Legislation to require state, county and municipal road agencies to adopt Complete Streets-style project planning policies continues to be negotiated at the Capital. After months of workgroup meetings and individual conversations between the League, other road agencies, legislative sponsors and Complete Streets advocacy groups, House Bills 6151 and 6152 were introduced in mid-May and referred to the House Transportation committee. The Transportation committee met last week, for the first time on these bills, and heard testimony from the bill sponsors and Complete Streets advocates as they sought to educate the legislators on what Complete Streets means. No votes were taken at this hearing and further hearings in the coming weeks are planned so that all sides will be allowed an opportunity to testify on the proposal.
Adoption of Complete Streets policies have gained momentum over the past year, on both a national and statewide level. U.S. Transportation Secretary LaHood has begun to set these types of policies within federal transportation programming, a number of states, including Wisconsin, Illinois, and Minnesota have adopted state laws on the topic, while the City of Lansing became the first community in Michigan to adopt a Complete Streets ordinance. Other cities like Flint, Jackson, and Traverse City are also publicly supporting the idea of Complete Streets.
While supportive of the concept behind Complete Streets, (making communities more walkable and improving quality of life for our residents) the League has specific concerns with the language in the bills that were introduced. The issues of cost mandates, flexibility for local communities to develop and implement their own policies, and making sure that a community's policy must be adhered to by any road agency working within that community, have lead to continuing discussions with the bill sponsors to obtain changes to the legislation. New bill language has been prepared that makes a number of positive changes along these lines. It is likely that this substitute language will be the focus of debate in the coming committee hearings. Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback on this proposal. I will continue to be involved in workgroup meetings on this legislation and welcome your input.
Chris Hackbarth is the transportation policy advisor for the Michigan Municipal League. Chris can be reached at 517-908-0303, or by email at chackbarth@mml.org.
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