Reviving a yearslong disagreement, the city of Batavia is again asking Aurora to remove a gate on Wagner Road off Mesa Lane, which currently cuts off one way of entering and exiting a neighborhood on the edge of Aurora’s border with Batavia.
Batavia says the gate is causing more traffic on its nearby streets, and has floated the possibility of closing Wagner at the city boundary to force Aurora’s hand.
Aurora officials, on the other hand, are asking for more time to find an alternate solution.
At this point, the city of Batavia is holding off on closing Wagner, but is set to reconsider the idea at a meeting in November. Aurora, meanwhile, is holding a town hall meeting later this month for residents of the subdivision in question to share their concerns and talk about potential solutions.
The intersection being discussed is in Aurora’s 1st Ward, on the north end of the city. The neighborhood with the gate, along with the surrounding area, is served by Batavia Public School District 101.
The streets Batavia is pointing to as seeing increased traffic are just north of that intersection, in the southeastern portion of Batavia.
The issue goes back almost two decades, to 2008, when a Walmart and several other stores were constructed on the northwest corner of Kirk and Butterfield roads.
At the time, residents of the Kirkland Farms neighborhood in Aurora worried traffic in the area — including shoppers, garbage collection vehicles and delivery trucks — would travel through their neighborhood as a shortcut if Kirk became too congested.
The Kirkland Farms Homeowners Association, therefore, requested Aurora officials close Wagner Road at Mesa Lane by installing a gate, leaving just one entry point to the subdivision.
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The gate has since forced all traffic to travel through Wagner in Batavia, increasing traffic volume north of the subdivision — along Wagner and Wind Energy Pass — as a result.
In 2014, the average annual daily traffic count on that section of Wagner Road was reported at 1,151, while 2026 figures put that number at a little under 1,100, according to numbers from the city of Batavia.
With the gate, the only way for vehicles to enter the subdivision is through Wind Energy Pass — though the gate can be moved by emergency vehicles.
Batavia’s ire about the gate is not new.
The topic was discussed back in 2015, at which time the city considered asking Aurora to remove the gate and allow traffic to use the subdivision’s south exit.
The cities have continued to meet and consider different solutions since, according to a memo from the city of Batavia.
In 2023, for example, Batavia asked for $2 million annually from Aurora for maintenance, policing and signalization costs due to increased traffic, according to documents from Batavia. The idea of Aurora fronting some of the maintenance costs had been floated by former Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin in a letter a couple months prior to that, documents provided by Batavia suggest.
In 2024, Batavia and Aurora staff met, per the memo, and Aurora staff provided a drawing showing a reconfiguration of the intersection of Wagner and Mesa that would provide limited access once Mesa Drive was extended to the west.
That road connection was not completed until mid-2026, Batavia said in the memo, and is not yet fully open to the public due to ongoing construction. But the changes have not been made to the intersection, the city pointed out.
Just a few months back, in June, Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke sent a letter to Aurora Mayor John Laesch asking to discuss the matter, according to documents from Batavia. They met in July, at which point it was “apparent that the Aurora leadership was not aware of this commitment to open the road and reconfigure the intersection,” the memo from Batavia indicates.
The city of Aurora said it needed to have a public information session and potentially do traffic experiments to further consider the idea, the memo indicates.
But Batavia staff has indicated they feel Aurora is continuing to delay the matter, and that the city has no immediate intention to reopen or reconfigure the intersection.
So, Batavia staff recently proposed giving Aurora an ultimatum: open the gate, or Batavia will close Wagner Road at the boundary between the two cities. Doing so would essentially force Aurora to open the gate at Wagner and Mesa, because it would be the only way for cars to access the subdivision. Batavia could then reopen Wagner once the intersection was reconfigured or the gates permanently removed.
Batavia city documents suggest this is not the first time a gate at the city boundary has been contemplated, though the city has at various points expressed its preference for having no gates at all and allowing traffic to flow in both directions.
Comments by the Batavia City Council on Tuesday at a Committee of the Whole meeting continued to reflect the city’s frustrations.
Ald. Christopher Solfa said the situation’s been one of “constant delay” and “excuses,” indicating his support of closing the road at the city boundary if Aurora won’t open the gate.
“It’s been over a decade,” Solfa said at Tuesday’s meeting.
Ald. Tony Malay, meanwhile, called the neighborhood in question “a gated community, at our (Batavia’s) expense.”
“They’ve been dragging us along that it’s going to get fixed,” Malay said. “There’s been promises made that haven’t materialized. Enough is enough, put a gate up, and let’s be done with this.”
Ald. Abby Beck said that the city “shouldn’t be literally gatekeeping public roads from the public using them.” She also noted the environmental impact of the homeowners in the Kirkland Farms neighborhood having to wind around north to then travel south, adding to the total amount they drive.
Solfa also said that, under the proposed modifications to the intersection, the only way people would be getting into the neighborhood from Kirk Road is by taking a right, thereby limiting the traffic at the southern entrance. He said he thinks the proposed design “alleviates a lot of the concerns of the residents” of the neighborhood, in that it wouldn’t lead to people cutting through to get to places like Walmart.
At the meeting, Ald. Dustin Pieper suggested that, given the concerns about traffic, the city could potentially request a temporary opening of the gate “to see if those concerns actually come to fruition” and they could reconsider if they do.
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Meanwhile, some residents of the Kirkland Farms neighborhood spoke critically of closing off the road at Tuesday’s meeting.
Aurora officials also spoke out during the discussion.
Aurora Ald. Dan Barreiro, 1st Ward, spoke against the opening of the existing gate and suggested Batavia delay its decision and the cities work to find an alternative solution.
Aurora Mayor John Laesch, who also attended the meeting in Batavia, said that the meeting the city had with Batavia included discussion of delaying any changes until Aurora could look at an engineering design for the intersection.
Acknowledging Batavia’s concerns about the cost to keep up its roads, Laesch proposed Aurora work with Batavia to get a “real number” on the resurfacing costs, calling the initially suggested $2 million “grossly inflated.”
From there, Laesch offered an alternative idea: if Aurora residents want to keep the gate in place, the residents of the subdivision can help pay for the costs to maintain Batavia roads through the creation of a special service area.
He also asked for more time for Aurora staff to meet with residents. The city intends to host a town hall at 6 p.m. Oct. 12 at the Aurora Police Department, at 1200 E. Indian Trail Road, to discuss the situation and Batavia’s request that the gate be opened.
Batavia’s original proposal was to give Aurora until Oct. 15 to reopen the gate before closing off Wagner, but some Batavia council members suggested the city wait to allow for more time to discuss and potentially work out an alternative plan.
Ald. Tim Lanci, for example, suggested the city “slow this down” and determine what the actual impact of the situation is first.
And Ald. Kevin Malone said he was open to delaying for a month or two to allow for further discussion.
Ald. Robin Barraza likewise said she’s willing to delay for a short amount of time, but that the cities should agree on a timeline for resolving the issue.
“We don’t want to make enemies of our neighbors, and we don’t want to close off a neighborhood … to force this point,” Barraza said. “However, I do understand that we also aren’t going to let it just get kicked down the road indefinitely.”
Ald. Alan Wolff, who said he’s been around since the issue started, also expressed some concern about Batavia’s threat to put up a gate of its own.
“I detest the idea of a gate,” Wolff said. “I detest the idea of us threatening to put a gate up on the other side of this even more.”
Wolff reiterated that making the entrance open for limited access would resolve the matter, and he suggested waiting on making a decision until after there’s been a discussion with Aurora residents. From there, they could return to the discussion and come to an agreement that would lead to the removal of the gate.
Batavia City Administrator Laura Newman, however, cautioned that, should Batavia opt to continue conversations with Aurora, she is requesting the City Council’s help “holding the feet to the fire on that happening.” She suggested a subsequent meeting in a public forum.
Malay suggested putting a gate up on Dec. 1, to allow for two months to resolve the issue.
The committee ultimately moved to postpone the matter to discuss it again at its first meeting in November.