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ROSE TOWNSHIP–New homes are being built at an incredible pace across Michigan and, according to the Detroit Free Press, 15% to 70% of them are being built with private streets. Residents on these streets then share bills for snowplowing, repair, garbage hauling, and liability insurance.
Critics maintain that private road warriors must fund their streets three times: at the pump, local millages for local roads, and out of their pockets a third time for private streets. The distinction between the first two examples and the last; however, is voluntary association. People are not forced to live on privately built and managed roads; they do so out of choice.
According to Detroit Free Press journalist Erin Lee Martin, some private roads are defended by environmentalists, who believe that "well-built private roads preserve more trees and create less polluted stormwater than those built by strict road commission rules, which are typically wider and straighter."
