Residents give input on Nike Park ideas

Naperville residents expressed both kudos and concerns to the park district Wednesday night at a forum on Nike Sports Complex improvements.

Park district officials presented a concept plan at the meeting for developing the 20 acres it recently purchased adjacent to the existing park at Mill Street and Diehl Road.

The plan calls for eight tennis courts, two basketball courts, a bike path and several multi-purpose athletic fields. One of the fields will have synthetic grass to make it more usable after bad weather conditions.

Under the proposal, the site would also have a large playground and a park support building with picnic shelter, small concession area, storage space and restrooms. There would also be parking adjacent to the athletic fields to make them accessible to handicapped spectators.

Eric Shutes, director of planning, said feedback gathered over summer 2007 helped identify what should be included in the master plan.

For the athletes in town, the site looks promising.

Brett Strang, director of coaching for the Galaxy Soccer Club, said practice space is limited for the club's 35 teams so he is pleased to see new fields at the Nike site.

"There's definitely a need, especially for more athletic fields with soccer, football and lacrosse," he said. "A lot of organizations are excited about the synthetic field because of possibilities of being able to use it, having a good surface to play on. You don't have to worry so much about rain outs."

The park district is considering using Bauer Road as an access point to the park, which concerns some nearby residents who say there is already too much traffic on that road.

"We fought tooth and nail not to have major traffic volume added to Bauer Road, which is an unimproved road with no sidewalks where kids walk," resident Allan Powell said. "You've got Mill Street (Elementary School), you've got the high school, and kids winter and summer are walking along that gravel garbage trying to avoid cars. It's terrible."

Mill Street can also be used for access, but Shutes said doing so would cost about $500,000 more because of the road widening that would be required.

In June, the park district paid $8 million for the land. Shutes said the improvements would likely cost another $6 million to $8 million and the park district plans to apply for an Open Space Lands Acquisition and Development grant through the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to help fund the project.

Brett Flickinger, president of the Exchange Club, was also in attendance Wednesday to scope out the site as a possible place to hold Ribfest in the future if there comes a time it cannot use Knoch Park. While the Nike site would pose some challenges, like having a road down its middle, it would also provide more parking, he said.

"We're just looking at alternatives at this point," Flickinger said. "It's a good event for the city to fight child abuse, and we'd like to keep it in Naperville, but there aren't a lot of open spaces left for us, so this is one to consider."

Throughout February, the park district will continue to seek feedback from residents and will also be looking into the possibility of annexing the land into the city. It hopes to break ground in 2009.