Sidewalk Program Draws Ire Of Royal Oak Residents

ROYAL OAK, MI — Sidewalks will be installed in northern Royal Oak this year despite numerous objections from residents of the area. City Commissioners voted 5-2 in favor of the program Monday. Homeowners complained it could cost them up to $9,000 in some cases.

“The proposed sidewalks are neither necessary nor an improvement,” said Dave Smith, who lives on West 13 Mile Road in the area, according to a Royal Oak Tribune report. “We’re many streets with one voice.”

Nine of 10 areas in the city targeted for this year’s program have no sidewalks along their streets, the newspaper reported. The area is bounded roughly by 13 Mile Road on the south, 14 mile on the north, Campbell Road on the east and Delemere Boulevard on the west.

City Commissioner Marie Donigan said for the past 20 years the city has put in “miles and miles of sidewalks where they didn’t exit,” she told the Tribune. “This is the last section of the city where sidewalks don’t exist.”

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The city is paying to install sidewalks around Optimist, Realtor and Exchange parks in the area. Still, most of those who have to pay for sidewalks are against it. More than 100 people showed up at City Hall on Monday night to protest the sidewalk program, the newspaper reported.

“It will detract from the overall character of the whole area,” said Margaret Cope, a Mt. Vernon Street resident who got an exemption from the sidewalk program 12 years ago. “I will see no unique or direct benefit” from having sidewalks installed.

City Manager Don Johnson told the audience that the city began a six-year sidewalk improvement in 2012 as part of the effort to make Royal Oak a more “walkable” community. The purpose is to make streets safer and more accessible to children, senior citizens and those with disabilities, the Tribune reported.

“Streets without sidewalks are more than twice as likely to have car-pedestrian crashes as those without sidewalks on both sides,” said City Commissioner Jeremy Mahrle. He added that sidewalks generally increase home values up to $34,000 on average and spur the mobility and health of the community at large, the Tribune reported. “You have to keep in mind the greater good.”

City Commission Dave Poulton and Mayor Michael Fournier voted against the sidewalk program. Fournier said he thought two areas should be allowed exemptions, while Poulton wanted exemptions for six areas, the newspaper reported.

“Each year ... we have exemptions,” Poulton said, adding he doesn’t want the city to become a “cookie-cutter” type of community. “People have moved there because of the character of the neighborhood.”

Photo by David McNew / Staff / Getty Images News / Getty Images