Lathrup Village

In early 2019, the Lathrup Village City Council recognized the need to address its aging infrastructure and called for the creation of the Infrastructure Study Group. The group comprises five residents including Mayor Pro Tem Kantor, along with the City Engineer, City Planner, City Administrator and Councilman Siddiqi who serve as its advisers. The group is tasked with gathering information on infrastructure improvements, identifying potential sources of funding, and providing recommendations to City Council. The following infrastructure categories are up for evaluation:

• Water Mains and Sewer Lines
• Roads
• Sidewalks
• Storm Ditches and Culverts

In November of 2019, the residents voted on the road and ditch proposal that the study group recommended and City Council placed on the ballot. The initiative was defeated and the study group subsequently reconvened to work on a new improvement plan that would be more acceptable to the voters. The study group thoroughly discussed the post-election feedback, conducted a series of public meetings (and obtained a significant amount of resident input), held three Town Halls to obtain further input and used all of this information to develop a new proposal. Here is a snapshot:

Goal: To repair or replace 7.1 miles of local residential roads that are in deficient condition and to improve the function of the storm ditch system associated with these roads.

Recommendation: The group recommended that 7.1 miles of local roadway be improved via full reconstruction, partial reconstruction or rehabilitation. This three-year project would commence in the spring of 2021 and take three years to complete. The project would be paid for by the issuance of a bond that residents and businesses would pay back over 10 years with an average millage rate of 3.9176 mills. Due to the significant cost savings associated with simultaneous repair, the committee also recommends this project include ditch grading, culvert replacement and culvert cleaning. These additional tasks will ensure that the new roads will achieve their maximum lifespan and improve the flooding after moderate to significant rains.

Conclusion: The Infrastructure Study Group presented its research and subsequent recommendation to the City Council for their consideration at the July 27, 2020 meeting. The Lathrup Village City Council voted unanimously to approve the millage question to come before residents on the November 3, 2020 ballot.

The last comprehensive residential road project in Lathrup Village took place 50 years ago, in 1969. Over the last few decades, the effects of Proposal A, the Headlee Amendment, reduced State Shared Revenue, along with the real estate crash of 2008, has resulted in significantly reduced expenditures on residential road maintenance. This reduction has accelerated road degradation dramatically (to learn more on how these factors limit the City's ability to maintain our roads,  watch the 'How Did Our Roads Get in Such Bad Shape' video ). Residents are frustrated by the quality of the roads, lack of walkability, damage to cars, poor street appearance, and loss of property value.

Furthermore, residents are frustrated with the non-functional storm ditch system that runs parallel to the streets. Water continuously backs up, forming ditch-long standing pools of water that rise to cover the sidewalks and driveways, attracts insects and other animals, and degrades concrete sidewalks and driveways. It also shortens the life of the road system as water seeps into the road sub-structure, resulting in damage. Standing water also causes significant inflow and infiltration into sewer pipes, an issue that requires correction as mandated by the State of Michigan.

The City Engineer used the Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) scale which was developed by the University of Madison-Wisconsin and is the standard of pavement condition reporting in Michigan per the Michigan Transportation Asset Management Council.

PASER uses visual inspection to evaluate pavement surface conditions to apply a rating between 1-10, from Failed (1-2) to Excellent (9-10).

The roads undergo scoring every two years. The most recent ratings, from 2019, were used to establish a schedule of repair. Please note the ratings associated with the images below are from 2017, and meant to be used as examples of road condition, the ratings may or may not have changed in 2019.

Failed/Poor

Cambridge Blvd is an example of a road with a PASER rating of 2.

Fair

Santa Ann Ave is an example of a road with a PASER rating of 4-5.

Good

Meadowood Ave is an example of a road with a PASER rating of 6-7.

Excellent

Dolores Ave is an example of a road with a PASER rating of 9-10.

You can find the current PASER rating of your road on the map below.

As noted above, due to a variety of factors, the City has minimal funds to spend on road improvements. Currently, the City can afford about 0.4 miles of road repair per year. At this pace, it will take over 50 years to repair all residential roads.

If this project is not approved, the City will continue to repair roads at a rate of 0.4 miles per year. Road degradation will continue to accelerate. Road conditions will continue to get substantially worse, potentially lowering property values. As they deteriorate, the cost to fix the roads will escalate as some streets move past the point of rehabilitation and into a state requiring a full reconstruction. Full reconstruction costs about $600,000 more per mile than rehabilitation.

Roads: The City Engineer reviewed the condition of the local roads along with their PASER ratings and the results of core sample analysis that was done last year on each road. Based upon this research, roads were either deemed eligible or ineligible for repair under this proposal. For example, a road that is in good condition with a high PASER rating would be classified as “ineligible,” whereas a road with a very low PASER rating that is laden with cracks and potholes would be considered “eligible.” Note that while there are more than 11 miles of road in the eligible category, only 7.1 miles of road will be repaired under the proposal. The specific roads to be repaired from these 11 miles will be determined during the winter preceding each of the three construction seasons. The Infrastructure Study Group will make a recommendation of the roads and ditches to be repaired and City Council will have the final approval. The map below illustrates all of the streets that are eligible for repair under this proposal. 

Streets illustrated in orange would undergo full 1A reconstruction, where all five inches of asphalt along with the underlying ten inches of road substructure are removed and replaced. Streets illustrated in blue would undergo partial 1B reconstruction, where all five inches of asphalt are removed, the substructure is regraded, and five new inches of asphalt are laid over the newly graded base. Streets illustrated in green will undergo 1C Rehabilitation, where the top three inches of asphalt is removed and replaced with 3 ½ inches of new asphalt.

While there may be some slight shifting between categories once the actual roads are chosen, the budget for this project was comprised of the following assumptions:

•  2.6 of the 3.9 miles of road requiring full 1A reconstruction will be addressed.
• 0.6 of the 1.1 miles of road requiring 1B partial reconstruction will be addressed.
• 3.7 of the 4.4 miles of road requiring 1C rehabilitation will be addressed.
• 0.2 of the 1.7 miles of dirt roads will be addressed (most likely a main ingress thoroughfare road).

Ditches: Without a properly functioning ditch system, our local roads will lose about 10% of their expected lifespan due to water damage. This means that 10% of the tax payer cost of repairing a road would be wasted without simultaneous ditch repair. As such, based upon resident input and committee review, it was felt every effort should be made to repair as much of the ditch system as possible that is directly associated with the specific 7.1 miles of road to be repaired by this proposal. Further, it was felt that due to the significant savings associated with simultaneous road and ditch repair, the systems should be repaired together to ensure residents reap the significant cost savings relative to a separate ditch project.

The road project cost noted above does not include the cost for ditch reconditioning. Based upon resident input, the Committee proposes that ditch repairs only occur on roads that are being repaired and that these costs be split evenly across the homes on the given road via a 10 year special assessment. This is an additional cost incurred only by the homes located on streets that undergo road repairs associated with this ballot proposal. The ditch improvement work would occur in coordination with the road repair. As the cost is split between the number of homes on a specific road, roads with more homes will have lower cost estimates than similar sized roads with fewer homes. The actual cost will vary depending upon the existing condition of the road’s ditch system. Blocks with fully functional or nearly functional ditch systems will have no or very low cost, while blocks with non-functional ditches will experience higher costs. A small portion of the eligible street mileage (less than 17%) will not require ditch repair. For the remaining 83%, the average estimated cost will be approximately $223 per year over the life of the special assessment. Again, this estimate is based upon street length and home density—the actual cost will also depend upon the existing condition of a given ditch system.

The ditch improvements that are a part of this program will include grading the ditches so that water flows efficiently in the proper direction, jet cleaning functional culverts and extended culverts, and replacing non-functional culverts. This is a high-level summary of the ditching plan, for more detailed information about the ditch program, please review the full detailed committee recommendation below.

Cost Information:

• Total project cost is estimated at $5,845,000.
• The project will be paid for by issuing one bond for the entire cost of the project with a ten year payback period.
• The City will repay the bonds through a voter-approved millage that would be applied to the taxable value (not actual value) of the homeowner and business’ parcels.
• The first year millage rate is 3.9307 mills and the average millage rate over the ten years is 3.9176.
• The annual cost to the average Lathrup Village homeowner (the average Lathrup Village home has a taxable value of $67,000) would be approximately $262 per year over the payback period of the bonds. To calculate your actual cost, multiply your home’s taxable value by .0039176 or click on the “View My Cost” button below for an interactive map that will display your actual cost based upon your current taxable value.

Street Improvement Cost Map

To find out what this millage will cost you, based upon your current taxable value, click the "View My Cost" button below. On the new tab that opens, check the Terms and Conditions checkbox (lower left corner) and click OK. Next, locate your parcel, and click on it. This will show you your first year cost, average cost, and the current tax amount you pay.

To learn more about the proposal and to ask any questions you may have, please join us at one of the following four Town Hall meetings. These meeting will be conducted virtually using Zoom conferencing. If you cannot Zoom or are uncomfortable doing so, please feel free to conference in via phone using the phone number in the Zoom invitation. When connecting via phone only, you will not be able to see any presentation slides, but you will still be able to hear the meeting audio and participate with questions and comments. 

Please click on the button of the meeting you'd like to attend to access the Zoom meeting information:

For a list of Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), click the 'FAQ' button below.

To view the detailed recommendation from the Infrastructure Study Group - Road Recommendation that was adopted by City Council, click the 'Committee Recommendation' button below.

To view the City Engineer's project estimate, click the 'Project Estimate' button below.

To see the resolution and ballot language, click the 'Resolution and Ballot Language' button below.

To view the City Council meeting where the proposal was approved for the November ballot, watch this video -- the road and ditch discussion begins at 17:50 into the meeting:

Bruce Kantor, Mayor Pro Tem & Chair of Infrastructure Study Group

bkantor@lathrupvillage.org