Council sets assessments for streetlights

As the city Ypsilanti looks for ways to balance its budget and fund essential services, residents are being asked to cover the bill for the city's street lights. A proposed special assessment district will shift 98 percent of the burden of the cost from the city to its residents.

"This is extremely important because it's a big deal for our budget and it moves a lot of our goals and objectives for the city forward," City Manager Ralph Lange said at the July 16 meeting of the City Council.

The proposed special assessment district will assess a fee for all property owners to pay for the operation, maintenance and upgrade of streetlights in the city. Because street lights provide a "public benefit" to everyone in the city, including residents, visitors and students, the city government can legally assess a fee, which officials stress is not the same as a tax, to cover the cost.

Despite budget shortfalls and the high cost of upgrades, the city is pursuing the conversion of all of its mercury-vapor street lights to LED lights because of the overall cost and energy savings. Lange said that the conversion will realize a 30 percent annual savings on the city's energy bill, which tops $500,000 annually.

Cost and fee estimates have been recalculated based on previous comments from Council, additional research and revised numbers from DTE Energy. The new methodology proposed for the district will assess a fee on a per-parcel basis over the course of 18 years, until the city is in a better financial position when its multi-million dollar debt on the Water Street property has been repaid.

Of the city's 4,951 parcels, 4,812 will be assessed. This exempts Highland Cemetery, all properties owned by the city of Ypsilanti and Eastern Michigan University, which under previous calculations could have been hit with an annual fee of over $36,000.

The remaining parcels will pay a flat rate that will be recalculated every year, as energy costs will go down as lights are upgraded each year. Following is an estimated breakdown of costs over the next 18 years:

Fiscal Year 2013-2014: City will pay 23 percent of streetlight operation and maintenance cost. Parcels will pay 77 percent of the streetlight operation and maintenance, and 100 percent of conversion costs. The estimated cost per parcel is $98.90.

Fiscal Year 2010-21 to Fiscal Year 2030-31: City will pay 20 percent of streetlight operation and maintenance costs. Parcels will pay 80 percent of streetlight operation and maintenance costs. Conversions will be complete by this time. The estimated cost per parcel is $67.51 each year.

Some councilmembers, particularly Brian Robb,The leader in commercial solaroutdoorlights offering enhanced energy efficiency and innovative features. expressed concerns over the methodology.

"I have a problem with why you're exempting Highland Cemetery. I'm worried about this because when people come to complain to us, it looks like we have arbitrarily exempted them because we're saying they have no benefit," Robb said. "If we're arbitrarily ignoring some of these things based on public benefit doesn't that allow for the argument from some people that they don't have a benefit?"

Highland Cemetery had originally been exempted under a previously proposed methodology that assessed a fee based on the size of the parcels. Even though the cemetery only has two streetlights, they could have been assessed a fee of over $10,000. Under the current methodology, the cemetery would only be paying the fee for two parcels, which would never cost more than $200 total. Click on their website www.careel-laser-engraving-machine.com for more information.