The Batavia Park District is recommending an amendment to the city’s land-cash ordinance that would increase the benefits the district receives from new developers by 2 acres, or by $55,000 more per acre.
The ordinance now requires a contribution by developers of 8 acres per 1,000 people, or $45,000 per acre.
“As the developer comes into the community, it is required to provide help (to the school and park districts) through funds for capital development or land for future facilities,” said Ralph Voris, Park District executive director.
“Whenever possible, we would like to have a park within each of the neighborhoods, so we are most likely to take land for parks,” said Voris.
“And the current ordinance is there to help us do that,” he said, “but we would like it to provide an opportunity to get bigger sites than we are able to get to this point.”
He also said the increased cash donation would better reflect land values in the area.
The Park District is responsible for 300 acres of open space spread over about 30 parks. The sites vary in size, Voris said, with some of the older neighborhood parks on only one lot. Land two or three times that size is needed to have a playground, shelter and open play field, Voris said.
He said the proposed change would “give the district the opportunity to capture a bigger site.”
The acreage increase would fall in line with the contributions received by park districts in other towns, including Geneva, St. Charles, North Aurora and West Chicago, as well as Kane County.
However, only St. Charles and West Chicago require the $100,000-per-acre alternative. Geneva ordinances call for $79,000 per acre and North Aurora asks for $42,500. Kane County asks for $45,000.
The district also is recommending a list of other amendments to the ordinance, said Voris, “because its language right now really only addresses those two issues.”
Those additions include a specific time frame when the park site must be turned over, such as at the 50 percent buildout of the subdivision. The proposed revisions also would establish a better understanding of criteria used to select a park site, such as the amount of street frontage, the type of acceptable soil, access to other park sites, site shape, the availability of utilities, a complete site survey and a permanent marker “so we and neighbors know where the park is,” Voris said.
