A proposal to reduce public transportation services provided by the Western Washtenaw Area Value Express, or WAVE, in a community just west of Ann Arbor is sparking concern among some residents.

Scio Township officials are expected to decide soon on proposed changes to WAVE services, which could eliminate some published bus route stops in the township and impact where some riders could get door-to-door rides.

The township is experiencing a shortfall in a local property tax levy for public transportation. The millage raises funds for services provided by WAVE and the Ann Arbor Area Transportation Authority, or TheRide.

However, it is not generating enough tax revenue to keep pace with rising costs. That shortfall currently amounts to nearly $250,000, with WAVE and TheRide projected to cost the township more than $877,000, the township and WAVE estimated during a Monday, Aug. 17 meeting.

The proposed changes to WAVE service would save the township more than $52,000 but would not cover the entire shortfall, WAVE said Monday.

The township Multimodal Transit Committee is tasked with considering ways to cut costs, which could mean reductions in WAVE service in the township. The committee is expected on Thursday, Aug. 20 to make a recommendation to the township Board of Trustees — whether to keep WAVE service the same or reduce services.

The township board, which will have the final say, is expected to make a decision on Tuesday, Aug. 25.

Any changes to WAVE service would go into effect at the beginning of October.

The township’s transportation millage “was built with good intentions,” township Treasurer Ryan Yaple said during Monday’s committee meeting.

“Unfortunately, as we’ve all seen over the last couple of years, everything’s gone up faster than we expected, especially gas prices. So, we’re facing significantly higher cost than we originally budgeted for,” Yaple said.

Shasta Angell, a community relations coordinator for WAVE, said representatives with WAVE and TheRide met with Michigan Department of Transportation, or MDOT, officials to discuss options for covering Scio Township with available millage funds.

“That is when MDOT came forward and said that actually from Baker Road and Jackson Road east is actually all urban and WAVE shouldn’t even be running on that part of Jackson Road (because WAVE is a rural service),” Angell said.

MDOT, Angell said, is allowing WAVE to keep services that already exist in Scio Township, even though much of the township is classified as urban. However, WAVE will not be allowed to increase services in the township.

“We can decrease (service), but ...if we do decrease service, it cannot be added back on,” she said.

Proposed changes would especially impact the Parkland Plaza area east of Zeeb Road and west of Wagner Road. There are neighborhoods, a health center and businesses in that area.

Touchstone Cohousing resident Susan Pinneo is “extremely upset” about the proposed changes to WAVE services, she told the committee during Monday’s meeting.

Pinneo’s daughter relies on WAVE’s door-to-door rides to get to her part-time job working for the Ann Arbor District Library. However, WAVE would not be able to operate door-to-door services within urban areas.

Without that service, she said her daughter is facing a much longer commute that could impact her ability to keep that job.

“A door-to-door trip is usually a 15-minute trip as opposed to a two-to-two-and-a-half-hour bus ride, which includes walking and changes,” she said.

“That would mean five hours of travel just to work for four hours,” she said.

Currently, WAVE provides door-to-door rides from Scio Township residents to anywhere in Washtenaw County. Under the proposed changes, WAVE would only be able to take people door-to-door to locations designated as “rural” by the U.S. Census.

Pinneo’s daughter, who has some physical limitations, would have to walk nearly a mile to get to TheRide bus stop at Meijer.

“The door-to-door service is extremely important to a lot of people. People need to get to medical appointments, work or other important things,” she said.

Bela Selzer is retired from a career in healthcare and decried the potential loss of door-to-door service within the Parkland Plaza area, especially because the University of Michigan West Ann Arbor Health Center is there.

Door-to-door service to the health center “is very important for most people,” Selzer said.

“Losing the ability to door-to-door that seems to me a step in the wrong direction,” she said.

As proposed, WAVE’s Jackson Road Connector route would only have three published stops: Woodview Commons and Scio Farms on the western end of the township and Meijer, where people can transfer to TheRide’s route 30 bus.

That means the elimination of current published WAVE stops in the Parkland Plaza area that serve Sunward Cohousing, Great Oak Cohousing, Touchstone Cohousing, Lakestone Apartments and the University of Michigan West Ann Arbor Health Center.

Published stops at a Menards store and at Willow Tree Lane and Staebler Road would also be eliminated, but riders could still request in advance a “deviation” for the Jackson Road Connector to pick up or drop off at those locations.

As for the Parkland Plaza area, those would be outside of the deviation zone and riders would not be able to request rides from the Jackson Road Connector from that area.

In addition, changes to WAVE’s Community Connector weekend schedule are proposed. The service, which travels between Chelsea, Dexter and Scio Township, would be reduced to four published stops in the township. It would still regularly stop at Meijer, near the Holiday Inn Express & Suites on North Zeeb Road and at Scio Farms and Woodview Commons.

But the proposed change would eliminate published stops in the Parkland Plaza neighborhood, Menards and at Willow Tree Lane and Staebler Road.

Concerned residents at Monday’s committee meeting suggested the township maintain WAVE services as they are for a year to take more time to consider any changes.

Some suggested the township find funds to keep services as they are.

The township has also asked Washtenaw County officials if it can claw back $300,000 of the more than $1.8 million in captured tax levies being returned to the county following the dissolution of Scio Township’s downtown development authority last summer. The township had originally asked for those funds to keep TheRide’s bus route 30 service to Meijer.

Yaple said he continues to have conversations with county commissioners and administration about some of that returned DDA tax capture on public transportation in the township.

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