Follow-up to November 19 Village Board meeting
Background
On November 19, 2024, approximately 65 residents attended the monthly meeting of the Village Board of Trustees to discuss the Roads project. The Trustees and Village Manager responded to a number of the questions asked during the meeting and agreed to follow-up on questions that could not be addressed that evening. This blog post summarizes some of the matters discussed during the November 19 Board meeting, as well as a small group meeting held on November 21, 2024.
Petition process
Public Act 188 and Bloomfield Township policy govern the process by which residents can request the Township to form a Special Assessment District (SAD) to fund road improvements. The Township prepares official petitions that are used to gather signatures of support for the proposed road improvement. Residents that support the project and the SAD to fund it document that support by signing the petition. Those that do not support the project/SAD do not sign the petition.
Signatures of support from residents representing at least 50% of the parcels and 50% of the frontage in the SAD are required for the petition to be successful. The denominator in both of these calculations is the total parcels or frontage in the proposed SAD.
The petitions are not ballots, which would allow residents to “vote yes” or “vote no”. Petitions only document support of the SAD.
The petition signature pages for the Pink, Blue, Yellow and Gold section petitions were the same as the petition signature pages for the petitions circulated in 2013, with one exception: The 2013 petitions included pre-printed resident names for each address. Petitions for the current/proposed SADs listed addresses, and required residents to print their names, sign and date the petition next to their address.
Volunteers circulating petitions in the Village contacted residents on their lists via email, text, phone call or door-to-door visit. In an effort to ensure that all residents had the opportunity to express their opinion on the SAD in their section, volunteers made multiple attempts to contact residents to determine whether the resident supported the petition. Once a resident either signed the petition or communicated that they did not support the SAD, volunteers would no longer contact that resident regarding the petition.
The petitions for each section include a GUIDELINE for turning the petitions into the Township; the date is a guideline, not a mandatory deadline. The Township can and does allow groups circulating petitions to return them after the guideline date. In the case of the Gold and Yellow section petitions, the guideline for return was Sunday, December 1, 2024. The Gold section petitions were submitted to Bloomfield Township in mid-November; the Yellow section petitions were submitted December 2, 2024.
From the Township SAD policy, effective August 26, 2024: “The official petition will have a return by date of up to six months after the release of the petition. The return by date may be modified to meet the timeline for construction. . . . Petitions received by the Township after the due date may still be considered.”
When sufficient signatures on the petitions have been gathered, they are submitted to Bloomfield Township. Once submitted to Bloomfield Township, signatures cannot be removed from a petition. Bloomfield Township Assessor’s office personnel verify the signatures on the petition and validate that residents of least 50% of parcels and 50% of frontage have signed the petition. If a signature cannot be verified, or additional information/signatures are needed, the Township permits “curing” the signatures. For the petitions we have submitted so far, “curing” usually required an additional person to sign the petition, or for the resident to re-sign the petition at the Township. See additional information on the signature verification process HERE (scroll down the page to the Frequently Asked Questions).
Village Role in the SAD petition process
Since 1985, the Village Board has supported the efforts of various road committees seeking solutions to our deteriorating roads. The current effort to fix our roads started around 2015, when the Road Committee began gathering “Expression of Interest” forms signed by more than 50% of the residents on every street in the Village. The Expression of Interest forms, which were submitted to the Road Commission in August 2018, requested RCOC to develop a plan and cost estimate to fix our roads. The plans and cost estimates developed in response to the Expression of Interest form the basis for the petition process in each SAD.
The Village Board and Village Manager have supported and facilitated current Roads project by:
Coordinating neighborhood volunteers in the petition process.
Holding at least 25 small group meetings for residents to learn about the Roads project and discuss their questions in a small group setting.
Responding to individual residents’ questions regarding the project via in-person meetings, phone and email
Maintaining a separate website for the Roads project, with information about the history of the Village roads, the SAD process, the construction process, FAQs, and blog posts for timely updates.
Providing ongoing communication with residents about the Roads project through mailings, bulletin articles, email blasts, the Roads website, on-on-one conversations, presentations at the Annual Meeting, etc.
Coordinating/communicating with the Road Commission, contractors, Bloomfield Township regarding construction process and timing, and communicating relevant information with residents.
A majority of Village residents have repeatedly supported fixing our roads:
50%+ of residents on every Village street signed the Expression of Interest forms.
52% of Pink section residents supported their SAD.
57% of Blue section residents supported their SAD.
52% of Gold section residents supported their SAD.
54% of Yellow section residents supported their SAD.
Given this level of support, the Board believes that continued support of the Roads project is appropriate.
What about the sewers?
Bloomfield Village has a combined sewer system, meaning that the storm sewer and sanitary sewer flows are combined into a single pipe and flow into the regional sewer system down to a DWSD treatment plan near the Detroit River. Sewer pipes 21” in diameter or less are owned by Bloomfield Township. Sewer pipes 24” in diameter or more are owned by Oakland County Water Resource Commission. These entities are responsible for maintaining their respective parts of the sewer system. The Village Roads project does not contemplate improvements to the sewer system.
We are not aware of any current plans to improve or replace portions of the sewer system in the Village areas that will be rebuilt in the Roads project. It is certainly possible that an issue within the system would necessitate digging up a recently rebuilt road in order to repair or replace sewer lines. If that occurs, the contractor doing the repair will be responsible to restore the road after the repair.
Residents in the Yellow and Gold sections may want to have their sewer leads inspected and make any repairs prior to construction on their street, especially if the repair will involve digging up the road. Residents are responsible for the sewer lead from their homes up to the point of connection to the public sewer.
Lesson learned from the Pink and Blue sections
Construction in the Pink and Blue sections was a learning experience for all involved – the Road Commission, Ajax (primary contractor), sub-contractors, the Village and individual residents. Some lessons learned:
By waiting until the old curbing was removed and underdrain installed, RCOC was able to significantly reduce the number of trees removed during the road project – from an estimated 92 trees down to 11 actually removed. It is our understanding that RCOC intends to continue to use this method.
Driveway approaches – RCOC planned to remove only the minimum portion of driveway approaches needed to lay underdrain and curbs. In response to resident concerns on how this would look, they agreed to remove approached back to the sidewalk. In addition, most residents indicated a preference for a concrete driveway approach between the concrete curb and concrete sidewalk, even where the remainder of the driveway is asphalt. The contractor was able to do this as cost effectively as laying asphalt approaches.
Drainage structures needed a thorough cleaning to remove debris built-up before construction even started. Cleaner structures helped RCOC and the contractor make more accurate assessment of their conditions and what refurbishment (or replacement) would be needed.
The Road Commission required Ajax to keep streets under construction open for traffic to minimize the disruption to residents. This created some challenges that will need to be considered in future projects:
Balancing contractors’ logistics with residents’ desire for street parking during the work day on roads with active construction, given our narrow streets.
Keeping roads open between final grading and paving resulted in some rework of the first paving layer that could have been avoided by closing the road during that period.
Notifications taped on front doors were very effective at giving residents notice when access to driveways would be impacted, or streets would be closed. Posting notices involved significant contractor effort going door to door, and was not required by RCOC. It is possible that future contractors will not provide this service.
The contractors learned and adjusted as they worked through the project. Some examples: changing the process for underdrain installation, adding crews where needed, changing the timing of structure adjustments, adjusting the order in which individual streets would be addressed. This experience could pay dividends if the same contractors are back for the Gold, Yellow and Green sections.
Cost of Village projects
Concerns about the cost of the Village Roads project include:
Why are the current SADs so much more expensive than back in 2012/2013?
Two factors are at work here – inflation and scope. The primary driver of the increase is inflation in road construction costs. In addition, in the 2012/13 proposal, some of the newer roads were to receive an overlay (some roads were rebuilt in the late 1990s for the Robert Reid drain). Those roads are now at the end of their useful lives, and will be replaced.
Isn’t there a cheaper way to fix our roads?
Since the early 2000s, road engineers we have consulted have consistently advised that, to fix our roads, we need to rebuild them. This makes sense, given that our roads are 60-plus years old. See discussion HERE.
Why are our projects so much more expensive than Birmingham road projects?
The City of Birmingham owns its roads, and includes a millage for road improvements in the property taxes billed to every taxpayer. This gives the city a fund to use for road improvements. Where the City of Birmingham assesses residents for road improvements, the project is usually subsidized by the road fund. Bloomfield Township does not own the Village roads; additionally, state law limits the amount of operating millage townships can collect. The Road Commission owns the neighborhood roads in Bloomfield Township; road funding for the Road Commission comes from state gas taxes collected at the pump. These are not sufficient to fund neighborhood road improvements. The only way to fund neighborhood road improvements in townships throughout Oakland County is through an SAD, and the full cost of the project is borne by the residents. (Having said that, such township residents will not have previously paid property taxes for road improvements.)
In addition, it is important to understand the scope of road improvement projects to ensure an apples-to-apples comparison of costs. The Village Roads project includes a full rebuild of the roads – removal of all existing road surface and curbs, installation of underdrains, new concrete curbs, refurbishment of the roadbed, 4” of asphalt roadway, height adjustments and relining or replacement of drainage structures, new ADA ramps that meet current code, restoration of driveway approaches and landscaping areas damaged by construction.
Drainage issues
The Roads project should address many areas where water pools at the base of driveways, on sidewalks, or along the side of a road. Underdrains under the new curbs will accumulate water from front yards and sidewalks and flow it underground into the storm drains (underdrains are not in place currently). The newly laid roads are engineered such that water will shed off the road surface to the curb/gutter on either side, then run along the gutter into a storm drain. In many current cases, water doesn’t flow into the drains as there are high/low spots resulting from overlays and repairs over time. In some places, the layers of overlays on our current roads have raised the road surface higher that the adjacent lawns causing “negative drainage.” Most of these issues should be rectified by the Roads project, but RCOC cannot guarantee that every issue will be addressed. Some factors to consider:
While the road engineers have designed the roads so that water will be funneled into drains, the geometry cannot work in every situation.
There are situations where a “limited flow” cover is placed on a storm sewer or manhole, because the sewer pipes themselves are not large enough to handle a heavy flow. In such cases, water will pool in the street during a heavy rain, by design, so the sewers are not overwhelmed causing backups into basements.
Several residents on Sunnydale have asked how the Roads project will address significant street flooding that occurs during heavier rains. We have discussed this issue and provided photos of the flooding to both RCOC and Bloomfield Township. We do not yet have a response as to how/whether the flooding can/will be addressed in the Roads project. Residents with questions to discuss with RCOC can contact Mark Meszler at mmeszler@rcoc.org or 248-763-9502.
Safety during the construction process
Residents expressed concerns about safety during the construction process. In particular:
Contractors driving too fast in their equipment
Streets temporarily blocked, without flaggers present
Construction sign bases extending into the road, sidewalk or lawn, causing a trip hazard.
Not enough flaggers.
ADA ramps were installed very late in the project; some of these areas we difficult to navigate before the ramps went in.
In each case where safety issues were brought to our attention, we passed that information along to both RCOC and Ajax so they could be addressed. We met with RCOC and Ajax weekly throughout the project; safety matters were discussed at many of these meetings. Some things we learned:
Some of the construction equipment is outfitted with speed limiters, which ensure the equipment cannot travel above 25 mph. Nevertheless, equipment operators were reminded frequently to keep speeds down.
Ajax crews conducted weekly sweeps of the construction areas to ensure that signage was in the appropriate position. There was an issue with lawn/landscape crews moving signage aside for lawn cutting or other landscape work. Weekly sweeps should have addressed these situations, although the signage would have been out of place for several days.
ADA ramps can’t be installed until the final lift of asphalt has been laid, so that the ramps can be properly sloped down to the road surface.
Payment of road assessments
Residents have two options for paying road assessments: pay in full up-front, or pay over 15 years with interest. Payments over the 15 year period are billed on the winter tax bill, and include interest at the average rate on the bonds sold to fund the project, plus 1%. The interest rate on assessments for the Pink and Blue sections is set at approximately 4.618%. The interest rate on assessments for the Gold, Yellow and Green sections will be determined at the time bonds are sold, if the projects are approved.
Residents opting to pay up-front avoid any interest charges.
The outstanding balance of a road assessment can be prepaid at any time during the 15-year period without penalty.
Is there a warranty on the roads?
RCOC owns the roads, sets all the specs and requirements for construction of the new roads, supervises the work, tests materials, etc., inspects all elements of the work product and is responsible to ensure the contractors meet the specs. RCOC employs a team of inspectors with responsibility for inspecting and quality control of the work. Once RCOC is satisfied with the final product, they will finalize acceptance of the work. The contractor does not have further obligations after final acceptance.
As the owner of our roads, RCOC is obligated to maintain them and ensure they are safe. Essentially, the “warranty” on the roads is from RCOC – they are responsible for fixing any issues with the roads after final acceptance.
What is the long-term plan for our roads, once reconstructed?
Bloomfield Township has advised us that they implement a maintenance plan for newly rebuilt neighborhood roads. An overriding objective of the maintenance plan is to keep water from getting below the road surface and into the roadbed, where the freeze/thaw cycle will ultimately cause pothole and deterioration of the road surface. Maintenance for the first 10-15 years in primarily a crack-filling plan – ensure that cracks in the new pavement are promptly filled to keep water from seeping into the road bed. Over time and with wear and tear, overlays will be necessary, but good maintenance can help postpone them.
Residents have also inquired as to whether/how a sinking fund could be established to allow Village residents to put money aside to replace the new roads at the end of their useful lives. At this point, we have not identified the means to do this, and would likely want to postpone it until road assessments for the current project are getting close to being paid off.