The Batavia Park District has a referendum on the ballot for the March 17, 2020 General Primary (early voting has started at the Kane County Clerk’s Office ONLY; widespread early voting begins March 3). They are asking taxpayers to approve $27 million in bonds to build a Batavia Activities and Recreation Center (BARC). The bonds are estimated to cost the owner of a $300,000 home $178/yr in additional taxes for 20 years. Plus there will be more taxes to operate it (their optimistic pro forma has it 91% funded by user fees, rising to 93% in 6 years–never 100%). Then there will be more cost to use it.

Batavia Park District’s referendum information here: https://bataviaparks.org/2020-referendum .  Fee schedule here, beginning on p. 51 (53/62): https://bataviaparks.org/upload/BARCBusinessPlan_.pdf   NOTE: be sure to add $178 (or whatever your bond share will be, roughly $60 per $100,000 property value) to the annual fee costs. So the $700 annual Family Pass Combo is really $700 + $178 = $878 + ? taxes to cover what fees do not.

The BARC would be located on the east side of the river, off of Rt. 25, just south of Funway. It would have an 8-lane lap pool, 1 indoor artificial turf field, 1 multi-purpose (e.g., basketball) court, walking/running track, group wellness/fitness area (with limited cardio equipment), a warming kitchen, and meeting rooms. It is not designed to be a drop-in gym like XSport Fitness. Hours of availability for paid general use vs. Park District programming and rentals have not been specified as of this writing.