Kane County Reporter

The Batavia Committee of the Whole met Aug. 23 to discuss Future storm sewer projects.

Here are the meeting's minutes, as provided by the committee:

August 23, 2016

Committee of the Whole

City of Batavia

Please NOTE: These minutes are not a word-for-word transcription of the statements made at the

meeting, nor intended to be a comprehensive review of all discussions. They are intended to make an

official record of the actions taken by the Committee/City Council, and to include some description of

discussion points as understood by the minute-taker. They may not reference some of the individual

attendee’s comments, nor the complete comments if referenced.

Chair Brown called the meeting to order at 7:30pm.

1. Roll Call

Members Present: Chair Brown; Ald. Russotto, Atac, Stark, Chanzit (entered at

7:32pm), Wolff, Fischer, O’Brien, Callahan, Mueller, Botterman,

Cerone, and McFadden

Members Absent: Alderman Hohmann

Also Present: Mayor Schielke (entered at 7:40pm); Laura Newman, City

Administrator; Scott Buening, Director of Community Development;

Jeff Albertson, Building Commissioner; Gary Holm, Director of

Public Works; Rahat Bari, City Engineer; Andrea Podraza, Senior

Civil Engineer; Chris Aiston, Economic Development Consultant; and

Jennifer Austin-Smith, Recording Secretary

2. Items to be Removed/Added/Changed

Newman stated that Ordinance 16-56 (agenda item number seven) was to be removed from the

agenda. There was no objection by the Committee.

3. Matters From the Public (For Items NOT on Agenda)

Dick Benson shared that he lives in a TIF district. He stated that people should be aware of the

fact that this year he paid $8,600. He paid $200 in taxes to all of the other taxing bodies. He paid

$772 to the school. He paid $48 to the County. If he would not have been in the TIF, he would

have paid $371 to the County and $6,500 to the school. When they do the levies for all of the

taxing bodies, my assessed value for that purpose is $12,230. If he weren’t in the TIF his total

tax bill would be based on an assessed value of $102,000. That tells him that everybody, every

taxpayer, is helping to reimburse the TIF for Batavia and people should know that. The City is

going to help subsidize Shodeen so that he could make an acceptable ROI. If he cannot make and

acceptable ROI up front, without any help in his financing, that is not a good deal and is not

good for Batavia. If we give Shodeen money, it will take us fifteen to twenty years to get that

money back in taxes.

Sylvia Keppel quoted Alderman Rick Lawrence in Aurora who stated “I did find it very

disturbing that Shodeen would get a private meeting with the Council. This entire project does

not follow any established process and still doesn’t…this project we don’t have any plans or

engineering in front of us but now we are in the process of rewriting the deal. It really doesn’t

make sense.” Keppel stated that Shodeen has a history of going into closed session with councils

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August 23, 2016

Page 2

and makes deals with them behind closed doors. She hopes that this did not happen here. That

was one of the reasons she requested the closed session minutes but was denied them until the

deal is closed. Keppel stated that this whole deal that Shodeen is selling is common everywhere.

They are doing it in DeKalb, trying to do it in Geneva, they are doing it in Aurora and it is the

same mixed-use development. The parking is being criticized in their projects elsewhere as well.

Keppel asked for the process done in Batavia to be open and transparent. Keppel discussed how

the Baptist Church property was purchased by the City and the Altamanu plan for the property.

She asked the City to try to find a different project or see what they could find, and discussed the

preferred TIF process with a general redevelopment plan. Keppel concluded that it appears that

this project is being pushed through. She asked the Committee to slow the process down.

Jim Slushman expressed that he shares the concerns discussed by Keppel. There are a lot of

questions that need to be answered.

Yvonne Dinwiddie stated that having the Committee of the Whole meetings on BATV would

help with trust. Noted that there is a sign outside of the church lot stating this project being paid

for by TIF funds and the TIF has not been approved as of yet and how does that improve trust.

She is not opposed to development she is opposed to the taxpayers paying for private people to

develop property. Wolff stated that the church is already in a TIF District. The City is in the

process of developing a new TIF. Chanzit asked for another alderman to stand with him in

requesting staff to work with Dinwiddie if there is a PowerPoint presentation to ensure that the

facts are correct. He explained that past PowerPoint presentations have had to be corrected by

staff. O’Brien stood with Chanzit’s request.

McFadden announced that Monday, November 7th is the scheduled public hearing for the TIF at

7:30pm in the City Council Chamber. Brown added that all that information is available on the

City’s website.

4. Consent Agenda

(The Consent Agenda is made up of items recommended by city staff that requires

recommendation to the full City Council by the COW. This agenda is placed as a

separate item on the COW agenda. The items on the Consent Agenda are usually

minor items, already budgeted, standard non-policy activities or outgrowths of earlier

meetings and are voted on as a “package” in the interest of saving time on noncontroversial

issues. However, any council member may, by simple request, have an

item removed and placed on the “regular” agenda.)

a) Ordinance 16-51: Establishing a TIF Public Hearing Date (Chris Aiston

8/17/16)

b) Ordinance 16-52: Establishing a TIF Interested Party Registry (Chris Aiston

8/17/16)

c) Resolution 16-73-R: Authorizing Reduction of Letter of Credit Amount for

Tanglewood Subdivision Unit 5 and Accepting public Improvements of Water

and Sanitary System (Rahat Bari 8/18/16) CS

Motion: To recommend to City Council approval of the Consent Agenda as presented

Maker: Stark

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Page 3

Second: Wolff

Roll Call Vote: Aye: Stark, Chanzit, Wolff, Fischer, O’Brien, Callahan, Mueller,

Botterman, Cerone, McFadden, Russotto, Atac

Nay:

13-0 Vote, 1 Absent, Motion carried.

Item C of the Consent Agenda was added to the Consent Agenda for the City Council meeting.

5. WBK Presentation for Ward 1 Drainage Investigation (Andrea Podraza 8/19/16) CS

John Witte, WBK Engineering, LLC, presented on Ward 1 Drainage Investigation. The

presentation included the following:

• Ward 1 Overview

• Modeling Results

• Possible Future Projects

• Possible Future Projects - Giese Road

• Future Projects Reduce Depth and Duration of Flooding (existing and proposed are

modeled)

• Future Storm Sewer Projects (locations and cost totaling 2.2 million dollars)

Andrea Podraza stated that designing for a ten year storm is the industry standard at this time.

O’Brien stated that the labor cost and the equipment costs should still be the same if we went to a

100 year storm. The only difference would be cost of equipment. Holm noted that there may be a

possibility of digging two trenches if designing towards a one hundred year storm and that would

be a significant increase in cost. Witte stated that they could redesign for a one hundred year

storm, it is just up to the City how they want to proceed and how much money they want to

invest. They could go back and look at the one hundred year, it would be more money, but if the

City wants to go in that direction they could work that out with staff.

Brown asked that the location of all the properties that reported water in their basements and

their foundations be put onto the drainage map. Podraza stated that she does have a list and

records available. Brown asked if we fix this area would it have a negative effect on another

area. Witte answered that the same amount of water would be drained through the drainage

system, it would just drain more efficiently. We are still exposing them to the same amount of

capacity. Brown stated that he would like to know how many of these streets have already been

approved and how many are planned for approval. Podraza stated that there is a chart that she

could share with the Committee. O’Brien asked about the culverts under Kirk Road and how we

could get KDOT to do the maintenance on that area. Podraza answered that they will look at the

agreements with KDOT and have discussion with KDOT over the City’s concerns. Wolff

commented that the maintenance issues are something that we need to address as soon as we can.

O’Brien stated that this is one small section of the First Ward and this is a Batavia City-wide

issue. We need to address this issue. We need to address residents concerns of flooding Citywide

and the budgeted $400,000 is not enough money. We need to bond this and get it taken care

of City-wide. If we continue to do improvements in pieces it could take ten to fifteen years to get

the City gets their problems fixed. O’Brien stated that he is an advocate for stormwater utility

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August 23, 2016

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and that might be the next step for us. This is a problem that is not going away and we need to

address it. Wolff stated that the City needs to get some real capital in order to do these repairs.

The floor was opened for public comment.

Rich Cruz explained his back yard is on Kirk Road, in front of his driveway is one of the

culverts, and the back of the yard is a ditch in which the water collects and it sits there. He stated

that the water has to go uphill to get to the pipe to Fermi lab up the road. The water sits there all

year long. His concern is how does the water get from there to a higher level to get to the drain

underneath Kirk Road. His backyard continues to have sitting water and that breeds mosquitos.

Podraza stated that staff could come out to look into the backyard issue. He added that he had

water in his basement. Brown asked for him to give that information to staff. Cruz asked about

permeable concrete. Brown stated that, as a concrete contractor and someone who is certified in

pervious pavement, it does not work and it is too expensive.

Rick Global stated that he talked about this five years ago and not much happened since then. He

stated that designing to a ten year event is under achieving. Residents deserve to have their

houses preserved. There is water that sits in their subdivision and that they have named Lake

Louise. He asked if there is a way to get that water into the drainage system. Podraza stated that

staff could look into that as they move forward. Global shared that he had Perma-seal out to fix

the cracks on his house due to the rainwater runoff.

Margie Brenheart stated that we should go for the 100-year design. You already see the climate

change, we need to plan for the future and not what is going on today. We should go for the best

we can.

Wolff stated that he would like to see the City staff work on the maintenance that we could do

right now in order to get the water flowing as it should. Specifically we should look into getting

the culverts cleaned out that run below Kirk Road.

Podraza stated that discussion on Area Three is scheduled for the 13th of September. Bari stated

he would find out with the County who is responsible for maintenance to get those areas clean.

There is no action needed today. He asked the Committee to provide comments by Monday to

staff regarding the study.

6. Municipal Parking Lot Maintenance Program (Rahat Bari 8/16/16) CS

Bari presented on the City of Batavia Parking Lot Maintenance, Inventory and Condition Data.

The presentation included the following:

• Purpose of the presentation

• What are parking lots/access roads used for?

• Why maintain parking lots?

• Parking lots inventory

• Parking Lot and Utility Access Roads map

• What did we find in parking lots?

• Need preventative maintenance (crackfill, patching)

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• Resurfacing and Reconstruction

• FY 17-FY21 Goals

O’Brien, Brown and Wolff expressed their support for this project. There were no objections

from the Committee. Bari stated that he would bring to the Committee a budget for the next five

years.

7. Ordinance 16-56: Establishing a New E-6 Liquor License Classification (Limited

Retail Nonprofit License) (Chief Schira 8/15/16)\

This item was removed from the agenda.

8. Approval: Demolition Certificate of Appropriateness 400 South Shumway Avenue

(Jeff Albertson 8/16/16) CD

Albertson stated that the next two items are for demolition certificate of appropriateness in which

the HPC is a recommending body. The HPC did review the COA, this building has never been

classified in the district. Staff and the HPC agreed that the building would be classified as noncontributing.

The HPC liked the design for the new building. Byron Ritchason stated he is

hoping by the end of the year to get IEPA approval on the plans and hopefully in April or March

start breaking ground. The conceptual design was reviewed and displayed for the Committee and

public to view.

Motion: Recommend to Council approval of Demolition Certificate of Appropriateness

400 South Shumway Avenue

Maker: Brown

Second: McFadden

Voice Vote: 13 Ayes, 0 Nays, 1 Absent

Motion carried.

9. Approval: Demolition Certificate of Appropriateness 111 East Wilson Street, 133 East

Wilson Street, 20 North River Street (Jeff Albertson 8-16-16) CD

Albertson reported that this COA contains the First Baptist Church. The HPC held three

meetings for review on this COA. The 111 East Wilson and the 20 North River Street properties

are non-contributing. A statement from a resident’s son who is not in favor of the demolition was

submitted in the packet of information to the Committee. The HPC did recommend approval of

the COA. Brown stated that the HPC was very thorough with this process. Callahan agreed.

Callahan stated that it would be irresponsible for the City to pay 3.5 million dollars to just make

the church safe. This building is a safety hazard. Botterman asked if there were any defects to the

parking garage. Albertson stated that there were no issues with the parking garage. Botterman

asked if the parking garage would be demolished for the proposed Shodeen project. Albertson

stated that is correct. Stark asked if there were any comments from the public. There were none.

Motion: To recommend to City Council approval of Demolition Certificate of

Appropriateness 111 East Wilson Street, 133 East Wilson Street, 20 North River

Street

Maker: Brown

Second: O’Brien

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Page 6

Roll Call Vote: Aye: Brown, O’Brien, Callahan, Mueller, Cerone, McFadden, Russotto,

Atac, Stark, Chanzit, Wolff, Fischer

Nay: Botterman

12-1 Vote, 1 Absent, Motion carried.

10. Discussion: Proposed Special Service Area for Windmill Lakes Development (Main

and Randall) (Scott Buening 8/12/16) CD

Stark reviewed the memo with the Committee. The public hearing would be on September 19th

and the SSA would start on December 5th. Buening stated one representative of each property

has been contacted about this proposed SSA.

Motion: To direct staff to move forward with the proposed Special Service Area (SSA 60)

for Windmill Lakes Development

Maker: Wolff

Second: McFadden

Voice Vote: 13 Ayes, 0 Nays, 1 Absent

Motion carried.

11. Project Status

Newman reported that Gary Holm would be spearheading the City building improvements

project. The goal is to correct the areas in which we do not meet compliance first and then

address other matters that are less of a priority. The prioritization and budget would be presented

to the Committee by the architect hired for the plan.

Newman stated that the Community Development Department has been working on a Food

Vender Ordinance. Newman stated that we are considering doing a special event similar to what

the City of Aurora is doing with their First Fridays. Newman will research the impact of such

event on brick-and-mortar restaurants.

Newman announced that a company called Metronet approached the City staff, they are a fiber

optic communications provider competing with Comcast and AT&T. This might be an

opportunity to provide more choice for our residents. Staff will be looking into this possibility.

Brown asked about where we are with Engineering Resources on the west bank river restoration.

Bari answered that this will be up for discussion with budgets next year. A field visit would be

completed as well.

Newman is meeting with BEI tomorrow and will ask about Blue Goose.

12. Other

There were no others at this time.

13. Executive Session:

a) Purchase and Sale of Electric Power

The Committee entered Executive Session at 9:40pm and exited at 10:56pm.

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August 23, 2016

Page 7

Motion: To enter into executive session for the purpose of purchase and sale of electric

power

Maker: O’Brien

Second: Stark

Voice Vote: 13 Ayes, 0 Nays, 1 Absent

Motion carried.

14. Adjournment

There being no other business to discuss, Brown asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting at

10:56pm; Made by O’Brien; Seconded by Fischer. Motion carried.

Minutes respectfully submitted by Jennifer Austin-Smith