City To Iron Out Annexation Details With Mooseheart

A city committee cannot review an annexation agreement with Moose International until a couple policy issues are resolved.

The Community Development Committee Tuesday night discussed whether to annex the entire proposed Mooseheart area or just the northern portion.

The part of Mooseheart property in question includes 470 acres of land along Randall Road south of Main Street.

Moose International hopes to have a complete annexation agreement to bring to the committee at its March 29 meeting, Moose Representative Joe Segobiano said.

The committee's continued discussion on the Mooseheart proposal is one in a series of steps needed before it goes to the full City Council. Mooseheart officials want Batavia to annex 420 acres on the east side of Randall Road between Main Street and Mooseheart Road, as well as a 50-acre L-shaped parcel on the northwest corner of Randall and Orchard roads.

The charitable group plans to have different types of building projects on the land, possibly including commercial and high-density residential developments. This growth would go on to support the orphanage and school on the rest of the Moosheart property.

High Electricity Costs Raise Committee Concerns

Annexation of the Mooseheart area south of Mill Creek carries a high electrical cost of about $8 million to $10 million. The city would need to install a new substation to accommodate the area. Neither the city nor Mooseheart can foot the bill. There’s a few options to resolve this issue including:

• a matrix system where the cost is shared between Mooseheart developers and the city
• ComEd, which is currently serving Mooseheart

The organization will continue to discuss and come up with a plan to resolve this electric services issue.

Disconnect Agreement  

The Committee wants to make sure that Mooseheart is held accountable to the agreement and cannot detach to annex instead with North Aurora. City Administrator Bill McGrath explained to Batavia Patch that there needs to be a disconnect contract within the whole annexation agreement, so the city has a way to get out of the annexation agreement if they can’t benefit from the plan.

Segobiano said that Mooseheart would be locked in to the agreement with Batavia and has no desire to go elsewhere.

Mooseheart and the city have been trying to hammer out an annexation agreement for about two-and-a-half years, Segobiano said.

The city needs to draft an annexation agreement with Mooseheart before the boundary agreement between North Aurora and Batavia expires in 2023. That way they control what goes in that area and are ready for any issues that come up when the area is developed, Mayor Jeff Schielke said.

In the boundary agreement North Aurora agrees it will not annex land north of Mooseheart Road and west of Orchard Road and Batavia will not annex land south of Mooseheart Road.   

Mayor Delves into City's History

Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke reminded the committee that the city has had a 100-year relationship with Moose International.

Batavia’s history shows benefits can be earned from annexing land. In the early 1960s many people criticized the annexation of 1,500 acres into Batavia, which included the site of the current north-side industrial park, Schielke said.

Full development of the Mooseheart project would happen over a long period of time similar to the industrial park. Many people doubted the success of the park and extension of the sanitary sewer, but now there are 80 industries represented in the park with 3,500 jobs, Schielke said.

It wasn’t until the early 2000s when the vision of development in that area came true. It may take 40 years before Mooseheart is developed, but with annexation the city is prepared for future growth, Schielke said.

Alderman Dawn Tenuta agrees with Schielke.

“(Mooseheart) fits into Batavia," Tenuta said. "I’d like to see it in Batavia.”

Mooseheart hopes they can bring a complete annexation agreement for a full City Council vote in May.