City of Hillsdale Road Diet Discussions Delayed Until Next Month
City Council authorized staff to apply for the TAP Grant in June
At its 17 February meeting, Hillsdale City Manager David Mackie announced that discussion of the M-99 road diet plans will resume next month, as the Council had already directed city staff to apply for a Michigan Deprtment of Transportation (MDOT) grant last June.
City Council had initially planned to hold a public discussion at Monday’s meeting about authorizing staff to apply for the Transportation Alternatives Program (TAP) Grant, but it turns out that the City Council had authorized staff months ago. Despite that authorization, city staff has not yet submitted the application.
“The discussion that Council was having was about whether we needed to approve the grant application being submitted,” Mackie said Monday, speaking of the February 3 meeting. “And actually we did some research on it, and it was something that council had approved back in June 2024.”
According to the minutes from Council’s June 17, 2024, meeting, the Council unanimously resolved to have city staff apply for a TAP Grant for $395,894, with the total estimated cost for the project being $494,894.
The remaining $100,000 would be the match required by MDOT for TAP Grants. Mackie said that he expects MDOT to approve or reject the application by the fall.
Like most grants, however, there are conditions aside from the city’s matching contribution. According to an MDOT document, TAP monies are available only for either the creation of “Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities” or “Historic Preservation Projects.”
The bicycle lanes—though they were met with general public disapproval at a January 16, 2025, public meeting to discuss the road diet—are a seemingly vital part of getting the TAP Grant.
The same document indicates that all TAP projects must “benefit state tourism or economic development initiatives.”
To those ends, the plans presented to the public included bicycle lanes that would run from the Broad-Carleton intersection south to the Broad-Steamburg intersection just south of the County Fairgrounds. The proposal would also reduce Broad from four to three lanes—one each direction with a middle left-turn lane—along that same stretch.
Despite Council’s approval for the submission of the plan to MDOT, city staff said that there will still be time for public deliberation about the various changes, some minor and others major. After receiving feedback, staff is reportedly working on revisions that will be presented before the public at a Council meeting next month.
Among public officials, opinions are divided.
City Councilman Rob Socha, Ward 4, said he believes that slowing traffic through downtown would help businesses in Hillsdale grow.
“I am for the road diet,” Socha told the Hillsdalian. “I am in favor of slowing traffic through the downtown corridor providing people driving through town ample opportunity to stop and look around, hopefully shopping and spending, encouraging growth.”
Councilman Matthew Bentley, Ward 2, on the other hand, opposes the bicycle lanes.
“In seemingly all cases once the bike lanes are allowed in, they’re irreversible,” Bentley told the Hillsdalian. “They also have an internal logic of ever-increasing safetyism at the expense of traffic flow. The constituents that I’ve heard from not only do not want the bike lanes but feel that they don’t have any say in the process.”
County Commissioner Doug Ingles, District 1, told the Hillsdalian that the “County Courthouse is the main footprint downtown,” suggesting that “parking safety is a concern along Broad St.,” particularly the “narrow” parking lanes that line the road.
According to Ingles, the Commissioners are split on the road diet plan, particularly with respect to how necessary or effective it might prove to be.
Jacob Bruns
You can follow the Hillsdalian on Facebook and Twitter.