Dupage Policy Journal

At its Jan. 3 meeting the Batavia City Council heard from city administrator Laura Newman who gave an update on where the city's strategic plan stood now that it was two-thirds of the way through its timeline. 

Newman told council that one of the main changes was that the city was going to send out another community survey this year to help create the strategic plan for 2024-2026 as the input the city got last time had proven beneficial to the efficacy of the plan

“This particular objective is related to actively marketing some of the city owned riverfront properties to developers," Newman said. "And as I mentioned earlier, while there's a little bit of a slowdown in that activity, we do continue to work with a couple of prospects in that regard. While not inexpensive, the city has applied for an ITEP grant to assist us with moving the bike path from the west side of the wastewater treatment plant to run on the east side of the plant and directly along the riverbank. So we're hoping to hear back on that grants application this month."

One of the five main areas of focus for the plan was economic vitality. Newman shared how some of the projects, like the video highlighting downtown businesses, had gone extremely well and showed a lot of shares and communications that led to a bustling downtown district during the shopping season. The city has also been able to fill several vacancies in the area with new businesses, although some of the bigger mixed-use developments they had aimed to start in the area were not as successful, mostly due to rising costs and issues with building in recent years.

Newman told council some of the upcoming projects for the 2023 year include improving bike and pedestrian paths across the city as part of the infrastructure plan. The city will also be taking big steps in creating a master plan for the riverfront, including meeting with the Army Corps of Engineers to discuss the dam. The city will also be taking efforts in both the community and the work environment of city hall to improve diversity and inclusion.