To reduce permitting cost and time for smaller developers, some cities, such as Kalamazoo, MI, have started offering a catalogue of free pre-approved building plans for small scale development. This gives the city some leeway to weigh in on acceptable building practices, while also greatly enabling incremental development and also reducing staff review time.

Modern zoning codes often lock cities in amber, preventing incremental change while also contributing to the housing affordability crisis. As a result, when changes do come, they tend to be big changes all at once, since only at that scale can bureaucratic inertia be overcome. Many cities in the Midwest are overhauling their zoning codes to make the next smallest level of development possible, allowing cities to grow naturally and healthily again.

A great city is built by the hands of many. While large developers often have the advantage, some cities have worked to cultivate an ecosystem of small developers to create more tailored infill buildings in their communities. By helping provide organizational and financial support, as well as key reforms, we can again help Batavians continue to build Batavia.

Batavia is already blessed with a solid bus line along the Fox River valley, but lacks the development to truly support it. By oriented larger developments along the existing bus corridor in downtown, we can improve our downtown’s vitality while making better use of existing transportation infrastructure.

Bikeability goes beyond just recreation. A good bike network enables cycling to act as a real transportation option, providing accessible mobility to people of all ages and ability throughout our town, while also affordably reducing the strain on the rest of our transportation system.