Ann Arbor City Council deliberates taking ownership of state roads

The Ann Arbor City Council met in Larcom City Hall Monday night for a work session to discuss a proposed transfer of four prominent state-owned trunk lines to city ownership. Jake Vissers, a senior transportation planner with consulting firm Sam Schwartz, reviewed a cost-benefit analysis of the transfer and outlined possible courses of action for the council during the work session.

The city has been considering the ownership transfer for several months and hired Schwartz last December to perform a feasibility study. The report, shared with City Council in February, assessed the potential benefits and costs of transferring trunkline ownership. After reviewing the findings, the transportation commission recommended that the city enter negotiations with the Michigan Department of Transportation regarding the transfer to discuss finances and logistics. 

City officials first looked at a jurisdictional transfer of the state-owned roads due to concerns that the MDOT was an obstacle in enacting certain road safety improvements.

Raymond Hess, Ann Arbor city transportation manager, said the city has some priorities that differ from MDOT, such as pedestrian safety. 

“It’s staff’s impression that MDOT trunk lines are part of a regional mobility system that prioritizes vehicular and free movement as a top priority,” said Hess. “Whereas the city often looks at things like local transportation, safety, mobility and accessibility as some of the values that we hope to achieve.”

City Council member Erica Briggs emphasized the importance of pursuing the transfer to ensure pedestrian and driver safety because public safety should be a priority in all cities across the state.

 “It is very frustrating that MDOT and the state are not recognizing and implementing the same values across every single city,” Briggs said. “(Every city) in the state deserves to have streets that are built safely, that are built for all users, not just folks that are in cars.” 

Other cities in the state, such as Kalamazoo and Grand Rapids, have successfully undergone similar ownership transfers. A key point of discussion during the work session was the potential financial cost of a roadway transfer. 

Ann Arbor currently receives reimbursements from MDOT for routine maintenance of state-owned trunkline highways. If these trunk lines become city-owned, the city would no longer receive these reimbursements of approximately $200,000 annually.

However, the completed transfer process would make the city eligible for a one-time jurisdictional transfer payment. According to the feasibility report, this payment comes close to $240,000. 

Vissers said the city would need to request $82 million from MDOT to conduct necessary road repairs, which the Transportation Commission supported during their review of the feasibility study. 

“In our cost estimates we found it would cost and expected $82 million to bring all of the trunk clients to a state of good repair for five years,” Vissers said. “However, this value estimate would change depending on which trunk lines are included within the proposal.”

City Administrator Milton Dohoney Jr. expressed uncertainty about whether the city would receive this amount from MDOT. He said road improvements could pose a financial burden if the city takes ownership of the four trunk lines. 

“If it were a situation where the trunk lines would be transferred to the city after they had been brought up to the appropriate standard, that’s a different conversation,” Dohoney said. “What we’re talking about is the transfer may very well take place without that having happened.”

Dohoney said the city should try to negotiate but emphasized that the benefits of the jurisdictional transfer would depend on how much the DOT was willing to provide the city for road improvements. 

“Our understanding in the meeting we had is that the MDOT would likely give us sort of a one-time amount of money as they exit. Then from there, it’s on the city … we’re accepting a liability and all that that brings with it.” 

In order to move forward in the process, city officials must negotiate an agreement with the MDOT and draft a memorandum of understanding. The council has not yet indicated whether it will continue to pursue the transfer.

Daily Staff Reporter Amanda Venclovaite-Pirani can be reached at amandavp@umich.edu.

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