Township Prepared to Take Over Maintenance of Buckingham Village Retention Basin

With repairs on the Buckingham Village retention basin nearing completion, and homeowners in surrounding subdivisions being no closer to taking over the basin than when repairs first started, it will fall to to see that the basin is maintained in the future.

For months, the township has met with homeowners in the Buckingham Village I, Buckingham Village II and Wingate subdivisions in an effort to help them create a method to collect the funds necessary to maintain the basin.

With only Buckingham Village I having a homeowner's association, .

"I see (repairs are) nearing completion and it looks great," said Matt Mazurco, BVI resident. "The issue we're having is with BVII and Wingate not (having) working homeowner's associations. That issue has really distracted us most of the summer. ... At this point we are a little reluctant to take it over without ensuring compliance with the dues."

Because the three subdivisions make up a special assessment district, the township does have the power to take over the maintenance of the basin when repairs are required and spread the cost of these repairs proportionately among lot owners. 

However, by the same , the township cannot do regular maintenance on the basin, but only step in when repairs are necessary.

In the future, when such repairs are necessary, a public hearing will have to be held before the board can authorize maintenance. The only exception to this is in cases of emergency, where the problem is believed to threaten the public's health and safety. In these instances, no hearing is required.

In terms of homeowners' involvement with the basin's maintenance, “You would be out of the picture completely,” said township attorney Lawrence Dloski.  

Final repairs on the basin are expected to be completed in late September or early October and homeowners still have the opportunity to take over the basin's maintenance. However, the township is prepared to step in if such organization proves impossible.

"The repairs are going to be done, and there is nobody to turn it over to," said Clerk Michael Koehs. "We’re going to, at some point in time, have to authorize maintenance. At that point in time we’ll send a notice out to all those people that there will be a public hearing on this and after the hearing we will make a determination whether they can take it over and if they are not prepared to we will take it over and spread it out on their taxes."

Macomb Township has covered the almost $318,000 in costs to repair the basin since it first failed three years ago.