Naperville athletic fields will have to wait for traffic study

Naperville school and park officials will have an additional hurdle to cross before they can ask the city council for permission to build athletic fields on land currently used for garden plots.

City councilmen want to see a traffic study before they debate the proposal so they have a better understanding of the effect it would have on traffic near Naperville Central High School.

"At certain times of day Edward Hospital is packed. ... At certain times of the day when high school is in and out that's a problem," Councilman Richard Furstenau said Tuesday. "I'm not saying it's going to influence my vote at this point in time but I will say this, before I vote I'm going to have some information besides somebody telling me it's not going to impact anything."

The Naperville Park District will likely be the entity responsible for having a study done since it is the body that leases the land in question from the city, according to City Manager Doug Krieger. He estimates it would cost about $5,000 and could push a vote on the garden plot proposal back about a month to April.

Naperville Unit District 203 and the park district are requesting the city's permission to construct two athletic fields on the south side of the West Street garden plots across from Naperville Central. The proposal would allow 478 of 590 to remain at West Street and create 332 garden plots at DuPage River Park on the south side of the city.

School officials say the athletic fields are needed due to Central's small campus, a growing number of state-sanctioned sports and losing some of the land the district leases from the Naperville Cemetery.

Both the school and park boards have approved the plan despite concerns from gardeners about soil quality, safety and traffic issues. Several of the gardeners spoke out at Tuesday's council meeting, prompting discussion about the issue though it wasn't scheduled to be on the agenda until March 3.

"What kind of mess are we going to have?," resident Warren Gill asked. "More importantly, you're the landowners. Who is going to get the lawsuits if you don't study the traffic?"

Marcie Schatz, director of transportation, engineering and development, said the city didn't plan to require a formal traffic study but was doing its own analysis.

"We are very thoroughly taking a look at (traffic)," she said. "We're looking at access points and how pedestrians as well as vehicles will be getting in and out of the site."

Councilman Kenn Miller said he is not opposed to a traffic study but would rather discuss the matter when it is on the agenda. But the majority of the council voted to move forward on Councilman Joe Dunn's motion directing the staff to require the study.

"I think it would be prudent for whoever is bringing this project before us that they follow the same requirements as any other developer and that one is a traffic study," Councilman Doug Krause said.