Those who live in the Wheatland South neighborhood, a cluster of homes in unincorporated Will County near Naperville’s southern reaches, like to talk about the wandering fox they’ve seen, the stars they enjoy at night and the rural peace and quiet of the area.
They don’t like to talk about Frontier Park.
That’s the name being proposed for a still-undeveloped, 131-acre swath of former farmland north and west of the neighborhood, a site that runs between Illinois Highway 59 and Book Road south of Neuqua Valley High School and 95th Street.
Plans for the park include 12 soccer fields, 12 baseball diamonds, three basketball courts, concession stands, a playground, sand volleyball lots, courts for in-line skating and parking for more than 900 cars. Many of the park’s fields are expected to be lighted for night games.
Residents of the neighborhood off Book Road are calling the proposed Frontier Park “a monstrosity,” more a grassy “Great America” than any park they’ve seen.
But Naperville Park District officials said the $2.5 million recreational site is a necessity in one of the fastest-growing zones in one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. They hope to complete the project in the next few years.
“Right now we have two soccer fields south of 95th Street, an area where we eventually expect to add another 25,000 residents,” said Joe Schultz, the district’s executive director. “That equates to demand.”
But Frontier Park’s neighbors remain terrified of it. The residents have said they envision hundreds of cars clogging streets, lights polluting their night skies, the noise of thousands of players and fans, and park-goers wandering into their yards.
Residents like Chris Yonan said they had been told for many months the area bordering their homes would one day be a park. And when bulldozers began grading the area last year, Yonan said neighbors envisioned a few soccer fields and maybe a baseball diamond or two.
“We said, `Well, it’s a really big area,’ ” Yonan said. “We had no idea they’d try to fill every square inch of it.”
The mailer that arrived at some neighborhood homes at the end of May inviting residents to an annexation hearing for the park site opened the door on a summer of discontent for neighbors. Residents got a look at the plans for the park they now call a major sports complex, and sounded an alarm, banding together in a group known as the Concerned Citizens Neighborhood Preservation Society.
The group and the Naperville Park District have held a series of meetings to iron out their differences, and will meet again Aug. 17. The Naperville City Council has made it clear the city is not interested in hearing about a plan to bring the park into the city’s boundaries until the Park District and its neighbors come to terms. The council may weigh a partial annexation plan early next month.
The district has offered to consider moving lights away from fields that will be installed near residences, and has committed to placing a berm, landscaping and an eight-foot, wooden barrier fence on the park’s border.
David Knight, the district’s superintendent of planning services, said the district also will issue reports on the potential impact of lighting, noise and traffic.
Wheatland South resident Kelli Lord said the concessions are a step in the right direction.
“We wish it was just going to be a few picnic tables and maybe a little walking path,” Lord said. “But it’s pretty clear that’s not what is going to happen.”
The Park District acquired the land for the park in two pieces, according to Dennis Ulrey, a deputy director for the district. The 60 acres south and southeast of the high school were acquired through negotiation in 1995, he said, while the remaining 71 acres were brought under district control through condemnation proceedings in 1996. The school is expected to use the fields for sports practices, park officials said, in return for the district getting access to indoor facilities at Neuqua Valley.
So what burns Lord the most about the park plans? The fact that, as someone who does not live in Naperville, she’ll have to pay non-resident fees if she wants to enjoy a district program there.
“And it’s in our own backyards,” she said.
Ulrey said that’s true, but anyone is welcome to use the fields when organized activities are not taking place. The district expects nearby residents to wander onto the park space to jog or kick a soccer ball around with their kids, Ulrey said.
“Any resident of the United States, or the world for that matter, can come in and use this park,” he said.
