Title
An Ordinance to Amend Section 10:1a of Chapter 126, Traffic (Adoption of Motor Vehicle Code and Uniform Traffic Code), of Title X of the Code of the City of Ann Arbor (Ordinance No. ORD-10-39)
Memorandum
The City Attorney is recommending the amendment of Section 10:1a to re-adopt the Michigan Vehicle Code.
In 2005 the City Council adopted by reference the Michigan Vehicle Code (MVC), MCL 257.1 et seq. However, changes to the MVC effective in 2006 altered the way in which speed limits are set on roads under the jurisdiction of local governments. Because of difficulties in applying the speed limit-setting formula dictated by the post-2006 version of the MVC, as well as concerns that the MVC formula (known as the vehicular access point formula) would result in speed limits being dramatically increased on certain local roads with potentially dangerous results, the City Council in 2008 adopted a resolution which rescinded the adoption of the MVC sections that dealt with speed limits, specifically sections 257.627, 628, and 629. Since that time the police department has been writing speeding tickets using the provisions of the City Code that were in effect prior to the 2005 adoption of the MVC.
This approach has come under legal challenge based on the argument that the City cannot adopt only a portion of the MVC, and also that a local ordinance cannot override a state statute, meaning that the City must set the speed limits on local roads in accordance with the vehicular access point formula contained in the MVC. No court has ever ruled on this argument, but there is a possibility that a ruling adverse to the City’s practice would force the City to use the access point formula, with unfavorable results. To avoid such an unfavorable ruling, it is proposed that the City Council re-adopt the entire MVC, and also adopt the Uniform Traffic Code (UTC), R 28.1001 et seq.
The UTC is an administrative traffic code promulgated by the State Police pursuant to a gran...
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