In addition to a proposed social district near Eighth and Garfield, city commissioners tonight (Monday) will have a more detailed discussion about the possibility of moving parking services from Traverse City Downtown Development Authority management back to the city. The Ticker has the details on that and other city updates, including a water line replacement project and the latest on the East Front Street reconstruction.

Parking Services
After a brief discussion at an April 8 study session, commissioners are set to take a more detailed dive tonight into a proposal for the city to take back over parking services after three decades of TC Downtown Development Authority (DDA) management. 

In a memo to commissioners, DDA Transportation Mobility Director Nicole VanNess emphasized that the city already owns all the assets in the parking system (including decks, lots, and equipment), collects all its revenue, and is responsible for all its expenses. The city simply “contracts with the DDA for operations and management,” she said. That used to make more sense when parking was primarily concentrated downtown, but the parking system has expanded over the years to include residential neighborhoods, NMC, Munson, and airport citations – all areas outside of DDA boundaries, VanNess noted.

The city pays the DDA $825,000 for parking management, which covers personnel costs. Parking is run through three enterprise funds, meaning it’s generally self-sustaining (revenues cover expenses, including the DDA contract). If the city takes over, it’ll still be responsible for those personnel costs through an enterprise fund, but parking employees will become city employees. That could allow for more efficiencies and better alignment with other city services, staff said previously.

If city commissioners support the move, there will be several next steps, according to VanNess. The city will need to give a 60-day notice to terminate the DDA contract and begin holding city HR meetings with union representatives to determine how parking employees will be classified. City administrators will work with DDA leaders on a transition plan, with the city then notifying property owners to assume parking lease agreements (the DDA contracts with some private property owners to use their parking lots). DDA and city leaders have been preparing their 2024-25 budgets this spring – typically approved in June, with a July 1 fiscal start date – with the expectation that parking could be moving.

Water Line Replacement
The city has kicked off another season of work as part of a state-required water line replacement project, which centers on fixing connections to lead goosenecks.

A lead gooseneck is three-foot-long piece of lead pipe “used as a transition between the brass connection at the water main and a threaded galvanized pipe,” according to City Director of Municipal Utilities Art Krueger. Michigan determined in 2017 that galvanized water service lines are considered ‘lead’ lines and must be replaced – at the utility’s expense – from the curb stop near the right of way into the building or home if at any time they’ve ever been connected to a lead gooseneck.

Lead goosenecks were installed prior to the mid-1940s. Since that time, the city “has been installing copper services for the city-owned portion between the water main and the curb stop,” according to the city. “The city has no known fully lead services (lead pipes).  Not all private galvanized water service lines need to be replaced. For example, if a private galvanized service line was originally connected to a city-owned copper service from the water main, it was never connected to a lead gooseneck, so it doesn't need to be replaced.”

However, that still leaves hundreds of service lines that must be replaced under the state rule. The city received a combination of state loan and grant funding totaling over $5 million in 2022 for a three-year project that includes work to replace roughly 300 private galvanized water services previously connected to lead goosenecks. In the first year in 2023, 118 were completed. The 2024 project kicked off this month on the east side of Traverse City along Boyd, Lincoln, and Rose streets. Additional locations “will include parcels in the northern Traverse Heights Neighborhood and Central Neighborhood south of Seventh Street,” according to the city. Impacted residents have been notified of work, which is expected to wrap up in October and will result in sidewalk closures and intermittent street closures.

The city estimates approximately 700 more service lines still need to be replaced outside of this project. In March, city commissioners voted to accept $2 million in additional state grant funding to replace private galvanized water services, which is expected to fund “a good portion of the remaining required replacements,” according to Krueger.

East Front Street Reconstruction
Crews continue to make progress on the state’s reconstruction of East Front Street within city limits. According to the city’s Bay Brief, crews in the past week completed sidewalks and put down topsoil between Front Street and Rose Street and began sidewalk installation from Rose Street to Garfield Avenue. Crews also wrapped up curb installation for the first part of the project and began fine grading.

This coming week, workers plan to wrap up concrete installation, fine grading, topsoil placement, and castings adjustments, weather permitting. That should “hopefully” allow asphalt paving work to begin, according to the city. Work will also begin today (Monday) on a stormwater treatment unit at Barlow Street. Barlow Street north of East Front Street will be closed for several weeks to accommodate work. Otherwise, traffic patterns and detours will remain as they are now. The city urges residents to continue exercising caution around the construction zone for worker safety and to support impacted businesses.