Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke said Thursday the growth trend is continuing in the city, with new homes being built and in the planning stages.
“Probably the big news is between 2020 and 2026, we will have added between 800 and 900 new living units in Batavia, probably the biggest growth spurt we’ve ever had in our history,” he said at the annual Mayor’s Breakfast hosted by the Batavia Chamber of Commerce. “I attribute that to the right time, the right place and people wanting to buy. We’ve got a very strong strength in our school system and that’s a major anchor and a safe community with police and fire and they are very good – our fire department is rated as high by the insurance company as it can be.”
At the event, held at the Covenant Living at the Holmstad in Batavia, the mayor said that development should continue in the city.
“Since last year, we’ve got a lot of properties in town that are being primed for redevelopment, several large parcels near the downtown area and our downtown area continues to get stronger with new businesses and people moving in,” he said.
He said things remain moving in a positive direction in Batavia.
“There’s really not much negative to talk about,” he said. “We’ve don’t have a big crime problem and our biggest issue is probably how much more traffic we’re going to be getting. Our traffic numbers seem to be growing rapidly as far as the number of cars in town.”
He noted the importance to the city of the Fox River and the famous Peace Bridge, which he said serves as a pedestrian and bicycle crossway that “literally takes thousands of bicyclists who want to switch from the east side to the west side trail.”
“It also is proving to be quite a purveyor of people who are walking and running downtown,” he said.
Schielke spoke about the impact on local communities of the recent national election and said that “amongst the various local governments, there is a concern about what’s going to happen with a new federal government.”
“That’s probably going to change some of the policies. The last administration that is leaving has been pretty generous giving out money and I don’t know if that is going to continue or not,” he said. “Certainly, we’ve been very lucky to be able to get our share of that money for Batavia.”
More than 100 community leaders and stakeholders gathered for the roughly 90-minute meeting which featured Schielke’s keynote address, highlighting recent developments in Batavia, along with a look at future projects.
Batavia Chamber of the Commerce Executive Director Margaret Perreault spoke before Thursday’s meeting and said the breakfast “is a can’t-miss event.”
“The mayor does such a great job going into great detail about what’s going on in our city,” she said. “We’ve been doing this for many years.”
She said “it’s a vital communication coming from the city to let the business community and the residents know what our priorities are, our goals are, what’s been accomplished and what our focus is on the future.”
Colleen Armendaris, who owns a newly-opened Culver’s restaurant in Batavia, decided to connect with other business owners and community leaders by attending the Mayor’s Breakfast on Thursday.
“This is my first time coming to this. The mayor makes such a great impact on the community … he bonds with his constituents and makes sure everybody is doing OK,” Armendaris said.
She said that Schielke has stopped into the Culver’s she runs “a number of times and he knows everybody by name which is really cool, and I just wanted to hear about the growth of Batavia and see where it’s headed toward the future.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
