Batavia industrial park plan will need to start over
The developer who wants to build the Prairie Commons industrial park on land zoned for duplexes and townhouses will indeed have to start the city approval process all over, according to attorneys for Batavia.
Too much time has elapsed since the plan commission recommended amending the city's Comprehensive Lane Use Plan designations for that site. By state law, the city council had 90 days to act on the recommendation, which was made in April.
Joel Strassman, the city's planning and zoning officer, said if the Missner Group of Skokie wants to proceed, the city will now ask that it present its requests for the land-use map amendment, an annexation agreement amendment and rezoning, plus applications for a planned-unit development and design review, all at the same time. A public hearing before the plan commission won't be scheduled until those applications are made, Strassman said.
Keep Batavia Neighborhoods, a group of Batavia residents, had protested changing the land-use plan without knowing specifically what kind of businesses would use the site. Missner had only submitted conceptual drawings, for illustrative purposes. Keep Batavia Neighborhoods feared, among other things, that increased truck traffic from the 56-acre site at Kirk Road and Wind Energy Pass would prove dangerous.
The council in 2007 approved plans to build 242 duplexes and townhouses on the site, plus stores and restaurants.
A representative from the Missner Group could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.