The City of Ann Arbor has scheduled the following public meetings and online survey to gather feedback on possible changes to the street millage renewal. The following public engagement opportunities are scheduled:

Wednesday, June 22, 7-8:30 p.m., Gallup Park Conference Room, 3000 Fuller;
Wednesday, June 29, 7- 8:30 p.m., Ann Arbor Senior Center, 1320 Baldwin (in Burns Park); and
Thursday, June 30, 7- 8:30 p.m., Cobblestone Farm, 2781 Packard

At intervals over the past nearly 30 years, Ann Arbor citizens have supported a street reconstruction millage to maintain and improve the quality of our streets. Well-maintained streets increase mobility not only for motorists, but also for a wide range of users such as school children, bicyclists, people with strollers, and people using walkers or wheelchairs.

In recent years, citizens' usage of non-motorized transportation options such as walking and bicycling has increased. In recognition of this trend, and in response to citizen suggestions, the city is providing public forums to review the overall street reconstruction millage and options for managing sidewalk repairs.

If the city were to assume the responsibility for repairing the sidewalks, a funding stream would need to be identified. Ann Arbor’s street reconstruction millage expires at the end of this year, and the city would like to gauge the public’s interest on:

(1) whether the city should assume responsibility for repairing the sidewalks, and

(2) if so, whether the scope of the street reconstruction millage should be expanded to include this responsibility.

The current street reconstruction millage is a 2-mill levy, which translates into an annual property tax obligation of approximately $214 for an average house in the city of Ann Arbor (average market value $214,000; taxable value $107,000).

If sidewalks were added as a component of this millage, the city has calculated that the millage rate would need to increase to 2.125 mills. This one-eighth additional mill for sidewalks would increase the annual levy by approximately $13.38 for an average house in the city of Ann Arbor. As a point of reference, a typical four-inch slab of sidewalk cost a property owner, on average, $120 in 2007 according to data available to the city's sidewalk inspection and repair program.

More information can be found on the city’s web page dedicated to the street reconstruction millage: http://www.a2gov.org/StreetMillage or by contacting the city’s project manager, Liz Rolla, at erolla@a2gov.org.

Nancy Stone is the Communications Liaison for Public Services at the City of Ann Arbor. She can be reached at nstone@a2gov.org. Visit http://www.a2gov.orgfor more information on local environmental topics including recycling, composting, water conservation, and choices for green living.

Your World provides local environmental information to our community. Contributing partners include: Washtenaw County’s Environmental Health Division; the nonprofit Recycle Ann Arbor; the City of Ann Arbor’s Public Services Area, Natural Area Preservation, Systems Planning programs for Energy, Environmental Coordination, Solid Waste, Transportation, and Water Resources.