Batavia rec center details emerge
Debate between Batavia residents who like the idea of a public downtown recreation center and those aghast at the prospect continued Thursday night at a special joint meeting of the Batavia city council and the Batavia park board.
Some new details also emerged about the plan for the combination rec center, parking garage and shopping center proposed for an area bounded by Wilson Street, Island Avenue and Houston Street:
• The city may provide financing, paying for 50 percent of the parking deck and some of the costs of building the retail space, for a bill of about $6 million. The money would come out of the city's two downtown tax-increment financing funds, which generate about $976,000 a year to be used to improve and develop the downtown because the property tax amounts given to local governments have been frozen.
• The swimming pool in the recreation center has been increased to six lanes, which would allow the park district to rent it out for swimming competitions, including perhaps a high school swim team - Batavia High School has neither a swim team nor a pool. Residents had said a four-lane pool would be too small.
Preferred Development Inc. of Chicago has proposed to build a recreation center, a parking garage and stores in a three-story complex. An existing shopping center at Wilson and Island would be torn down and land swapped with a McDonald's at 125 W. Wilson.
About 70 or so people attended the meeting, besides the city council and park board. Park board Commissioner Nicole Corken and Alderman Tom Schmitz were absent.
City administrator Bill McGrath stressed that the city is not taking any position on how the Batavia Park District should pay for its part of the plan.
Assistant city administrator Randall Recklaus said city officials have been working hard the last few years to market the vacancies in downtown businesses, and that real estate representatives for stores and restaurants have said their clients want more people in downtown than now visit - kind of a "chicken-and-egg" situation, he said.
McDonald's wants to build a new facility to replace the current one, which is more than 30 years old.
It is willing to take a smaller lot directly on the corner of Island and Wilson. But if McDonald's rebuilds on its current site, there wouldn't be a large enough parcel left to build what PDI has proposed, according to city administrator Bill McGrath.
"This may be the only opportunity to redevelop this half block for a very long time," Recklaus said.
The park board has agreed to issue Build America bonds, at a cost of up to $20 million, to build the rec center. It would repay the loan using its current non-tax-cap property-taxing authority, without raising the tax rate, Executive Director Mike Clark said.
District and city resident Yvonne Dinwiddie contended again, as she did in spurring the drive to get a referendum on the matter, that the language of the ordinance adopted in April by the district says if there isn't enough revenue generated by that tax rate, the district could levy additional property taxes to pay for it.
"One of my potential concerns is using public funds for what feels like to me a fitness center that would be in competition with four private ventures in Batavia," Alderman Vic Dietz said.
"I'm not saying you shouldn't do this deal, but there is a lot of skepticism out there," said Batavia resident Brian Summer, questioning why, if a recreation center is a such a good idea, a private business hasn't proposed building one.
The recreation center would include multipurpose rooms for classes, a fitness center, gymnasiums, the swimming pool, an indoor track and possibly space for the park district's administrative offices.
Mayor Jeff Schielke said the ball is in the park district's court, because residents of the park district have filed petitions for a referendum on the bond issue proposed to pay for the recreation center's construction. The park board will likely certify the petitions at its August meeting so the question can be placed on the November ballot.