Governor Granholm signed the Complete Streets bills into law last night. House Bills 6151 and 6152 are now Public Acts 134 and 135 of 2010!
As mentioned in previous entries, these bills take a great step forward in providing communities with additional tools to begin rethinking their approach to road projects with an eye towards building a sense of place that will attract and retain residents and businesses. The League was successful in ensuring that this tool is available for communities to adopt only if they choose to and at their own pace and scope, with no mandate to participate or increase to project costs. We also gained key concessions in the legislation to allow communities more of a voice in determining the character and design of a project being developed by a county road agency or MDOT within their borders. Final negotiations between the League, key House and Senate legislators and the department, resolved a few final issues in the Senate last week and paved the way for broad support for the bills and a 31-0 vote in favor of the bills in the Senate and the speedy signature by the Governor.
Please contact me if you have any questions on this legislation or how it might impact our community.
Chris Hackbarth handles transportation issues for the Michigan Municipal League. Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303 or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.
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