Batavia’s Community Development Committee has recommended the approval of a commercial development on land adjacent to the Braeburn Marsh and Bird Sanctuary.
The 3-2 vote Tuesday, which moves the issue to the full City Council, came after a spirited speech on fairness by the developer and impassioned pleas for preservation by opponents.
Though most of the land earmarked for the development proposed by Chicago-based Aetna Development Corp. was annexed and zoned commercial a decade ago by the city, the property flanks a former farm parcel that was not annexed and rezoned.
Committee members also recommended that the city annex that parcel, creating an L-shaped development on the southeast corner of Randall Road and Fabyan Parkway.
The development plans include a Best Buy store, a Walgreens drugstore, several retail areas and a restaurant. Last month, Kane County refused to allow Aetna to add an intersection on Randall Road near the center’s southwest corner and the proposed Best Buy. As a result, interior traffic now would circulate along the front and back of the stores, exiting only at the full intersection to be built at Fabyan Parkway and Bent Tree Lane at the center’s far northeast portion.
A right-in-only entry off Fabyan near the northwest portion still is included in the plans.
Several of the committee’s five members were disturbed by the new traffic pattern.
“My biggest problem is the [interior] traffic,” said committee Chairman Ald. Gene Schneider, who was joined by Ald. Mary McCarter in opposing the project. “I’m not convinced that the traffic engineers’ plan will alleviate the problems.”
The committee’s vote came after long speeches by Aetna President George Hanus and Diane Schultz, a spokeswoman for grass-roots opponents.
Hanus complained of being portrayed as an “ecological monster” by opponents. He objected to their rallying cry of saving the marsh and said he has found himself in the “extraordinary” position of having to hire a public relations consultant.
“My development doesn’t touch the marsh, the wetland or the regional flood plain, so when they say save the marsh it is an outright, baldfaced misrepresentation,” Hanus said.
“If they want to say save the vision, or open space … I’m not touching the marsh,” he repeated, adding that the development would not cause flooding in the area or pollute the marsh.
The man-made marsh, which is owned by the Kane County Forest Preserve District, serves as a regional storm-water detention basin. It was built as part of a deal between Batavia and developers involving land south of the marsh.
Aetna bought the undeveloped land from the developers in 1998 and 1999 for a total of $1.6 million and has an option on the privately owned, unannexed 4.12-acre parcel, bringing the total to about 20 acres. Hanus’ development will sit on 14 acres.
“I have attempted to be sensitive and responsive to every demand put on us except `Go away,'” he said.
But Aetna’s exit is the goal of opponents, primarily the grass-roots group Braeburn Marsh Defenders.
Since last fall, the group has received support from residents, governmental officials and conservation groups, including the Naperville-based Conservation Foundation and the Open Lands Project in Chicago.
As a spokeswoman for the group, Schultz on Tuesday voiced concerns about flooding and destroying the marsh’s natural beauty and ability to host migratory birds.
“In 1994, you told us there was no potential for flooding when some of us said the marsh’s water level was changing,” Schultz said. “You said, `Trust us; we’ve done our homework.'”
But, she said, the 1996 summer floods in the area shook her and others’ belief in city officials to the core.
“This marsh also is an important feeding station and migratory route,” she said.
Opponents said they remained convinced the development will cause flooding.
The full Kane County Forest Preserve District and County Board on Tuesday approved pledging $1 million toward purchasing the property. The Defenders group also is intensifying its fundraising efforts to buy the land.
And last week, state Rep. Timothy Schmitz, (R-Batavia) sent a letter to the state Department of Natural Resources in support of a request by the 28-year-old Trust for Public Lands to form a partnership to acquire Aetna’s land. The San Francisco-based national non-profit group’s request is directed at the state’s four-year, $160 million bond-funded Open Land Trust program signed into law last summer.
Under the program, half of each year’s $40 million allotment is to be used by the state to purchase open space. The remainder is to be distributed first to local governmental units and then to land-acquisition partnerships.
The Illinois DNR already has received 34 grant requests seeking $31 million and seven partnership proposals exceeding $14 million, said Carl Becker, assistant office director of the department’s office of realty and environmental planning.
