Forty or fifty Lincoln Avenue area residents met once again to explore options for reducing or eliminating the potential negative impact of MDOT's proposed I-75 exit and bridge on their neighborhood. The attendees were of several minds about possible alternatives to MDOT's plans and about the role of the Royal Oak City Commission during the 2-year-long, occasionally contentious, dialogue.

First, about the city commission
There is universal agreement that the commission has not been helpful, but speculations about why range from labeling the commission incompetent to labeling it conspiratorial. Residents who charge incompetence think that the commission may have unknowingly allowed itself to be ignored and cut out of the MDOT process. Those who suspect conspiracy and who feel that "the city has been misleading us" cite commission behavior as they see it: Ignoring MDOT- required actions, even though alerted to the requirements and timelines; not attending specific MDOT meetings; attending an MDOT meeting but issuing no report; without prior notification, adding -- as an information item to the agenda -- an apparent first look at a 39-page consultant's report; refusing repeated residents' appeals for a public hearing.

No one seems comfortable with the city commission's apparently passive posture: that the city will be able to establish appropriate traffic control after MDOT finishes its work; and that there really is no federal money available to fund the project, anyway.

Resident Bob Burrier has several times tracked the chronology of these events, reading from a paper at several commission meetings. Burrier's document briefly describes actions or non-actions and provides several pertinent quotations. The residents' informal leaders have accumulated documents and citations which, on one hand, describe the situation and, on the other hand, demonstrate the inevitable complexity when several layers of government are involved -- in this case, federal, state, county, and local.

Second, about possible options
The attendees share the common neighborhood concerns about traffic, air quality, children's safety. They differ about possible alternatives to MDOT's plans: Shut down Lincoln, now, to see what effect that would have. . . . Adopt the angled, one-way bridge suggested by Commissioner Gary Lelito. . . . Install a turn-around capability which would permit vehicles to reverse direction on the service drive. . . . Seek another traffic study. . . . and such.

The meeting ended with a couple of decisions: (1) Attendees will write, call, email elected officials, reminding them of the residents' concerns and alerting the commissioners than many of the residents plan to attend the April 3 meeting to voice those concerns, and (2) focusing on traffic counts to make their case for the issue being formally placed on the commission's agenda and conducting a Public Hearing -- as distinguished from Public Comment which precedes each commission meeting. -- 23 Mar 2006

UPDATE: Spokesman for the group Dale Savage has released a statement reporting a consensus to request a public hearing be placed on the city commission's April 17, 2006, agenda to deal with the following topic:

Will the City of Royal Oak seek and present to MDOT/FWHA a viable alternative to the current Lincoln Avenue Exit/Bridge plan prior to MDOT design. Yes or no, vote it up or down, by each commissioner.

This alternative by current indications should be presented by September 1, 2006, to be assured of being prior to any MDOT funds wasted on a bad design.

Given that the Metro Regional Director of MDOT has stated that the Lincoln Exit/Bridge issue must be decided prior to design, this seems like a most reasonable and prudent request.

City Hall went a long way toward improving what has been a sour relationship between elected and appointed officials and residents in Royal Oak's Lincoln Avenue area.

Letting the Public Hearing go on 45 minutes longer than the traditional 9 p.m. cutoff, the city commission listened to 29 comments, including one from a Madison Heights resident, two from county commissioners, and one from a state rep.

More than 100 residents gathered at the Salter Community Center. Of 13 who spoke to me after the meeting ended, four retained their negative opinion of local officials, complaining that the long meeting was just a lot of smoke and mirrors, that the Lincoln Exit/Bridge about which they are protesting "is a done deal." The rest of the sample voiced positive thoughts and feelings. (See column at left for background.)

There was no resolution on the table, so no formal action was taken. Indeed, the meeting was more in Public Comment than Public Hearing format, except that there were more conversational exchanges between the officials and the residents.

Some of those in the audience who have been complaining for almost two years about the proposed Lincoln exit/bridge told me they were surprised when City Engineer Elden Danielson listed several actions taken by city hall*. It became clear that  the complexity of the procedural involvement of city, MDOT, the county, and the Feds has led to an incomplete understanding of some of what was proposed, opposed, and modified on the ground. One commissioner even complained about having to look at less-than-clear "mimeographed" maps.

So much for the tone of all this. Now, to the substance.

The sharp focus of most of the resident's comments was, "Don't dump freeway traffic into a residential neighborhood." Understandably, the speakers used the standard arguments: children's safety, noise, pollution, threat to property value. But their main point remained "Don't put even one more vehicle onto Lincoln." Especially strong were the statements of long-time residents who lived in the area before I-75 and before I-696.

All of the attending commissioners (Capello and Miller were absent) agreed in principle with the residents' wishes and assured them that the Lincoln Bridge is not a done deal. 

Mayor Ellison, however, took the time to point out that all previous traffic studies reveal that Royal Oak residents are in most of those cars driving through neighborhoods, not outsiders, . . . that Lincoln is among those half-mile roads designed to serve as "collector" streets . . . that there is an excessive number of accidents on I-75 between 8 and 12 Mile Roads . . . that localities usually end up redirecting traffic, "moving it around," rather than reducing its amount.

That attempt by Ellison to provide context was considered a "sellout" by two of the residents who spoke with me after the meeting.

There's no money for all this. It may be years before anything could happen, was a point repeatedly made, directly and indirectly, with the State Representative Marie Donigan going so far as to suggest that after a few years the existing Environmental Impact Statement will no longer be valid, thus giving residents another opportunity to offer opposition. Donigan said that improving I-94 to the airport has a higher priority in Lansing, so that the widening of I-75 may not be a thing to fear anyway.

Two disagreements with that position were stated: Commissioner Drinkwine suggests it is Pollyannaish to think that the money won't be forthcoming. "We must  stay vigilant, but there is no way we can stop the increase of traffic all over the area and the need to accommodate it."

During a small-group conversation after the meeting, three residents suggested it is unwise to be comfortable with claims that the state's "preserve first" policy will keep money from becoming available for new road construction. Two reasons are given: First, "It's an election year, so restoring freeways and infrastructure is good politics, for now. Second, "The hope is to have most of the restoration done by 2007," freeing "up to $200 million for projects like widening I-75."

The Madison Heights resident who lives on Lincoln expressed his irritation and resentment that more than one speaker, reminding city officials that "you represent us," went so far as to suggest that the officials shouldn't concern themselves with any negative impact on neighboring cities.

Whether more cars moving along a widened I-75 would put more pollution into nearby neighborhoods than does the "I-75 parking lot" when thousands of cars are bumper to bumper . . . The feasibility or wisdom of attempting legal action against the project (which would have to be done in federal court) . . . The public safety needs which might be generated by regionalizing of several fire departments . . . How much consideration to give to Madison Heights and other communities . . . There were comments, questions, and at least partial answers about several such matters . . . 

. . . in a two-and-three-quarter hour meeting which was best summarized in a private comment from one of the Lincoln area militants when she quietly told me, Finally, they have listened to us -- and we have listened to them."

*from Danielson's presentation

March 1, 2004
A city commission multiple resolution re such matters as repairing walls and roads, proposed changes to the Eleven Mile Exit, Fourth Street, the Dallas Bridge.

March 7, 2005
A commission resolution thanking MDOT for its consideration of some of Royal Oak's concerns.

August 1, 2005 
A commission resolution states the city "still has concerns" about the Lincoln Exit and reserving "the option of not having the Lincoln bridge rebuilt amongst other possible considerations."

Danielson also spoke briefly about estimated traffic density, and he projected slides showing how No Left Turn signage might be applied to the northbound I-75 Service Drive and illustrating MDOT-proposed traffic flows.

13 April 2006

"Where do you come down?"

As happened during VersagiVoice's extensive coverage of the debate over selling Normandy Oaks and about dissolving the Downtown Development Authority, people of varying and opposing viewpoints now suggest, urge, demand that I take a position about, specifically, the behavior of the City Commission during this I-75/MDOT/Lincoln Bridge imbroglio. My relatively brief response comes in two dimensions: 1) the interaction between the city commission and the Lincoln neighborhood residents and 2) the MDOT project itself.

1) Until the 10 April Public Hearing described at left, "cavalier" and "dismissive" are terms which best describe the city's attention to the concerns expressed by the Lincoln area residents for about two years. Those South End* residents were justified in feeling underserved on this issue.

• In contrast, recall the city's excellent response to the concerns of Catalpa neighborhood residents during the fight over placement of a clubhouse for the mentally ill on Catalpa. Sure, the money-backed legal power of Easter Seals-Michigan defeated the city's efforts, but the Planning Commission, the Zoning Board of Appeals, the City Commission all did their best to address the citizens' concerns.

• Except for an occasional sympathetic mouthing, nothing like that Catalpa support has been offered the Lincoln people, although City Engineer Elden Danielson's presentations which led off the public hearing demonstrated that the city has not been as uninvolved as critics contend.

2) Even having followed much of the dialogue about the impact of an I-75 exit and bridge at Lincoln, I don't feel qualified to judge the merits of the arguments about what might happen and what the city might realistically do if the exit/bridge goes forward as feared or is modified.

• On principle, though, I oppose spending millions of dollars to widen I-75. Federal and state funding earmarked for infrastructure should be used to maintain and repair existing roads, bridges, overpasses, culverts, berms, boulevards. Mayor Ellison's comment about accidents on I-75 give me pause, but only slight pause.

• People who choose to live-North though working-South are making the same life-style decision as those Easterners who are willing to spend 2-3 hours a day commuting by working in Manhattan and living in Connecticut. Tax-payers don't owe them a shorter commute.

• Of course, no I-75 widening would mean no Lincoln exit/bridge problem.

*IDENTIFYING THE SOUTH END
Ask a dozen people to locate Royal Oak's "South End" and you'll get several answers:

• Below Twelve Mile

• South of Catalpa

• Below Eleven Mile

• South of Lincoln

Toss in a bit of snobbishness and those imagined boundaries begin to blur.

• The Twelve Mile area includes the prestigious Shrine area.

• On those thankfully few -- but not rare -- occasions when one hears the term "those people," the reference is to south of Lincoln, east of Woodward, near I-696.

• South of Lincoln and west of Woodward are about 80 houses which many think are in charming Huntington Woods

We might wish it were otherwise, but as one famous TV anchor used to end his news program, "That's the way it is."