Dustin Pieper For Batavia 4th Ward: Candidate Survey

BATAVIA, IL — Three people are running to represent Batavia's 4th Ward as alderperson.

Dustin Pieper and Doug Eldrenkamp are facing each other for the seat with a four-year term, and Tony Malay is running unopposed for the two-year unexpired term.

The mayoral role as well as one alderperson seat in Wards 1, 2, 5 and 6 and two seats in Wards 3, 4 and 7 are up for grabs next month. All positions are four-year terms except one seat in Ward 3, 4 and 7, which are unexpired two-year terms.

RELATED: Batavia 2025 Consolidated Election: Who Filed For Mayor, Alderperson

Patch sent surveys to Batavia candidates ahead of the election. Responses will be published as they're received. Take a look at Pieper's answers below:

Your name: Dustin Pieper

Office sought: City Council

Campaign website: www.PickPieper.com

Town of residence: Batavia

Party affiliation (if partisan race): No answer

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government? This includes any relatives who work in the government you're running for. No.

Occupation: Electrical Engineer, 10 years experience

Previous or current elected or appointed office: Batavia City Councilman - 4th Ward

The most pressing issues facing Batavia are _______, and this is what I intend to do about them. Like much of America, Batavia is currently going through a housing and development crisis. Housing prices are skyrocketing, drastically affecting the cost of living for our existing residents, while also making it impossible for new residents to move in and become part of our fine town.

To be blunt, there's no silver bullet to help alleviate this problem, but instead a lot of smaller but impactful reforms will be necessary. Instead of relying on massive developers to deliver housing, many cities, especially in the Midwest, have worked to cultivate an ecosystem of incremental developers. In other words, through zoning reforms, improved processes, financing opportunities, and new support structures, these cities have added housing by encouraging and training local residents to build alongside the existing housing stock. I would like to see similar efforts here in Batavia, and have already started initial discussions among members of Council to pursue such a strategy, with the hope that Batavia might be built by Batavians.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post? To start, I have the advantage of being on Council for two years now, meaning that I have built up a fair amount of experience in the role. Public office is unlike many other challenges and requires an incredibly wide breadth of knowledge and skills, and can often only truly be learned by doing. Aside from that, however, I have spent much of my life taking great interest in the workings of cities and towns, and am well-studied in the problems and common pitfalls facing American cities today. My hope is to continue to use this knowledge to steer Batavia toward success that can last for decades to come.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)? N/A

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform. My platform has four key planks. Walkable urbanism, fiscal sustainability, incremental development, and environmental stewardship. For walkable urbanism, this would entail both better and more comprehensive infrastructure for walking and biking in town, but also developmental land use that helps make walking and biking more enjoyable and practical as a serious mode of transportation. For incremental development, I mean making it easier for small-scale developers, especially among our own citizens, to building infill housing and businesses in town, through zoning reform, micro-financing opportunities, and partnerships to create support networks for local citizens to better approach local development. For fiscal sustainability, my focus is on long-term decision-making and encouraging productive development to ensure a healthy tax base that corresponds well with supporting infrastructure and services. And finally, for environmental sustainability, I'm looking again at better land use to reduce sprawl into natural areas, while also improving our urban ecosystem through naturalized infrastructure.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job? Aside from the fact that I've already been doing the job for the past two years, I'd probably point to the knowledge I've gained learning about topics of city planning and development over the last many years. I by no means have a professional level understanding of the subjects of course, but I take great interest in the workings of cities and what new policies are being tried across the country and world. In the past several years, I've been very involved with the Strong Towns organization, which advocates for reducing car dependence, promoting productive development patterns, and ensuring long-term fiscal sustainability of towns. I've also been a strong advocate for localism and a more well-distributed economic system to help better promote small and employee-owned businesses. All in all, I'm simply passionate about policy!

Why should voters trust you? When you boil it down, most of my motivation in running for office is because I simply find topics of city planning and management to be fascinating, and I want to apply my knowledge practically at the local level. I have a passion for understanding what makes a city a great place, and want to work hard to try and achieve that vision. My number one focus especially is to unlock opportunities for everyday citizens to make a mark on the town, as well as ensure the longevity of the town through the decades. It's something I hope everybody can be a part of.

If you win this position, what accomplishment would make your term in office as a success? I would say having more housing downtown and a better east/west connection for biking and walking across town, at least as the most visible accomplishments. Having more local businesses is a key aspect, as well.

What are your views on fiscal policy, government spending and the handling of taxpayer dollars in the office you are seeking? The real key to fiscal sustainability in local government is encouraging productive development and right-sizing infrastructure to existing development. In most American cities, new developments are accepted uncritically, at least from a financial standpoint. That is, they tend to be seen as simply an immediate tax windfall, without taking into account long-term infrastructure and service costs to maintain that new development decades down the road. If you can better balance those two aspects, city finance becomes a lot stabler in the long term, which opens up new opportunities, either through new services, better infrastructure, or reduced taxes, depending on what citizens prefer.

What are your thoughts on the crime rate in your community, and what more can be done to combat crime — especially violent crime — in town? Batavia is fortunate to be a very low crime town, which I contribute to our strong sense of community. While all places will have incidents of crime, a town where citizens have strong social connections, healthy activity, and prosperity for all are well insulated to crime, both by generating less of it and being well prepared when it does come up. In addition to the social side of it, my experience with the police department here has been positive, with a clear mission towards not only enforcement, but also advocacy and support for those struggling. I also applaud the bicycle police program for helping make our police officers more visible to the public in a personable way, as well as the work the police department has done with community outreach and charity work with the Special Olympics. That being said, true neighborhood safety takes a cohesive approach throughout our society, and thus needs to be considered in all of our decisions.

What is your view of the village's approach to commercial and residential development? The city's approach to commercial and residential development is fairly typical of most American towns, which is to say that it often features land use regulations that make it hard to do the historically normal small-scale developments that created a lot of the town's older developments, and thus ends up relying on the larger scale developments people are most familiar with. This certainly isn't unique to Batavia, but I fear that it's still holding us back from more desirable and affordable forms of development.

When it comes to development, what are some key areas for improvement or additions you feel are most wanted by residents? What will need to be done to make this happen? I think a fairly common concern is around continued development of the downtown area. While it's got a lot of excellent and unique amenities, a lot of spots in downtown still sit empty and under-utilized. While there's certainly some consternation about some more out-of-scale developments, I think a key part of alleviating the downtown vacancies is encouraging more residential development downtown, including apartments. Batavia is a high-demand city surrounded by well-paying technical and professional jobs, and there are a lot of young professionals who would love to live here but simply can't find a place to live. Having more housing in downtown would give folks like this a chance to join our community, while also acting as a natural consumer base for our downtown businesses. Other than that, having more connectivity across our town would make it easier for some of the more far-flung residents to get to our downtown, especially if we improve our multi-modal facilities. Finally, and this may be a bit more ambitious, but I have heard interest for a renewal of some small retail businesses in neighborhoods, such as corner stores and small cafes. That would certainly be a bigger discussion, though.

Is there any reason you would not serve your full term of office, other than those of health or family? At this stage in life, I don't believe there would be any reason I wouldn't be able to serve a full term. I'm already well-acclimated to the demands of the role, and I have a fair amount of stability in my present situation.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions? At the end of the day, I'm a localist sort of person who just wants everyone in town to have access to opportunities. I love our small businesses, I love the cooperative and collaborative spirit that has grown in our community, and I want to do everything I can to help foster that. Batavia is a unique town with an incredibly rich history, and I hope we can all be a part of it.