Mooseheart, City Continue to Hash Out Annexation Plan

Officials on June 14 made some more progress with an annexation agreement between Batavia and Mooseheart.

The city will open a public hearing today, June 20, and then immediately continue it to July 5. No testimony will be taken at the June 20 meeting, according to the City of Batavia website.

Residents will know more about the pending annexation agreements by the July 5 date. In the meantime, the two parties will try to finalize the last details.

The agreement calls for the city and Mooseheart to pay for the electrical infrastructure improvements needed to service the southern area of Mooseheart property.

Mooseheart is also willing to assist the city in paying for the sanitary sewer expansion, said Joe Segobiano, Mooseheart representative, at the June 14 committee meeting.

For the last 2.5 years, city officials and Moose International have worked on annexing 470 acres of the Mooseheart property into Batavia. The charitable group plans to add commercial and high-density residential developments on the land to help support the Mooseheart orphanage and school.

Here's a summary of unresolved annexation agreement issues discussed on June 14 at a Community Development Committee meeting:

Preserving Natural Areas

Plan Commission Vice-Chair Karen Kosky thinks the Mooseheart agreement should provide more protection to natural areas that surround the Mill Creek corridor. She spoke at the June 14 meeting.

This natural area has many good plants and trees and it is home to animals such as eagles, deers and coyotes, Kosky said.

To protect the wildlife the city needs to increase the stormwater management beyond the Kane County Stormwater Ordinance and create a conservation easement to act as a buffer between Mooseheart developments and nature, Kosky said.

The Kane County Conservation Foundation is also in favor of protecting the natural environment to maintain Mill Creek’s water quality.

Although Mooseheart is opposed to putting in a conservation easement, its intent is to protect the area, Segobiano said.

Residents who spoke during the meeting said the city has an opportunity to make a difference with this issue and provide proper river protection.

Park and School Donation

Mooseheart has mentioned 20 acres south of the West Fire Station that would go to the Batavia Park District and West Aurora and Batavia school districts. The land contribution could increase if the residential land density rose higher than expected.

City officials and Mooseheart still need to agree on when the land contribution will occur. Typically the land contribution is given after a final plat is created describing the property boundaries, Segobiano said.

Calculating Sewage Costs

Still pending is the issue of how the city will measure Mooseheart’s sewage usage. Mooseheart proposed installing meters to measure the allocated 1,525 Population Equivalents (PE) sewage capacity, in accordance with Illinois Environmental Protection Agency standards. 

Public Works Director Gary Holm argued the meter doesn’t account for infiltration such as rain water, nor does it reflect the flow changes throughout different seasons. The state standards may be conservative, but it prevents sewage from overflowing the city, he said.

Alderman Alan Wolff agrees with Holm—the city should be conservative to stop Mooseheart from overdeveloping.  

“If we go to a system where they follow purely the IEPA rules ... we basically allocate more PE to the site," Holm said. "I think that’s a good compromise for (Mooseheart)."

Increasing Mooseheart’s property sewage would ease the group's fears of not being able to fully develop their property with a low sewage capacity.  

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