Walgreens won’t improve downtown
The current Walgreens development proposal from Batavia Enterprises deserves attention from the Batavia community.
The proposed building does not follow the community-designed Comprehensive Plan developed to improve downtown. BEI is asking for 11 variances from it and $450,000 in TIF revenue.
Studies have shown that locally owned businesses spur economic growth better than large, non-locally owned businesses. After looking at urban and rural areas, it found that “those with a larger density of small, locally owned businesses experienced greater per capita income growth between 2000 and 2007. The presence of large, nonlocal businesses, meanwhile, had a negative effect on incomes. (http://www.newrules.org/retail/news/study-finds-local-businesses-key-income-growth)
So why would we give TIF money and special treatment to a large, nonlocal business?
There are drive-through Walgreens on both sides of town. How likely it is that Walgreens will get the revenue they are looking for at this location? If they leave, Batavia will be stuck with yet another drive-through in our downtown. I am not in favor of kowtowing to a large corporation especially during this very delicate stage in our downtown. Inherently, a drive-through means people won’t get out and shop at other businesses. It will just add more traffic. I believe this will hurt our existing downtown businesses.
I hope the community can encourage BEI and Walgreens to develop a creative solution that will keep Walgreens downtown but that won’t negatively impact the flow of traffic, walkability, parking and the aesthetics of our downtown. Batavia needs the vision and courage to enforce the plan it spent a lot of time and money on to create.
I don’t understand why our community would be willing to sacrifice our ability for substantial improvement over the next 50 years to accommodate one tenant. Once the Walgreens is set back with parking in front, we will have lost our opportunity to improve downtown Batavia.
Nell Novak
Batavia