Plans for Chipotle, Starbucks in Batavia get preliminary approval
It looks like Batavia is going to get a Chipotle restaurant and another Starbucks, as plans received preliminary approval Tuesday night from Batavia aldermen.
In unanimous votes, the aldermen, meeting as a committee of the whole, approved zoning changes and conditional use permits so the businesses can be built on the site of the former Avenue Motors dealership at Randall Road and McKee Street. Binding votes will take place on Sept. 7.
In 2020, a Raising Cane's restaurant opened on the northwest corner of the site. Earlier this year, a Menards home improvement store built a retention pond on the northeast corner of the site.
Residents in a neighborhood to the east expressed concerns about the loss of trees that currently block light and noise from Randall. The developers say many of the trees are invasive, in poor health or dead, and have to be removed to make way for a detention pond. They will replace them with other trees.
The closest Starbucks to the location is across Randall Road, inside a Target store. The nearest Chipotle is 1½ miles to the north in Geneva.
The car dealership closed in 2011 after 82 years in business in Batavia. It was a Chevrolet dealership until 2009 when General Motors cut 1,100 dealerships nationwide during the Great Recession.