$84,000 for Street Lights! Who’s Paying the Highest DTE Bills in Clinton Township?

Several hundred Clinton Township businesses and homeowners can expect to be charged a little extra on their December tax bills now that the board of trustees has passed the annual resolution adopting special assessment lighting districts.

Each year, Detroit Edison charges the township for the cost of street lights in approximately 50 special assessment districts, which include commercial and residential areas.

This year’s bill is $478,378 – a cost the township will divide among hundreds of homeowners and businesses that boast frontage in various special assessment districts.

Each district is responsible for its own lighting cost, or rather the cost of energy used by those lights in the last 12 months.

Five districts in Clinton Township will pay more than $38,000 this year. They include:

• Gratiot Downtown Development Authority: $84,404.52
• Metro Beach (area of southern Clinton Township, not the metropark): $59,836.32
• Winshall Villa (subdivision): $49,555.32
• Ronny Boy (area of 16 Mile between Gratiot and Groesbeck): $38,167.56
• Partridge Creek (subdivision): $38,141.28

In the case of a subdivision, such as Winshall Village, the assessor bills the homeowners directly on their respective December tax bills.

The Gratiot Downtown Development Authority's bill will be paid for by the 350 businesses along the corridor and a $15,000 a year supplement from the DDA budget. Businesses in the DDA agreed to a special assessment lighting district almost three years ago that lead to the installation of 118 light poles featuring LED lights along the Gratiot corridor.