Public to get peek at Naperville's Nike Park plans

Naperville Park District soon will be clearing trees and underbrush from its Nike Sports Complex to make way for additional athletic fields.

The work is part of a project to develop 20 acres adjacent the existing park at Mill Street and Diehl Road.

The park district will hold a public meeting to discuss the project from 6 to 8 p.m. today at the Barn Recreation Center, 421 W. Martin Ave.

The plan calls for tennis, basketball and volleyball courts, a bike path and several multipurpose athletic fields. The complex also will have a large playground and park support building.

In preparation for creating the new fields and courts, crews will begin site work that involves removing trees and underbrush, which officials say is being done in consultation with certified arborists, engineering consultants and landscape architects.

Some of the trees are already dead or dying while others are either weedy or susceptible to disease, officials say.

The park district paid $8 million for the land in June 2007. Preliminary estimates put the improvement costs at $6 million to $8 million. Groundbreaking is expected within two years.