Batavia and Aurora again at odds over gated road near cities’ border

Reviving a yearslong disagreement, the city of Batavia is again asking Aurora to remove a gate on Wagner Road off Mesa Lane, which currently cuts off one way of entering and exiting a neighborhood on the cities’ border.

Batavia says the gate is causing more traffic on its nearby streets, and has floated the possibility of closing Wagner at the city boundary to force Aurora’s hand.

Aurora officials are asking for more time to find an alternate solution.

Batavia is holding off on closing Wagner, but is set to reconsider the idea at a meeting in November. Aurora, meanwhile, is holding a town-hall meeting later this month for residents of the subdivision in question to share their concerns and talk about potential solutions.

The intersection is in Aurora’s 1st Ward, on the north end of the city. The neighborhood with the gate, along with the surrounding area, is served by Batavia Public School District 101.

The streets Batavia is pointing to as seeing increased traffic are just north of that intersection, in the southeastern portion of Batavia.

The issue goes back almost two decades, to 2008, when a Walmart and several other stores were constructed on the northwest corner of Kirk and Butterfield roads.

At the time, residents of the Kirkland Farms neighborhood in Aurora worried traffic in the area — including shoppers, garbage collection vehicles and delivery trucks — would travel through their neighborhood as a shortcut if Kirk became congested.

The Kirkland Farms Homeowners Association requested Aurora officials close Wagner Road at Mesa Lane by installing a gate, leaving just one entry point to the subdivision.

The gate has since forced all traffic to travel through Wagner in Batavia, increasing traffic volume north of the subdivision — along Wagner and Wind Energy Pass — as a result.

In 2014, the average annual daily traffic count on that section of Wagner Road was reported at 1,151, while 2026 figures put that number at a little under 1,100, according to Batavia.

With the gate, the only way for vehicles to enter the subdivision is through Wind Energy Pass — though the gate can be moved by emergency vehicles.

Batavia’s ire about the gate is not new.

The topic was discussed back in 2015, at which time the city considered asking Aurora to remove the gate and allow traffic to use the subdivision’s south exit.

The cities have continued to meet and consider different solutions since, according to a memo from the city of Batavia.

In 2023, for example, Batavia asked for $2 million annually from Aurora for maintenance, policing and signalization costs due to increased traffic, according to documents from Batavia. The idea of Aurora fronting some of the maintenance costs had been floated by former Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin in a letter a couple months prior to that, documents provided by Batavia suggest.

In 2024, Batavia and Aurora staff met, per the memo, and Aurora staff provided a drawing showing a reconfiguration of the intersection of Wagner and Mesa that would provide limited access once Mesa Drive was extended to the west.

That road connection was not completed until mid-2026, Batavia said in the memo, and is not yet fully open to the public due to ongoing construction. But the changes have not been made to the intersection, the city pointed out.

In June, Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke sent a letter to Aurora Mayor John Laesch asking to discuss the matter, according to documents from Batavia. They met in July, at which point it was “apparent that the Aurora leadership was not aware of this commitment to open the road and reconfigure the intersection,” the memo from Batavia indicates.

The city of Aurora said it needs a public information session and potentially conduct traffic experiments to further consider the idea, the memo indicates.

But Batavia staff has indicated they believe Aurora is delaying, and has no immediate intention to reopen or reconfigure the intersection.

Batavia staff recently proposed giving Aurora an ultimatum: open the gate, or Batavia will close Wagner Road at the boundary between the two cities. Doing so would essentially force Aurora to open the gate at Wagner and Mesa, because it would be the only way for cars to access the subdivision. Batavia could then reopen Wagner once the intersection was reconfigured or the gates permanently removed.

Batavia Ald. Christopher Solfa said the situation has been one of “constant delay” and “excuses,” and supports closing the road at the city boundary if Aurora won’t open the gate.

“It’s been over a decade,” Solfa said last week.

Fellow Ald. Tony Malay called the neighborhood in question “a gated community, at our (Batavia’s) expense.”

“They’ve been dragging us along that it’s going to get fixed,” Malay said. “There’s been promises made that haven’t materialized. Enough is enough, put a gate up, and let’s be done with this.”

Ald. Dustin Pieper suggested that, given the concerns about traffic, the city could potentially request a temporary opening of the gate “to see if those concerns actually come to fruition” and they could reconsider if they do.

Meanwhile, some residents of the Kirkland Farms neighborhood spoke critically of closing off the road at last week’s Batavia council session. Aurora officials also spoke out.

Aurora Ald. Dan Barreiro, 1st Ward, spoke against the opening of the existing gate and suggested Batavia delay its decision and the cities work to find an alternative solution.

Acknowledging Batavia’s concerns about the cost to keep up its roads, Laesch proposed Aurora work with Batavia to get a “real number” on the resurfacing costs, calling the initially suggested $2 million “grossly inflated.”

From there, Laesch offered an alternative idea: if Aurora residents want to keep the gate in place, they can help pay for the costs to maintain Batavia roads through the creation of a special service area.

He also asked for more time for Aurora staff to meet with residents. The city plans a town hall at 6 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Aurora Police Department, 1200 E. Indian Trail Road, to discuss the situation and Batavia’s request that the gate be opened.

Batavia’s original proposal was to give Aurora until Oct. 15 to reopen the gate before closing off Wagner, but some Batavia council members suggested the city allow more time to potentially work out an alternative plan.

“We don’t want to make enemies of our neighbors, and we don’t want to close off a neighborhood … to force this point,” Ald. Robin Barraza said. “However, I do understand that we also aren’t going to let it just get kicked down the road indefinitely.”

Ald. Alan Wolff also expressed some concern about Batavia’s threat to put up a gate of its own.

“I detest the idea of a gate,” Wolff said. “I detest the idea of us threatening to put a gate up on the other side of this even more.”

Malay suggested putting a gate up on Dec. 1, to allow for two months to resolve the issue. The council is expected to resume the discussion in November.

mmorrow@chicagotribune.com