Naperville Park District to decide whether to ask voters for $120 million to build rec center

Naperville Park District commissioners will decide Thursday if they will ask voters for $120 million to build a new activity center — a proposal that is already drawing opposition from the Fry Family YMCA.

The park district is proposing an indoor recreation center at the Frontier Sports Complex on the city’s south end. The proposed center would have indoor pools. Centennial Beach, a seasonal pool, is currently the district’s only swimming facility.

Park officials point to surveys indicating a desire for additional indoor facilities, not just pools. The youth gymnastics programs at Fort Hill Activity Center, which opened less than a decade ago, had over 1,000 participants on wait lists last year, officials said. Additionally, several facilities with indoor pools have closed in recent years, including the Kroehler Family YMCA, a fitness center on the main Edward Hospital campus and an LA Fitness.

However, officials from the Fry Family YMCA are questioning the plans, noting that its facility is just 3,800 feet from the proposed park district center.

“Responding to the closures of community-focused fitness facilities and pools in central Naperville by building a large, $120 million, 3-pool aquatic facility next to existing ones doesn’t solve the problem — it creates new challenges,” Erika Wood, executive director of the Fry Family YMCA, wrote in a letter to the park board.

According to the park district, the owner of a $500,000 home would pay an estimated $117 more a year in property taxes to the district if the $120 million bond question is placed on the March ballot and voters approve it.

Wood said the two organizations have worked together in the past to provide services and make the best use of the community’s resources and urged the district to hit pause on the plans.

“Avoiding the costly duplication of facilities and programming has served Naperville well and has likewise enhanced the community’s quality of life,” Wood wrote. “That is why we question whether the current proposal is the right one to pursue.”

She added that the proposed center would be roughly 4,100 feet from another private wellness facility that is under construction.

Naperville Park District officials say the property at the Frontier Sports Complex was chosen as the site of the proposed new building because the district already owns it. And there's been significant growth in south Naperville.

“We realize the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago is concerned about how the Park District indoor recreation space in south Naperville will affect the Fry Family YMCA,” the park district said in a statement. “The Park District’s research indicates that there is a need for both the YMCA’s services and also additional facilities and services in south Naperville, and that the community wants and will support both.”

Residents and program participants have repeatedly expressed their desire for more indoor recreation space, including indoor aquatics, with a priority to expand indoor recreation in south Naperville, officials said.

A recent community survey also indicated more than half of the approximately 8,000 residents who responded supported the district's proposal, Executive Director Brad Wilson wrote in a board memo regarding the proposed referendum question.

“Like the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, the Naperville Park District has a specific mission to fulfill — and in the case of the Park District, it takes its orders from its residents,” the district said in the statement.

This fall, the district was considering a larger plan that would have involved a $135 million referendum for the new building and improvements at other sites, including Country Lakes Park and the Nike Sports Complex.

However, officials have since proposed a lower amount based on resident feedback and “tax sensitivities identified through the community survey,” Wilson wrote.

The $120 million would allow for the construction of the new facility and land acquisition to help preserve, restore and maintain open spaces and extend trails, Wilson said.