Batavia info/ reputation / area info wanted (Chicago, Wheaton: apartments, lease, mortgages)

[movingalot]

We are thinking of possibly relocating to Batavia (from out of state) to an area called Tanglewood which is beautiful. We did not get a chance to really explore Batavia when we were house hunting. But I did like the country feel I got when looking in Tanglewood. I am familiar with Geneva to the north and its reputation and what it has to offer etc. But don't know a whole lot about Batavia. My husband will be commuting to Lombard. How is 88? Does the HS have a good reputation? Looked at test scores, but they don't always tell the whole story. I will take any info I can get. We have young children and I want to live in a community that is family friendly with good demographics.

[Steve-o]

Where in Batavia is Tanglewood? Never heard of it before. Back to Batavia.... its ok I guess. There are some areas of town that are old and kinda run-down, but not that bad. The downtown area is decent, with some decent restaurants and a nice park just north of downtown along the river. Dont know much about the high school, so I cant comment there. I think Geneva is a far better community though, but its also alot more expensive.

[sgresident]

Batavia has been a growing community. parts of it are not that good and others are great. I don't know where tanglewood is either! there are a lot of newer areas just off of kirk road, not too far from fermilab. there is a walmart going up on kirk. the middle school is located on the far east side of batavia and the high school on the far west side. don't know much about the elementary schools. I know the high school is pretty crowded. don't think they have too much gang issues/etc. sports teams are very good and competitive.(they play in the same conference as Kaneland, which sugar grove residents attend). lots of good shopping along randall. I have no idea on taxes, but you should be able to check the kane county website for some info. I would definitely check the entire area. geneva, batavia, sugar grove and maybe even elburn. Prices for homes in the entire area are pretty much the same. travel to the east on I88 is fine. you can get from sugar grove to naperville road in 30 minutes(sometimes less)! hope the info helps.

[gardener34]

Kane county taxes are on the high side. Although dupage cty where lombard is the same.
Why don't you look in wheaton which is closer to lombard yet?

Kane county has a link on their website for tax rates you can check a specific address. I have not heard anything BAD about the high school. I have friends that send their kid there. I have heard that it is crowded and they are looking to expand it. But that is pretty typical of a lot of kane county school districts.

[irish setter girl]

I think Tanglewood is a lovely area. Friends of mine built in there a few years ago. The private pool is very nice too! Great builders and really nice quality homes are in Tanglewood. In my own personal opinion I think Batavia is getting better every year. In the 80's it didn't have the best reputation and the high school was so-so. With all the urban sprawl the past 15 years Batavia is getting better. The grade schools are crowded but most are out there. You have every type of retail possible on Randall Road. I find that people who live out there really like it. The demographics have changed over time and you will find that families like yourself are what you see the most, especially on the far west side. Things change a little as you move east closer to town, however, there are some very nice areas on the far east side. If possible, the next time you are in the area visit the school, meet with the principal and hang out in Tanglewood to see what it is like during the day/weekend. You'll get a good snap shot that way. The commute to Lombard wouldn't be bad. You are close to 88 if you move into Tanglewood. You'll certainly get the most house for your money but your taxes will be high. Someone mentioned Wheaton and I'd agree that you would love it but if you are looking for a Tanglewood type home in Wheaton you'll pay quite a bit more. Another option would be Winfield with Wheaton Schools. Prices will be better and so will the taxes and the communte to Lombard would not be bad at all! Good luck to you.

[rrah]

movingalot--I lived in a neighborhood adjacent to Tanglewood Hills-directly north--backs up to the creek. (It was built a few years before Tanglewood came into being) I can't tell you how many meetings I attended regarding the Tanglewood development. (for those of you that haven't heard of it--just west of Randall Rd off, south of Main St.) It was an interesting concept with the smaller lots and more open space, etc. I haven't been back to see it in about 4 years. I did enjoy a membership at the pool the first summer it was open. Nice facility with great family ammenties.

I thought the schools were pretty good at the time. (my children attended Gustafson until their last semester there.) I don't know if they still teach Spanish in the elementary schools, but they did at the time. I thought that was awesome! The children in Tanglewood attend the new McWayne, which you will want to look at very carefully. It's not a typical school but focused on Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences. The district was VERY commited to this at the time so I'm assuming it's not changed. Friends still there tell me the HS and MS is overcrowded. I know there was a recent referendum to expand, but I don't know if it passed. If so, expect taxes to go up again. I've also heard that McWayne is at or beyond capacity. This was not expected. (I know this because I worked extensively with the school board to study the need for McWayne and the other school that was built at the time. Based on the best available data at the time, we believed those two schools would more than cover elementary needs for many years.)

We did love living in Batavia. The town definitely had a small town feel if you took the time to enjoy it. People were friendly and involved with their community. Downsides for us were the high taxes, the constant growth along Randall Rd, and even the building of Tanglewood Hills, which was kind of an indication of the way the town was moving.

I would expect a commute of about 45-60 minutes--dependiing upon location in Lombard.

Steve-0 Geneva's got nothing on Tanglewood Hills when it comes to prices.--Single family homes start in the high 600's and go on up to over a million.

[soy1998]

I lived in Batavia for 15 years & Tanglewood Hills for 5 years. Batavia itself is a very nice, community-oriented small town. My family thrived there. We moved away & returned to Tanglewood Hills. That was a different story in itself. The subdivision is beautiful, lovely landscaping & homes. Quite a mix of people from locals moving up, & a lot of transferrees. I have never met such a more arrogant bunch of young (30's-40'S) keep-up-with the Jonesers. Although the pool is a nice amenity, it's only 10-12 weeks per year. What's amazing to me is that most of the pompous asses who lived there were women, the men were too busy working & their lazy assed wives would spend all day lounging at the pool, making fun of other residents, & expecting lifeguards to babysit their kids & when they didn't, try to get them fired. Then their sleezeball husbands would leer at the teenage lifeguards.
They would complain about the areas surrounding Tanglewood (Big Woods-lowly $450-500K homes as if they were somebody. Considering that most of the mortgages were over $500k with sizeable seconds, we know that all it takes is just one job loss & the xxx will hit the fan. Can we say credit crunch?
The neighbors were critical of the school which was established as a satellite school, the first in the district to have all-day kindergarten & after school daycare also in 1993. Well as it grew, the neighbors resented the non-Tanglewood kids in the school - which was there before they got there.
I would return to Batavia, & I would return to Tanglewood Hills for the right price. But I would never criticize a neighbor for driving a Taurus when I drive a leased Mercedes that my husband pays for & I had the job skill set to work in Target when my husband leaves me for a younger woman when I am in my 40's. I think you get my drift on how pretentious the neighborhood is. Ironically as one neighbor was leaving, she told me how people dressed up to drop their kids off at birthday parties. The gossiping & pettiness reminded me of high school. The worst offenders were not professionals, they were the proverbial "stay at home" moms.

[Doriano]

I live in Batavia, well now in Chicago cause I'm in Loyola, but I can say when I left High School, it was a bit crowded! Excelent teachers but the school needs to be bigger! Rotolo Middle School is bigger than Batavia High! Ridiculous! I love the town, lived there for like 15 years as well! It's a charming little town, the West Side is wealthier than the East. But I live in the East and we have our nice sides, we have Mahoney Creek where I played when I was younger and it was a great place to grow up! The district of Batavia did some programme to bring in Inner-City families to incorpoate into middle class America, and placed them in Batavia Apartments, once a multi-cultural charming place, and then a year after this happened Batavia started to see gang activities. Over the past 3 years this has greatly downsized! It is more culturally diverse than Geneva, Sugar Grove and St. Charles (Maybe St. Charles not). Not as WASPy! In the school I would hear all different types of languages. Many black families that have lived there for ages. We all contribute to the community. There is defenitely a sense of community in the town, it's small and the downtown is starting to grow strong especially with the menace from Wal-Mart on East and West (Kirk and Randall Roads). Fermilab is sadly closed to the public but you could be able to see the Buffalo run wild and go to Fermilab, known in the scientific world as "The Center of the Universe"...Batavia is reffered to this by them as well for Fermilab is in Batavia. Batavia, the Windmill City, City of Energy, great place, lots of nice houses, some designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Mary Todd Lincoln lived in Batavia and Bellevue Place is gorgeous, she opened an avenue so she could see down to the Fox River. We are getting a new bridge and it's supposed to look beautiful. We have Sunday Markets in downtown, an excelent greek style library which is amazing, windmills everywhere, the Fox River, a couple haunted houses, great places to eat and shop, Park District is very active, great parks for children, schools are top notch and the teachers are great, I dunno! it's a great place to raise a family I think and Tangelwood is awesome. I have many friends there and the place is very well planned, look like castles!

[sgresidentt]

Batavia has been a growing community. parts of it are not that good and others are great. I don't know where tanglewood is either! there are a lot of newer areas just off of kirk road, not too far from fermilab. there is a walmart going up on kirk. the middle school is located on the far east side of batavia and the high school on the far west side. don't know much about the elementary schools. I know the high school is pretty crowded. don't think they have too much gang issues besides that i have seen maybe 1 or 2 kids with funky "mohawks" /etc. sports teams are very good and competitive.(they play in the same conference as Kaneland, which sugar grove residents attend). lots of good shopping along randall. I have no idea on taxes, but you should be able to check the kane county website for some info. I would definitely check the entire area. geneva, batavia, sugar grove and maybe even elburn. Prices for homes in the entire area are pretty much the same. travel to the east on I88 is fine. you can get from sugar grove to naperville road in 30 minutes(sometimes less)! hope the info helps.

[chet everett]

No offense, but why live in Batavia if you going to work in Lombard? There are dozen towns closer to Lombard that have pricing that is more attractive than the section of Batavia you are considering and better overall schools to boot...

Personally I hate hate hate hate HOAs with pools as every damned one that I have ever come across has been a huge money sucking nightmare. PEOPLE: this is CHICAGO, the ground FREEZES into concrete for month at a time here!
I much prefer towns with decent park district/Village pools, where at least the taxes of a great big area can moderate any sudden costly problem and they can afford a real pro to winterize the thing early enough so that it is not constantly breaking down.

I completely agree with the underlying tone of soy1998's post regarding most "master planned communities" and while it might sound a bit over-the-top I have personally seen many that were much worse. From the "this school was built FOR US" to the showiness and detached parenting I think the whole marketing effort that most big developers put into getting the initial residents hooked into a myth is despicable. Fortunately as these places cycle through subsequent non-original owners they become more and more like regular neighborhoods, so maybe all the "up to my eyeballs in debt"-types that bought into the original marketing hype have been flushed out...

BTW My cousin used to raise competitive border collies in that area and she had a big piece of property with pygmy goats for the dogs to practice herding. You can image how popular she was with the "leased Mercedes" crowd...