fleet of Jeeps and dune buggies. Park planners then tweaked the course, rolling boulders around and adding new trails, said Jon Noyes, principal planner with Oakland County Parks.

"We want it to be safe but challenging for everybody, whatever they're driving — from a stock Jeep right off a dealer's showroom to a John Deere Gator," Noyes said. Meeting ORV enthusiasts has been an education for Noyes and other park planners, he said.

"Some people think it's just kids who want to do this. I've been pleasantly surprised at how many families are involved," he said.

ORV hobbyist Jim Kitson, 57, of Davisburg said he'd love to see Groveland Township's wasteland of mine tailings turned into his version of recreation heaven on earth. He'd no longer have to leave the state to pursue his hobby.

"Michigan has only three state park areas for ORVs, one county area in Genesee and three or four private parks," said Kitson, chief awareness instructor for the United Four Wheel Drive Associations, and active in the 500-member Great Lakes Four Wheel Drive Association. "From a truly technical off-road perspective, there's nothing for us anywhere in Michigan."

Contact Bill Laitner: blaitner@freepress.com and 313-223-4485.