Road paving SAD fails to gain initial approval

A road paving project along the Bloomfield Township/West Bloomfield border, near Quarton and Inkster roads, may not include nearly a dozen homes on the Bloomfield Township side of the project, which is being headed up by the Road Commission for Oakland County (RCOC), trustees determined at their board meeting on Monday, October 28.

The project, which includes a special assessment district (SAD) for paving a number of residential roads in the Herndon's Walnut Lake Estate's subdivision, was brought about by a petition from a number of West Bloomfield residents in the area. The project includes just nine parcels located on the Bloomfield Township side of the border.

Bloomfield Township Engineering and Environmental Services Director Olivia Olsztyn-Budry said the properties include two parcels on Putnam Drive; two on Sunny Crest Drive; three on Appoline Drive; and two on Lakeshire Drive.

"The residents circulated a petition to pave the roads in Herndon's Walnut Lake Estates subdivision with the Road Commission for Oakland County," she said. "The RCOC follows PA 246 for preceding with a Special Assessment District. PA 246 requires that all streets meet the 51 percent requirement of road frontage for supporting a project. For reference, PA 188, which Bloomfield Township follows, requires 50 percent road frontage for the total proposed district. The RCOC determined that the petition was insufficient to proceed with the project."

Despite the lack of support, the West Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees on October 8 passed a resolution to allow the RCOC to move forward with the project after receiving a request from residents to do so. The Bloomfield Township Board of Trustees also is required to pass a resolution supporting the project in order to include the properties in the township in the project.

"If the Bloomfield Township board doesn't pass a resolution, the RCOC will continue with the project and end the paving at the Bloomfield Township boundary," Olsztyn-Budry said. "The project would still continue, but these properties won't get paved."

Bloomfield Township Treasurer Brian Kepes said if the same project were being undertaken by Bloomfield Township, the project wouldn't move forward because of a lack of signatures by property owners in the township to support it.

A motion to approve the resolution by the Bloomfield Township board failed by a vote of 3-3, with trustees David Buckley, Dani Walsh and treasurer Brian Kepes opposing, and supervisor Leo Savoie absent.

However, Kepes said on Thursday, October 31, that one of the properties has since responded to the township and requested to be included in the SAD, meaning that more than half of the eight property owners on the nine properties was in favor of the SAD.

Kepes said he expects the resolution to be considered by the board a second time at a future meeting.