Sterling Heights — The city of Sterling Heights will start rolling out investments that are part of a new millage to preserve open space, fix sidewalks and plant trees in the upcoming fiscal year in its new budget, which starts July 1.
The $319.9 million budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year is the first with funds from the city’s new Pathway to Play and Preservation millage that voters approved in November. It includes funds to purchase some land to preserve open space; repair and replace thousands of sidewalks; plant 1,600 trees; and break ground on a new pickleball complex, the location for which hasn’t been announced.
The city passed the budget in a 5-1 vote earlier this month, with Councilman Henry Yanez dissenting. The budget is 26.8% greater than the current fiscal year’s adopted budget, but only 9.9% greater than the current year’s amended budget. Cities make amendments to their budget during the fiscal year, which can impact the final amount of the budget.
The general fund for FY 2025-2026, meanwhile, is 5.8% greater than the current fiscal year’s adopted budget, but only 2.7% greater than the current year’s amended budget.
City Manager Mark Vanderpool said earlier this spring that the city is going to “hit the ground running” on the projects included in the Pathway to Play and Preservation millage in the new budget. The dedicated 0.95 millage will span 15 years.
Melanie Davis, a city spokesperson, said Sterling Heights will be repairing or replacing approximately 9,500 squares, or flags, of concrete sidewalk in FY 25-26.
Under the upcoming fiscal year’s budget, Sterling Heights also plans to start renovating Fire Station No. 5 on Ryan Road and renovate its unused jail facility into a training facility for the police department. Jennifer Varney, the city’s finance and budget director, said the budget also funds a fire engine and 17 police vehicles. The plan also includes over $12 million in major road work, including projects on 15 Mile Road, Dobry Drive and Clinton River Road.
Yanez, one of the councilmen, raised concerns about the city taking on debt to pay for projects from the new millage. Varney estimated that the city will take out $40 million in bonds, which will allow it to implement much of the project work over the next few years. They will then use some of the tax revenue from the 15-year millage to pay back the borrowed money.
“The fact of the matter is ― it’s a lot of money. It’s a lot of debt. … The future of the economy is unknown,” Yanez said during a May 6 budget hearing, adding that the bonds are money that the city has to pay back.
He contended that voters didn’t know that the city would be taking on debt when voting on the millage.
But Mayor Michael Taylor said there’s “an incredible value to the residents by front-loading as many of these projects as we can.” He said the pickleball complex, the new Red Run Park, the reforestation efforts and other improvements are “things that the residents want to see right now.”
“They want use of those amenities right now, and by bonding for that, we give them the ability to use those amenities right now,” he said.
More on the budget
Varney said the budget for the general fund, which is the city’s main operating fund, totals $133 million, representing a 2.7% increase over the current year’s amended budget. She said the bump is primarily due to personnel, including wages, an increase to the fire and police pension contribution and increases to health insurance.
The city council also approved three amendments to the budget at an April hearing. One of the amendments is to add streetlighting and media landscaping on Metro Parkway from Van Dyke Avenue to Utica Road. This portion of the parkway lacks lighting in the median and is largely devoid of median landscaping, said Davis, the city spokesperson.
Davis said another amendment will move the entrance to Donovan Park to a safer location. And another will allow the city to conduct a stormwater feasibility study, which will provide information to the city council that will help it decide whether to move forward with the implementation of conservation measures through a stormwater utility.
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