Stanley Park

This page contains updates for Stanley Park events that may affect Lakewood Village.  The most recent reports are first.

Stanley Park Update - December 2025

Background

For those who are new to the neighborhood, Stanley Park fronts on Brendel Lake on the North Shore on the east end of the lake. The park was the Brendel Lake Campground and was owned by the Stanley Pollack family. White Lake Township purchased the 57-acre property in December of 2019 using a Michigan DNR Trust Fund Grant and 25% matching funds from the Township. The property will remain a park in perpetuity.

COVID slowed things down, but in 2021 a 3-phase development plan was completed. A Land & Water Grant was awarded for the first phase of development. Phase 1 was determined to be installing the road and a walking trail down to the lake from Elizabeth Lake Rd, removing the existing boat ramp, and installing an observation/fishing pier. The full plan can be found on the Township website. lwcf_application.pdf The layout of the Phase 1 development can be found on Page 110.

Current Status

Since my last update at the beginning of the year, there has been significant progress in Stanley Park.  Hats off to McCarthy and Smith, General Contractors, for managing the project to completion on time. 

Today marks 6 years since the Township purchased the Brendel Lake Campground from the Pollack family and named it Stanley Park in honor of the late Stanley Pollack.  The purchase was made possible with a Michigan DNR grant, that funded 74% of the $1.3M purchase.

Planning for the park was done by consulting company Beckett & Raeder, who had previously designed White Lake’s Bloomer Park, north of M59 & Hill Rd on McKeachie Rd.  The Stanley Park plan consisted of 3 phases, and the Phase 1 development grant was received from Michigan DNR in 2022.  Several disruptions delayed the construction of Phase 1 until 2025.

Phase 1 development construction was completed on October 15th, and the image in Figure 1 below is now a reality.  Phase 1 included a paved road and paved walking path from Elizabeth Lake Rd down into the park.  There was a significant amount of groundwork, tree work, and planting of hydro-seed.  Also included is an observation / fishing pier on Brendel Lake.  There are a couple of repairs that still need to be completed, and an exercise station was back ordered and will be installed after April 15th.  The following link is for the Phase 1 grant application:  lwcf_application.pdf

White Lake Township is planning to have a ribbon cutting ceremony sometime in 2026.

Sincerely,

Steve Woodard

2nd VP External Affairs