Drive past 26 Mile Road and Hayes Road this fall and you'll likely see contractors, barricades, and a stretch of intersection getting rebuilt from the ground up. Does that tell you anything about whether the street your future house sits on is being taken care of? Not really. And the gap between those two things is exactly where buyers and sellers in Macomb Township get surprised at the closing table.
There are two completely separate ways road work gets funded here, and they behave nothing alike. One shows up in county press releases and gets paid for with federal and county dollars. The other shows up as a line item that follows a specific parcel, sometimes for a decade, regardless of who owns it. Knowing which kind of project is happening near a house you're buying or selling matters more than knowing that "the township is investing in roads" this year.
Two Very Different Road Budgets
The big, visible projects in Macomb Township right now are almost entirely funded above the homeowner level. Construction on the Broughton Road Extension began July 6, 2026, part of a boulevard-style connector the township has been designing since 2023 to link Broughton Road south of 25 Mile with 24 Mile and beyond. That design work was paid for with a Southeast Michigan Council of Governments grant and township funds, not an assessment on the homes along the route.
The Romeo Plank Road reconstruction at the 22 Mile Road intersection is another current county-managed project, and the reconstruction of the 26 Mile Road and Hayes Road intersection is a third. That last one carries a total estimated cost of $1.25 million, with $750,000 coming from federal funding and the remaining $500,000 split between the Macomb County Department of Roads and the townships involved, including Macomb Township. Construction was expected to begin in late summer or early fall of 2026, with completion targeted for spring 2027.
None of those three projects puts a bill in a specific homeowner's mailbox. They're funded through county, state, and federal channels because they're arterial roads and intersections, the kind of infrastructure that benefits the whole township, not just the handful of properties that front onto them.
The Program That Actually Bills a Homeowner
Subdivision and local streets work differently. Macomb Township runs a Residential Road Improvement Program specifically for streets that have deteriorated badly enough to qualify, and the process only starts if a road fails an independent PASER pavement rating. Property owners along that road have to petition for the fix themselves, and the petition needs signatures from owners representing at least 51 percent of the road's frontage before the township will move forward. Applications are due by February 1 each year.
If a Special Assessment District gets approved, the cost splits three ways. The county covers 50 percent, up to $500,000. The township covers 25 percent, up to $250,000. Property owners along that specific stretch of road cover the rest, typically over a term the township board sets at around ten years.
This isn't theoretical. A legal notice published earlier this year shows the Township Board holding a hearing in June 2026 on a special assessment for road work on Mallast Street, with the final cost to be divided among the properties benefiting from the improvement once actual construction and miscellaneous costs are known. That's a real, current example of the mechanism working exactly as described: a specific street, a specific group of parcels, a bill that gets set after the work is done.
Here's the contrast laid out plainly:
| Type of Project | Recent Example | Who Pays | How It's Funded |
|---|---|---|---|
| County or state arterial/intersection work | 26 Mile Road & Hayes Road reconstruction | Federal government, Macomb County, and township budgets | $750,000 federal, remaining $500,000 split between MCDR and townships |
| Residential Special Assessment District | Mallast Street | The specific property owners along that road's frontage | Split among assessed parcels after a township hearing and cost confirmation |
If you're evaluating a house near one of the big county projects, that news has almost no bearing on whether the actual street the house sits on carries its own separate assessment.
Why the Debt Doesn't Care Whose Name Is on the Deed
The part that catches people off guard isn't the existence of the assessment. It's what happens to it during a sale. Under Michigan law, once a special assessment roll is confirmed it becomes a lien on the property. If the assessment is set up to be paid in installments, as most Residential Road Improvement Program assessments are, that lien attaches to the parcel only as each individual installment comes due, not all at once at the start of the term.
What that means in practice: the assessment isn't tied to the person who signed the original petition or attended the township board hearing. It's tied to the dirt. If a house sells three years into a ten-year assessment term, the remaining seven years of payments transfer with the property. The new owner picks up the balance, not because anyone hid anything maliciously, but because that's how the lien statute is written.
This is the piece a listing sheet or a portal search will never show you. A median price, a square footage number, a school district name, none of that tells you whether the specific parcel is three years or seven years into a road assessment payment plan.
The Disclosure Line Sellers Forget to Think About
Michigan does require disclosure here. The state's Seller Disclosure Statement asks sellers directly whether there are any outstanding municipal assessments or fees on the property, with a simple yes, no, or unknown to check. In theory, an active Special Assessment District should show up on that form every time.
In practice, a homeowner who has been paying a modest annual line as part of their winter tax bill for six or seven years may genuinely not think of it as a separate "assessment" anymore. It's folded into a bill they've paid the same way every year. That's not dishonesty, it's just how a recurring charge stops registering as a distinct fact worth mentioning. The disclosure form asks the right question. Whether a seller connects their own tax bill to that question is a different matter.
What to Actually Ask Before You Write an Offer
For a specific address in Macomb Township, a few direct questions save a lot of surprise later:
- Ask the seller or listing agent directly whether the parcel is inside an active or recently petitioned Special Assessment District, not just whether there's "anything unusual" about the taxes.
- Contact the Township Assessing Department to ask for the parcel's current assessment status and, if one exists, the remaining balance and years left on the term.
- Confirm your title company's assessment search covers pending and installment-based assessments, not only assessments that are fully confirmed and recorded as a lump sum.
- If an active SAD turns up, negotiate explicitly whether the seller pays off the remaining balance at closing or whether it transfers with a corresponding price adjustment. Michigan law doesn't force a payoff the way a mortgage payoff is forced. It has to be negotiated into the deal.
FAQ
Does every street in Macomb Township have a special assessment? No. Only roads that fail the township's PASER pavement rating and go through the petition process end up with one. Most streets in the township aren't carrying an active assessment at any given time.
Can I find out if a specific address has an open assessment before I even tour the house? The Township Assessing Department maintains parcel-level records and is the most direct source, since an open SAD may not surface on a general property search the way a recorded mortgage lien does.
If the seller has been paying an assessment for years, do I inherit the full original amount or just what's left? Just what's left. Because the lien attaches to the parcel installment by installment as each one comes due, the balance already paid by the previous owner doesn't transfer, only the remaining unpaid term does.
Road funding in Macomb Township isn't one system, it's two, and only one of them follows the parcel through a sale. If you're comparing houses on different streets right now, or getting ready to list one, it's worth knowing which category the street falls into before the number shows up somewhere you weren't expecting it. Joan King has spent years working transactions across Macomb Township and can help you check a specific address against township records before you write an offer or set a listing price. Reach out to schedule a conversation about what a particular street's assessment history actually means for your numbers.
