Metro Beach Is No More

[David1946]

Metro Beach is now; Lake St. Clair Metropark

 

So the Huron-Clinton Metropark Authority is changing the Metro Beach Metropark's name to Lake St. Clair Metropark, officials said Thursday.

 

"It is a regional park with so much more than just 1,000 feet of beach along Lake St. Clair," Anthony Marrocco, chairman of the authority's Board of Commissioners, said in a statement Thursday. "We want the name to better reflect the variety of activities and facilities offered at the park."

 

The authority oversees a regional park system with 13 parks in Livingston, Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw and Wayne counties. Its parks receive a total of about 9 million visitors annually.

 

Its seven-member Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the park's name change at its meeting last week.

 

In 1950, when the park opened, it was called St. Clair Metropolitan Beach, officials said. It was renamed Metropolitan Beach Metropark about three years later. Metro Detroiters shortened the name to "Metro Beach" over the years.

 

The 770-acre park has a one-mile length of shoreline along Lake St. Clair, an Olympic-sized swimming pool, a splash play zone for children, boat marinas, golf courses, a nature center and a paved hike-bike trail and picnic shelters. The park also has 400 acres of coastal wetlands.

 

cramirez@detnews.com