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News from the Michigan Environmental Council – Walkers, bikers must be incorporated in street plans:
Michigan today made a giant stride in creating more vibrant, livable cities with the passage of Complete Streets legislation in the State House and Senate.
The new policy requires the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) to consider non-motorized travel when building or rebuilding street infrastructure. The goals are increased safety; more desirable, livable, family-friendly communities; a healthier lifestyle; and an incentive for young professionals to locate in Michigan.
“This is an important step toward creating places where people want to live, work and play rather than just speed through in a vehicle,” said Michigan Environmental Council Deputy Policy Director Tim Fischer. “It is about rebuilding our roadways to move people, rather than just cars.”
Complete Streets will maximize tools like sidewalks, bike lanes, curb cuts and connectivity to public transit lines and local businesses to safely engage pedestrians, cyclists and disabled persons as well as motorists. The result is stimulation of central business district economies, less pollution from vehicles, healthier lifestyles and safer streets.
Specifically, it requires MDOT to develop a Complete Streets policy, and to coordinate with local governments with Complete Streets policies when rebuilding state roads that pass through their jurisdictions.
“It is exciting and encouraging seeing Michigan and the Department of Transportation stepping out front as a leader in developing strong people-centered policies like this,” said Chris Kolb, president of the Michigan Environmental Council. “This will make Michigan cities more competitive with neighbors like Chicago for attracting young talent and business investment.”
Michigan joins at least 10 other states and more than 100 jurisdictions nationwide with Complete Streets policies in place.
a modern roundabout
Tonight the city commission hosts from Ian Lockwood, who is here to talk about traffic calming and the potential for roundabouts to be part of the solution to Division St and the Grandview Parkway.
Both topics have been discussed here before. Traffic calming was the #1 priority in the letter last winter from the neighborhood association presidents: http://planfortc.com/2010/01/22/neighborhood-presidents-top-priorities-ian-glatting-hired-for-divison-st-ipr-update-jan-23-24/. The need to do something about cut-through traffic in neighborhoods - rather than just talk about it for 20 more years – was addressed here: http://planfortc.com/2009/12/19/streets-sidewalks-2-news-on-waterfront-sheriff-last-update-of-2009/
The role of complete streets in making a city more liveable and economically successful was addressed here: http://planfortc.com/2010/05/26/complete-streets-for-mi-cities-may-27/
Division St was discussed here: http://planfortc.com/2010/05/08/whats-next-on-division-st-may-9/, and the case for the roundabout solution was made eloquently by the businesses in the Munson-GT Commons campus: http://planfortc.com/2010/04/29/munson-and-the-commons-weigh-in-on-division-st-april-30/.
Finally, a great local resource on roundabouts is here: http://mywheelsareturning.com/map-roundies-in-michigan/
Hope to see you at the meeting tonight!
This Tuesday at its regular meeting the Traverse City Light and Power board will discuss a new net metering policy. Net metering would encourage small renewable energy systems on homes and businesses in the city by crediting the customer for what they generate – a first step towards distributed energy generation in the city.
What is net metering?
With net metering, a home or business customer installs solar panels or small wind turbines and uses electricity from those systems to power the home or business. To state the obvious, solar panels only produce energy when the sun is shining, and when it is shining, they produce more energy than the homeowner can use. The same is true of wind turbines and the wind.
Net metering allows the home or business owner to generate electricity for the grid, and the utility credits the customer for energy generated by the system. TCLP would install a two-way meter at the home or business that reads energy coming into the building from the distribution grid, and energy going out to the grid from the customer’s renewable energy system. The customer pays for the net of the amount of energy they use over the amount of energy they generate. The policy even allows some carry-forward of excess kWh generated during a billing month, so long as the “credit” is used within a year. With solar in particular, that seems like a likely scenario – especially in a house with solar panels but without central air.
The TCLP policy allows up to 20 kW of capacity per project, or up to 80% of the customer’s energy requirements. The program initially will allow up to 150 kW in the residential customer class, 320 kW in the commercial class, and 290 kW in the industrial class. The city currently does not have zoning in place for small wind (i.e. generators on rooftops), but that topic is on the Planning Commission’s list for the future. Solar works now under existing zoning.
Help paying for it
To help with the cost of the systems, federal legislation offers tax credits for renewable energy systems installed at people’s homes. A person who installs a wind or solar system can claim a 30% tax credit to help offset the initial investment. The tax credit can be carried forward into subsequent years if 30% of the cost of the system exceeds the person’s total tax liability the year the system is installed.
Further help comes from the Michigan Property Tax Code. “Alternative energy systems” (which include solar and small wind) certified as eligible by the Michigan Next Energy Authority Act are exempt from city personal property tax unless the city passes a resolution when presented with a request stating the systems will not be exempt. (The same goes for the school board.) Traverse City has not been presented with a request yet, but I certainly would support leaving the exemption in place.
A nice addition to our image
Imagine visitors driving into TC from the south and seeing solar panels on the roofs of homes and businesses. They would know that we are generating a little bit of our own energy, and leading the way to a cleaner and more secure tomorrow.
For more information:
The policy TCLP is considering – http://tclp.org/uploaded_files/PACKET_-_Regular_Meeting_07.27.10.PDF starting at p 17 of the pdf
MI Public Service Commission info on net metering – http://www.michigan.gov/netmetering
Directory of solar and wind energy suppliers: http://www.michigan.gov/documents/CIS_EO_Inside_broch_solar_and_wind_67997_7.pdf
Incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency: http://www.dsireusa.org/ (click on Michigan in the map)
*Disclaimer – this post is information about a potential program in Traverse City; it is not legal or tax advice.
Comparison of Local Police Costs*
| Police Dept | Population | Area | Budget |
| Leelanau County | 21,500 | 341 mi2 | $1.7 M |
| Benzie County | 17,000 | 316 mi2 | $822,000 |
| Garfield Township | 17,300 | 27 mi2 | $914,000 |
| Traverse City | 14,200 | 9 mi2 | $4.1 M |
This month the city is examining the costs of providing some of our most important and expensive services, and at our options to provide those services at a lower cost (present and future) without compromising quality. These are questions private businesses deal with day in and day out, and we should look at what aspects of the business model could be adapted to how the city spends money and plans for the future.
Financial Snapshot
The city’s not made of money. Far from it. The city’s general fund budget plus its annual police and fire pension spending (these used to be booked together but are now separate) total $14.9 million this year. For the average homeowner, $965 goes to the city, most of the rest goes to the schools, and pieces go to the County and various other recipients like BATA, library, Commission on Aging, Rec Authority, and others.
The bulk of city spending goes to the crucial tasks of public safety. Police and fire make up more than half the city’s budget.
The Lion’s Share
Now there is no question these services must be adequately funded. But there are serious questions about how much is enough, and are we paying the full cost of these services now or are we incurring large liabilities that will have to be paid later? As described here before, Traverse City spends more per capita on police and fire than any comparable city in Michigan – 51% more than the average of the 19 cities we examined. http://planfortc.com/2010/05/03/city-finances-part-2-police-and-fire-may-3/
As also described here before, the annual cost of the city’s defined-benefit police and fire pensions has risen from the $300,000′s to $1.2 million in less than a decade. http://planfortc.com/2010/06/06/police-fire-pensions-june-7/ Yet the gap between what the reports assume these pension funds are worth and what they are actually worth is over $7 million – half the city’s general fund budget. And that does not include pension funds for the rest of the city’s employees – just public safety employees.
When the city’s revenue base is growing, these trends constrain what we can do but they are manageable. When city revenues are flat, however, these trends are not sustainable.
What do we do?
At some point we have to take the emotion out and take an objective look at the numbers.
At some point we need to work towards reasonable benchmarks in comparable communities. That does not mean we need to be at parity. Traverse City is not and should not be the same as any place else. It is worth spending more for quality. However, when we are outspending peer cities on public safety by more than half – or outspending neighboring jurisdictions on police by three and four times – the magnitude of the disparity has to be examined.
And if we don’t want to simply look at reductions in services, at some point we have to look at service delivery alternatives. With a couple notable exceptions, the city has not done this – it has generally been taken on faith that the city will provide most or all of its services in-house. That we will be a service provider and not a service buyer.
We’ve done this on occasion
The exceptions to our policy of being a provider and not a buyer are worth noting. The city privatized operation of the wastewater treatment plant almost 20 years ago. The new vendor hired city staff to do the work. Since then the city has not been incurring defined benefit pension liabilities to operate the WWTP. And next year the city will put that contract out for bid.
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The city also got mostly out of the solid waste business years ago. Residential trash pickup shifted to private companies, but the city continued to collect leaves, provide spring cleanup, and collect from city receptacles. Starting in 2011 we hope to drive down prices with a single-residential-hauler agreement and eliminate spring cleanup in favor of monthly pickup of large items. http://planfortc.com/2010/05/31/talking-trash-and-a-note-about-the-blue-wall-june-1/ If successful, it may be worth looking at contracting out leaves and city receptacles.
Police and Fire
The city is now beginning to discuss police and fire costs. Last week the commission green-lighted an exploratory discussion with Metro Fire about fully or partially regionalizing fire services. This could take the form of consolidation, merger, contracting for services, or further sharing of efforts and equipment. It may or may not be workable, but it’s time to at least evaluate the possible cost savings and levels of service that could be provided.
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Monday night the CC appointed a committee to study the police department. It’s called a work load analysis but it seems like we also need to be looking at cost benchmarks, and re-engaging the County about whether there are possible workload and cost sharing arrangements with the Sheriff. As explained here before, a portion of the taxes city residents pay to the County fund the Sheriff’s department, but we do not receive road patrol, detective, or records services, nor do we have any dedicated deputies like the Townships receive through a cost-sharing arrangement. Sheriff deputies are on defined contribution pensions, instead of defined benefit like city police, so there is no future liability to the taxpayer for a deputy’s services.
If not now …
Some of these options could be a good fit, others may not. Some may be attainable at this time, and others may not. Many details would need to be worked out to ensure that services can be provided with the quality and reliability they are now, and that our residents will be comfortable with any changes.
In general, however, the question has to be asked: Can we provide a similar level of service at a lower cost with alternate delivery options? And when we look at cost, we need to look not just at the cost today but also at the liabilities we are incurring in the future by providing the vast majority of our services with personnel who are accruing defined benefit pensions.
Corporate boards of directors have an obligation to explore all options that could provide their shareholders greater value. I would argue that the city has an even stronger fiduciary obligation to its “shareholders” – the city residents – than a corporate board does.
These need to be community discussions, and they need to be thoughtful and careful, and they need to take as much time as the complexities of the situations warrant. But they need to happen. If not now, when?
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*Notes: (1) Numbers are rounded. (2) Populations are latest available estimates. (3) Leelanau and Benzie budgets are for 2009 (latest available) and do not include the jails. (GT County funds the jail in TC.) However, Leelanau and Benzie spend less than TC even if the jails are included. (4) The GT Sheriff covers 601 mi2 and 85,000 people, for a cost including the jail of $11 million. (5) TC budget does not include underfunding of Act 345 pensions – if the pensions were fully funded this cost would be significantly higher.
natural play area & bathhouse at former zoo
The bayfront design and engineering is completed. http://www.downtowntc.com/userfiles/file/TC%2520Bayfront%2520Final.pdf
The DDA will review these at its meeting Friday morning, the city commission will review them Monday night, and the planning commission at its next meeting. If you have any thoughts on these – let us know, write the CC, or attend one of the meetings.
Then we go chase funding, starting with the MI Natural Resources Trust Fund board on August 18 in Lansing.
Enormous gratitude to the city residents who volunteered so many hours to making this happen:
Nate Elkins (Chair) – Parks & Recreation Commission
Michael Borer – Parks & Recreation Commission
Jim Carruthers – City Commission
T. Michael Jackson – Downtown Development Authority
Jennifer Jaffe – Planning Commission
Rick Shimel – Parks & Recreation Commission
Gary Howe – Parks & Recreation Commission
This is the first-ever guest post on planforTC, and we are honored both by the author and the subject. Happy Cherry Festival, and we hope to see you Friday.
Traverse City – Coast Guard City
By CDR Jonathan S. Spaner, USCG
On Friday, July 9th, 2010, the U.S. Coast Guard will have the great privilege of celebrating Traverse City’s official designation as a Coast Guard City. The Commander of the Ninth Coast Guard District, Rear Admiral Michael Parks, will preside over a ceremony on the Open Space that will involve many elected representatives including Congressman Camp, local musicians and our esteemed colleagues at the Grand Traverse Band of Chippewa and Ottawa Indians among others. It will culminate with the Admiral presenting an official proclamation to Mayor Chris Bzdok declaring Traverse City a Coast Guard City. National Cherry Queen Angela Sayler and I will serve as the ceremonial witnesses. This is an event not to be missed.
Indeed, Friday is a day for the Coast Guard to celebrate the community of Traverse City. It is a day to celebrate the extraordinary support you have provided to our families for nearly seven decades. The Coast Guard City program recognizes those communities that provide remarkable support to the men and women of our service. Traverse City meets this test without equivocation. The application process required close coordination among Mayor Estes, Mayor Bzdok, City leadership and Coast Guard officials over the last several months. Ultimately, the Coast Guard City designation required Congressional notification and Traverse City’s application made it through the process expeditiously. On Friday, we will conclude the process and make the designation official.
Assignment as Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Air Station Traverse City is the highlight of my career. It is a two year assignment and the first year went by all too quickly. My family and I love it here and couldn’t be more grateful for the outstanding support we are provided on so many fronts. From a Command perspective at the Air Station, we have been focused on three areas over the year – leadership, partnership and citizenship.
Leadership is our ability operationally to reconcile competence with opportunity. It means we have to be masters of our tradecraft and ready to answer the public’s call whenever it comes. Partnership is our responsibility to be coordinated at every level with international, Federal, state, municipal, and tribal entities. Citizenship is our opportunity to get involved in the community and make a difference in the causes that are important to us. On each front, the Coast Guard’s core values of honor, respect and devotion to duty guide our way.
We’ve worked very hard in these areas and are making good progress. I’m especially proud of our operational results, close coordination with so many partners including the Grand Traverse County Sheriffs Department, Grand Traverse Band, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canadian Border Services Agency and involvement in the community. We adopted Traverse Heights Elementary School this year and send mentors over each week to work with the children. The students are most curious and intrigued with the Coast Guard. Our team takes great pride in this relationship and we’ll be fully engaged this coming year as well. Operationally, we have flown over 3,200 flight hours in support of search and rescue, environmental protection, homeland security and law enforcement missions among others in the region. Our “area of responsibility” includes all of Lake Michigan, Lake Superior and the northern section of Lake Huron. We also are supporting operations with the Gulf Oil Spill and have been involved with Caribbean counter-narcotic efforts well. So there’s a lot going on and we’re proud that our home base is Traverse City!
Theodore Roosevelt once said that “great thoughts speak only to the thoughtful mind, but great actions speak to all mankind.” As I look forward over the next year in Traverse City, we will remain focused on actions – actions in each of our priority areas – leadership, partnership and citizenship. We’ll be ready to face new tests and execute our missions. And we’ll do it in close coordination with our great friends and colleagues in Traverse City – our home and America’s newest Coast Guard City. Thank you and Godspeed.
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