Letter: Proposed Batavia Riverfront Parking Garage Is the Wrong Call

To the editor: I have attended Batavia City Council meetings for the better part of three decades, and I cannot recall a proposal more tone-deaf than the four-story parking garage now being floated for the riverfront site at Wilson Street and North River Street. At Monday's committee of the whole session, Alderman Rick Delaney presented the concept as a solution to downtown parking complaints. What it actually represents is a concrete monument to the kind of short-sighted thinking that has already ruined too many river towns in this state.

Let me be clear about what we would be giving up. The parcel in question sits forty yards from the Fox River, directly adjacent to the Riverwalk extension that volunteers — myself included — spent two summers helping to landscape. The city's own 2023 comprehensive plan calls that stretch a 'priority greenspace corridor.' Now we are told a 340-space garage pencils out better than the mixed-use park pavilion that was originally envisioned for the site. Since when did penciling out become the only value Batavia recognizes?