Proposed changes to the Broad Street and West Carleton Road intersection include adding bike lanes and closing access to Hillsdale Street by City Hall and the Post Office.
Courtesy | City of Hillsdale
The Hillsdale City Council voted 5-3 to pass a resolution that cements the city’s decision to allocate about $135,000 toward the “road diet” at its Aug.18 meeting.
The plan will add bike lanes and slim down Broad Street from four to three lanes, with the middle lane serving as a left-hand turn lane. The council approved the project for M-99 at a June 16 meeting.
“If you park on Howell Street, it will be much easier to cross Broad Street and visit businesses like the Filling Station or Dante’s,” said Luke Robson ’17, president of real estate development firm Hillsdale Renaissance. “If you park on Broad Street, you won’t have to worry about oncoming traffic taking off your car’s doors or mirrors. It will benefit drivers passing through downtown as well by making traffic patterns more straightforward and keeping traffic flows smooth.”
Robson said he supports the road diet project. As part of the council’s resolution, his firm will put $10,000 toward the construction.
Mayor Pro Tem Joshua Paladino agreed with the city council’s decision to pass the road diet but said the council should not have voted for spending the city’s money on this project. The Tax Increment Finance Authority, a board that redirects tax dollars to promote economic development, will put $250,000 toward the construction.
“TIFA collects all of the city’s infrastructure revenue from the downtown district,” Paladino told The Collegian. “The financial obligation should fall on TIFA, the Economic Development Cooperation, or the property owners in the district via special assessments. The average citizen is expected to pay $5,000 for routine infrastructure repairs. Council should have had the same expectation for infrastructure improvements in the downtown district.”
Robson said the road diet will save taxpayers money.
“This isn’t just a road diet, it’s a larger infrastructure package that includes work that the city would have to perform in the near future with or without the subsidies from Lansing,” Robson said. “For just $135,000, the city is receiving $870,000 worth of work.”
At least $250,000 of the total projected cost of work will go toward the city’s necessary infrastructure repairs, according to Robson.
Hillsdale resident Zechariah Steiger ’24, who opposes the road diet, said the city council’s decision reflects the fact that it is refusing to listen to its constituents.
“Many across the town whom I’ve talked to have said they’ll avoid the downtown if the road diet goes through,” Steiger said. “Several have even stated they’ll take to using side streets as bypasses.”
Additionally, Steiger claimed the road diet does not take the city’s future into consideration.
“If this road diet does achieve its goals of bringing more people into the town, let’s say 400 to 500 people in the three years after the project, and the U.S. average car per household is 1.8, that is an extra 700 to 900 cars adding to the traffic,” Steiger said. “At that point, the traffic will force the road to be expanded once again to four lanes.”
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