PRIVATE ROAD MAINTENANCE/IMPROVEMENT S.B. 896:
SUMMARY OF INTRODUCED BILL
IN COMMITTEE
Senate Bill 896 (as introduced 6-5-24)
Sponsor: Senator Kevin Hertel
Committee: Local Government
Date Completed: 9-30-24
CONTENT
The bill would amend the Home Rule City Act to allow the legislative body of a city
to contract for the maintenance or improvement of any private road in the city by
creating a special assessment district. The bill also would allow a majority of
property owners that owned frontage along a private road to petition a legislative
body of a city to create such a special assessment district.
Under the bill, the legislative body of a city could, by resolution, authorize the city to contract
for the maintenance or improvement of any private road in the city by creating a special
assessment district. (A special assessment district is an area of land within which properties
can be assigned a financial burden in exchange for the completion of a project.)
More than 50% of the property owners owning the frontage along a private road could
request, by petition to the legislative body of the city, the maintenance or improvement of
the private road in the city. If the legislative body of a city passed a resolution or received a
petition that complied with the above requirements, the city could enter into a contract for or
make the maintenance or improvement of the private road, with the allocation of cost to be
spread against all of the owners in the special assessment district on a pro rata frontage basis
(assigned based on the amount of frontage each house had on the private road). The
maintenance or improvement of any private road under the bill, and the assessment of cost,
could not be completed until the legislative body of the city had created a special assessment
district and assessed the properties with proper notice of public hearings to all the owners of
property in the special assessment district that would benefit from the maintenance or
improvement.
The maintenance or improvement of a private road authorized by the legislative body of a
city under the bill could be an annual maintenance or improvement program of at most five
years. The special assessment district could not be assessed for a period longer than five
years unless a new special assessment district with a new special assessment was created to
continue the program.
"Maintenance" would mean routine maintenance or preventive maintenance, or both.
Maintenance would not include capital preventive treatments, resurfacing, reconstruction,
restoration, rehabilitation, safety projects, widening of less than one lane width, adding
auxiliary turn lanes of a half mile or less, adding auxiliary weaving, climbing, or speed-change
lanes, modernizing intersections, or the upgrading of aggregate surface roads to hard surface
roads. Maintenance of state trunk line highways would not include streetlighting except for
freeway lighting for traffic safety purposes.
Proposed MCL 117.5l Legislative Analyst: Alex Krabill
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FISCAL IMPACT
The bill will have no fiscal impact on the State. The bill could have a minor negative fiscal
impact on local units of government based on the requirement to hold public hearings. These
costs could come in the form of mileage reimbursements or overhead costs of holding a public
hearing.
Fiscal Analyst: Bobby Canell
SAS\S2324\s896sa
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official
statement of legislative intent.
Page 2 of 2 Bill Analysis @ www.senate.michigan.gov/sfa sb896/2324


Statutes affected:
Senate Introduced Bill: 117.1, 117.38