The Road to Fixing Royal Oak’s Deteriorating Streets Has Reached a Dead End

Royal Oak City Engineer Matt Callahan admits neighborhood roads are bumpy, but the process to do something about it is anything but smooth.

McDonald Avenue – a road that runs north off 12 Mile Road, adjacent to Northwood Elementary – is an example of a street the city would like to fix but can’t. 

“McDonald is one of the neighborhood streets that the Engineering Department receives many calls on,” Callahan said. “It’s next to a school and receives a great deal of traffic. Its PASER rating is a 1. That’s the worst rating for a paved road. A zero is a gravel street.”

The Pavement Surface Evaluation and Rating (PASER) system is used to evaluate the condition of road segments. The PASER system rates each road segment on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being the worst condition, and 10 being the best condition (new pavement). 

The state of Michigan requires this type of an analysis to be in place for a city to get its full dispersion of Act 51 monies. 

“Street maintenance is paid from Act 51 revenue, which we get from the state. The state collects it as part of vehicle registration fees and the tax on gasoline and diesel fuel,” said City Manager Don Johnson. “The revenue is shared with local governments on the basis of population and miles of major and local streets.”

The amount of Act 51 revenue that comes to the Engineering Department for road improvements is about $1.5 million per year. 

“By law, 75 percent of that money must be spent on major streets and only 25 percent can be spent on local streets,” Callahan said, which leaves him a budget of approximately $375,000 for neighborhood roads. 

“When a road rates 3 or below it’s in very bad shape. When the road has a rating of 1, it needs to be completely rebuilt. Nothing is salvageable,” Callahan said.

To replace McDonald, it would cost more than $400,000.

“That's more money than we have in one year to spend on all local streets combined,” Callahan said. 

Royal Oak does not currently spend any property tax revenue or any other general revenue on streets. 

“Even if the city did find the extra money to fix McDonald, there wouldn’t be anything left in the budget for any other local roads in the city for one year. We would not have money to do even regular road patches,” Callahan said.

The problem with the condition of streets in Royal Oak is growing, according to Johnson.

“What Royal Oak receives from the state is not enough to maintain our roadways and the condition of many of our streets is evidence of this,” Johnson said. “The recent public safety millage passed by voters does nothing to solve our street repair issues.  It cannot be spent on streets.”

In the long term, the issue of poor roads must be addressed. Gov. Rick Snyder has proposed changes in the gasoline tax that could provide increased local revenue, Johnson said. If this doesn’t happen, or if it proves inadequate, city officials will eventually have ask the voters whether they are willing to pay to fix the city’s streets. This could be in the form of a road bond or a millage.

Without a road bond or millage, the process to get a residential street repaved is a bumpy road that requires the willingness of neighbors to have their property assessed to pay for the improvements. 

The procedure requires residents to circulate a petition and a series of five resolutions must be passed by the Royal Oak City Commission for the project to move forward. If all resolutions pass, the time allowed for special assessments to be repaid for road improvements is 15 years.

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