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The city of Batavia wants a piece of land the park district has been planning to assume ownership of for years, and the two sides are now trying to figure out how to share it.
In 2031, the Batavia Park District is scheduled to receive a 20-acre parcel of land from Mooseheart. During a special park board meeting on April 13, city officials pitched the idea of using roughly five acres of the site (off Main Street and Millview Drive, next to the West Side Fire Station) as the location for a new police station.
Here's what to know:
The city’s ask: Officials said Batavia would either compensate the park district for the land or offer a land swap, including a possible trade of an 11-acre city-owned site along Main Street north of Grace McWayne Elementary School.
The current station is outdated: City officials say the existing police station on North Island Avenue sits inside an old factory building that date sback more than a century and no longer meets building code requirements for exits, fire suppression, and other systems. Officials said the estimated price tag of a new station is about $50 million.
The park district isn't ready to commit: The park district understands the city's urgency but called it premature to agree to give up any portion of the land before the district finishes its own planning process.
A status meeting has been proposed to take place in three months to revisit the conversation once the park district's planning work is further along.
Read more in this Daily Herald article.
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