City of Belleville holds two meetings to discuss special assessment district

Last week the Belleville City Council held two special meetings at the Belleville High School cafeteria to discuss a proposed special assessment district for Harbour Pointe residents to fix their streets.
At the end of Thursday’s almost two-hour special meeting, Beth and William Hutter said they would circulate a petition among the 95 property owners to see how people feel about paying to upgrade the almost one mile of roads in the subdivision.
The city provided a proposed petition for the petition circulators to consider.
Attorney Tom Colis of Miller Canfield said they needed to get at least 60% of the property owners to sign for the SAD to proceed. Later in the meeting he said 57 signatures were needed.
Kari Blanchett of PFM Financial Advisors and John Hennessey of Hennessey Engineers also were on hand to offer their expertise.
Mayor Kerreen Conley explained there was an overall citywide assessment of city roads by Hennessey in 2015 and they found that Harbour Pointe had the worst roads in the city. The council held a meeting last December on the overall assessment. It was estimated it would take $10 million to tackle all the road problems in the city and the city doesn’t have the bonding capacity to get that money.
Breaking the work up into areas for special assessment districts was one option.
Mayor Conley, who lives in Harbour Pointe, did not take part in the discussion because she had a vested interest. Mayor Pro Tem Jack Loria was absent, so Councilman Tom Fielder led the discussion.
Work to completely replace the concrete streets is estimated at $1.6 million to $1.7 million.
Hennessey said the the problem is Alkali-Silica Reactivity (ASR), common with streets constructed in the 1990s and early 2000s, that is caused by materials used in the concrete. Reaction became present several years after construction. Deterioration begins at the joints. In the industry, this is called “cancer of the joints,” Hennessey said.
He said his recommendation is not to treat the symptoms, but to remove and replace the affected areas.
Complete removal and replacement of the streets would give 30-40 years of life expectancy, but there would be 60-90 days during construction where the residents couldn’t drive on it. Cost is estimated at $1.6 to $1.7 million.
Joint repair and asphalt overlays would have a life expectancy of 8-15 years, while the underlying concrete continues to deteriorate. Hennessey said the base of the streets is very good. Cost is estimated at $1 million to $1.1 million.
The third option, concrete crack repairs, has the lowest cost and the shortest construction time. Regular maintenance would be $30,000 every three to five years and it is not aesthetically pleasing, he said. Cost is estimated at $900,000 to $1 million.
Different options were discussed.
The recommended option for complete removal and replacement is estimated at a total of $10,089.47 per property owner or payments per year for 10 years of $1,121.05 with an estimated 4% interest.
When a property owner sells his house, the assessment needs to be paid off, Blanchett said.
Eric Luke, a property owner who is also the police chief for Sumpter Township, said he will have to pay 30-35% more each year for this.
“Is this the way the city is going to do business going forward?” he asked.
Councilman Fielder said someone came to the council asking for repair of roads and the council sought every option possible.
He referred to the provision that if changes are made to a petition once it is presented to the council that the council, on a 4-5 vote could proceed with the original petition.
“It’s not the intention of this project: Whether you like it or not we’re going to do this… It’s naïve to think if they don’t want it we’ll do it anyway … It’s improper of the government to do it anyway,” he said.
A property owner asked if the city would share some costs and if some of the Public Act 51 funds could be used.
“That’s open to discussion,” Fielder said. He said they can use the funds for actual construction, but most is used for snow removal and other maintenance.
“It’s certainly worth discussion,” Fielder said.
The property owners were irritated that they had to pay for the engineering, phase 1 of the project, whether or not the project proceeds.
Fielder said the funds in the general fund comes from all the people in the city.
“Can the city be considered an entity that benefits from this?” asked planning commissioner Mike Renaud, who also lives in Harbour Pointe.
“If the city’s not willing to commit to this, it’s silly for us to commit,” Renaud said. “They’re not our roads.”
Another property owner said roads will continue to deteriorate in the city and the entire city will have poor streets. She asked if there is something to do as a whole city to solve this problem.
Blanchett said the city has a limitation on its legal debt, which is $5 million, and that could be put on the ballot. It would take $10 to address all the roads, Hennessey said.
Attorney Colis said a city is different than a township. A city has a 20 mills limit and it’s been rolled back. He said Belleville could do a Headlee override, which would bring in 1.5 mills, $40,000 a year more. He said the debt limit is 10% of the State Equalized Valuation and the city already issued $5 million. It could add another $5 million.
He noted the SEV in Belleville has gone down.
“This is a lien on you,” Luke said of the SAD. “This doesn’t have a chance of passing. It doesn’t go with the house.”
Attorney Colis said it’s no different than a property tax.
A man in the audience said a lien has to be cleared.
Colis agreed that a bank is going to want to take it out.
“The bank won’t fund a mortgage,” Renaud said.
Luke said they are just asking for driveable road.
Fielder asked Realtor Glenn Silvenis about the lien.
“It has to be paid off,” Silvenis said. “No bank would mortgage it.” He questioned the city’s number of 95 parcels in the subdivision when there are 94. Also the city owns two parcels, one in front and one in back, he said.
A property owner asked about time limits on the petition.
Hennessey said you have to start now to hit this construction season. But, he said, most projects are designed in the winter and bid for start in the spring. If it’s later than that, costs will go up 3-9%.
DPW Director Rick Rutherford said deterioration of the roads is pretty progressive.
Fielder said road in Belleville were first paved in the 1950s and those old roads are in good condition. He said the roads in Harbour Pointe and Victoria Commons were done in the period when the concrete was not done properly.
Renaud said he noticed during the West Huron River Drive paving that they dug down and put a black goo in.
Hennessey said that adheres to the side walls of deteriorating areas. He said he could talk to Rutherford about that.
“It wouldn’t look good, but it would work,” Rutherford said.
Luke asked for average special assessment districts for roads across the state and Hennessey said they were high, with some from $25,000 to $28,000 per household.
Luke said there is a slim chance that this would pass if the city comes up with better numbers.
“We can’t get detailed numbers until the detailed engineering is done,” Hennessey said, referring to the $500 to $600 per household it would cost.
A man in the audience asked if they could get council meetings televised since the council chamber is so small.
Fielder said the video club at the high school wanted $35,000 to $40,000 to use their camera and students to televise the meetings a few years ago when they checked.