Streetscape Plan a Priority for Batavia Officials

Batavia city officials plan to put the proposed Downtown Streetscape Plan on the fast track.

“It’s certainly the desire of the City Council to move this along at a rather rapid pace,” Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke said on April 28. "This is an exciting moment in our community's history."

The Downtown Streetscape Advisory Committee this Tuesday will make a formal presentation to the city’s Community Development Committee. From there the Streetscape Committee will present to the full Batavia City Council, who will vote on the project.

The Streetscape plan is intended to provide a framework for enhancing the livability of downtown, improving the pedestrian and business environment and beautifying each of five downtown neighborhoods.

The city on April 28 held an open house and presentation on the Streetscape plan at City Hall. The open house provided an opportunity for the public to view the draft plan and discuss it with officials. Those in attendance included members of the Downtown Streetscape Advisory Committee, the city’s design consultant, Altamanu, Inc., and city staff.

Resident Lee Schlusemann said she has attended most of the meetings about the Streetscape proposal.

“I like a lot of the ideas,” she said. “I think they should concentrate on the downtown area and on drawing Batavians in.”

Downtown business owner Casey O’Brien called the plan “a great concept that can grow into something really good.”

“It’s something Batavia can use as well as business owners in the downtown,” O’Brien said. “It will improve the values of property. We can use the equity we lost in the recession to improve the buildings.”

A 15-member advisory committee was appointed by the City Council to assist Altamanu in the planning effort. Members include downtown property and business owners, representatives of Batavia MainStreet, the City Council, Plan Commission and the Historic Preservation Commission.

Josephine Bellalta of Altamanu said feedback about the plan from the community has been “very positive.”

“The momentum is building up,” she said. “People have come to have ownership of the possibilities and they want to get going as soon as possible.”

Committee member Carrie Sebold said a revitalized Batavia will allow the city to draw foot traffic from suburbs such as Aurora and North Aurora.

“They don’t have anywhere to go,” she said. “There’s Naperville, which is very expensive, or Geneva. We’re right in the middle.”

What's Next?

The Streetscape's presentation is scheduled for the Community Development Committee's Tuesday meeting, which begins at 7:30 p.m. The Committee will make its recommendation to the full City Council, which could approve and adopt the plan May 16.

After City Council adoption of the design concept plan, the city will retain an engineering firm to work with the preliminary design plan to create construction drawings, which will enable the city to solicit bids for doing the construction work. This phase of the Streetscape project is expected to be complete in the spring of 2012. It is anticipated that construction work will begin and the first part of the project will be completed in 2012.

Who's Paying For This?

The City was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation for a portion of the improvements. The remainder of the project cost will be paid from Tax Increment Finance money generated from the two downtown TIF districts. It is likely the city will issue TIF bonds in 2012 for the remainder of the construction cost above the state grant.

Where Can I Learn More?

Information about the study is available on the city’s website under “Popular Links.” Agendas, meeting summaries, presentation material and design drawings are posted, along with a link to contact the city with questions and comments on the project. For additional information, please contact Community Development Director Jerry Swanson at jswanson@cityofbatavia.net.