No idea will be turned away in brainstorm for Naperville land

Consider it a fantasy camp for wannabe land planners.

Naperville's League of Women Voters and the Naperville Area Homeowners Confederation are sponsoring a gathering next weekend to cull thoughts, ideas, opinions, concerns and possibilities for the 212-acre Caroline Martin Mitchell property near downtown.

"It's a giant brainstorming session," said Judy Brodhead, president of the local League of Women Voters chapter. "There hasn't been much of an outlet for public input up to this point in dealing with all the land there."

The meeting will be from 8 to 10 a.m. Nov. 10 in the council chambers at city hall, 400 S. Eagle St.

The forum sprung from recent discussions among city, park and school district officials over possibly building a new high school on park land within the property boundaries.

"The whole idea is that we have a very interesting set of problems right in the core of Naperville," Brodhead said, "and I can't think of any other spot where we have so many different uses and such a complicated history of ownership with three different taxing bodies that all have something at stake."

The parcel was deeded to the city for "public use" in 1936. Since then, Naperville Central High School has been built on a portion, Naper Settlement resides on a sizable chunk, Knoch Park takes up a large section, Naperville Cemetery uses the property, and several other entities have facilities on the land.

Officials from the various taxing bodies have been notified of the meeting, but organizers want to keep the format loose in an effort to amass as much data from the public as possible and not stifle any opinions.

"We're trying to come up with as many possibilities as we can to help determine how is the best way to use this property to benefit everybody in Naperville," said Bob Hofmann, a former confederation board member who is helping organize the meeting. "We don't want to take anything off the table, so we want to throw everything out there to see what makes the most sense to everybody."

City and park officials said they have no plans to send any representatives to the meeting. Naperville Unit District 203 officials said they plan to have someone there to hear what residents have to say.