D. Douglas Thomas had a problem trying to schedule a pingpong tournament a few years ago.
There was no place to have it in Naperville.
So his group, which was part of the park district’s New Horizons seniors program, went to Wheaton instead.
“I was upset,” Thomas says. “We had to go out of town because we didn’t have the facilities.”
As Naperville’s population continues to grow, so does the need for indoor recreation space, park leaders say.
They expect a recreation master plan the district is compiling – which should be done by the end of the year – to confirm a belief that Naperville is land-rich but facilities-poor when it comes to recreation.
The plan, park leaders say, will tell them what most residents want and provide a road map for future programs and facilities.
They haven’t talked specifics, but park users already have thrown out ideas, including building a central sports facility with amenities such as an indoor swimming pool, fitness center and basketball and volleyball courts.
“We’re a very large suburb, a very wealthy suburb, and we have nothing,” resident Jerry Stoeckigt said at a recent park forum. “Naperville is really behind the ball when it comes to a central sports core facility.”
Land-rich
Naperville Park District’s focus in past decades has been on acquiring – instead of developing – land, officials say.
The district maintains more than 155 parks and facilities, including Centennial Beach and two golf courses, totaling more than 2,500 acres.
Its priority on acquiring space while it was still available, even during periods of tremendous growth, made it one of the best communities in the state when it came to planning for the future, said Ted Flickinger, president of the Illinois Association of Park Districts.
Now it needs to catch up on developing that land, he said.
In a town known for setting trends, a perceived shortage of indoor space for park activities baffles many, especially as state- of-the-art recreation centers have popped up in Aurora, Elgin, Glenview and elsewhere.
Dawn Summers, who lives on the city’s southwest side, said her old hometown of Palatine, with about 67,000 residents, has more indoor amenities than Naperville – a town of 138,000.
“Other municipalities with less median income have more indoor facilities,” Thomas said. “I say, ‘Why?'”
Facilities-poor
Naperville Park District has no indoor swimming pool. It has no indoor track, no indoor basketball or volleyball or tennis or racquetball courts. It has no fitness center or theater or dance studio.
It doesn’t even have its own community center. The district leases the downtown Alfred Rubin Riverwalk Community Center – home to senior, early childhood and dance activities – from the city.
The largest recreation center it does own is The Barn, an 11,000- square-foot facility whose main room is 2,700 square feet – smaller than many Naperville homes.
The facility, in Knoch Park on Martin Avenue at West Street, contains three classrooms and the main room and obviously is limited in what it can provide, Recreation Superintendent Brad Wilson said.
As a result, the district relies heavily on school partnerships, using their gyms and facilities for rapidly growing dance, art and swimming programs.
“Naperville has done a wonderful job of cooperating with the schools,” Flickinger said. “But the schools are even running out of space.”
Southern growth
A need for more indoor space is nothing new. But until now, residents haven’t been willing to pay for it.
In 1999, voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposed $48 million park district tax increase that would have funded, among other things, an indoor recreation center with a 50-meter pool.
The need only has grown since then, supporters say, particularly on the city’s burgeoning southwest side.
In this year alone, the park district will build a maintenance garage and two park support buildings in the area – none of which will provide any recreational opportunities.
“We’d love to establish more of a presence in south Naperville,” Wilson said.
That’s no secret. For years, city and park leaders have envisioned a central location near Route 59 and 95th Street that combines the Frontier Sports Complex, 95th Street Library, Neuqua Valley High School and, someday, a community center.
“Both the city and the park district have very much wanted to see a campus concept take place,” park board President Pam Swafford said. “That’s why it’s natural for us to look toward that location.”
And one facility might not be enough.
“My guess is that (the master plan is) going to indicate we’ll need more indoor space than what one building can provide,” Swafford said.
At this point, any facilities would be welcome by many southwest- side residents, Summers said.
Summers, who lives in the Tall Grass subdivision, said she’d love to sign up for preschool classes.
“But it’s hard to justify driving 40 minutes round trip (to downtown) for a 25-minute class,” she said.
Although the Heritage YMCA Group’s 95th Street Family Center is nearby, it’s often crowded and many residents don’t want to buy full one-year memberships, she said.
Possibilities
Suggestions vary on what amenities the district could and should provide. Some residents are pushing for gyms, meeting spaces, a banquet facility or a fitness center.
Former park Commissioner Mary Lou Wehrli tosses some other suggestions into the mix: kitchen facilities, a production studio, a sports and performance auditorium, a parking deck, an art gallery and areas for gymnastics, day care, teens and seniors.
Others say the city’s most pressing need is for an indoor aquatic center.
Most city subdivisions built in the past 20 years offer an outdoor pool, which has cultivated a passion for swimming in many children, says Nina Menis, Naperville Unit District 203’s director of community relations.
But in winter, the number of swimmers drops sharply, says Gerry Cassioppi, a longtime indoor swimming facility advocate.
“It’s clear to me from just doing preliminary research that this is not something you’re going to build and just hope people buy into it,” said Cassioppi, a District 203 school board member. “The demand is there.”
Naperville Central High School’s pool is open only to swimming clubs and Naperville North’s pool doesn’t meet guidelines to host competitions.
Central aquatics director Bill Salentine said he often receives calls from residents interested in open swim times. He said the city also could use an indoor competitive pool, as well as a zero- depth pool, or one that gradually deepens as you wade into it.
“And it would be booked for as much time as they allowed it to be,” he said.
Still, the park district’s last tax-increase request to build a pool failed. Community leaders say that doesn’t mean there wasn’t a need; it means the request wasn’t communicated well, the facility wasn’t centrally located and it was packaged as an all-or-nothing deal with other facilities and trails.
Models
Park leaders are studying recreation centers – both nearby and across the nation – that could serve as models for a possible project here.
While they have no specific ideas in mind, they say they want to be ready for the next step if the recreation master plan identifies a need for more space.
“We’re not trying to jump to any conclusions regarding any type of facility,” Wilson said.
There are several communities with top-notch recreation centers Naperville could look to.
Glenview Park District’s 165,000-square-foot Park Center boasts an indoor aquatic complex, fitness center, cultural arts wing, three- lane track, senior center, banquet room and cafe.
Schaumburg Park District’s one and only tax increase request in 1978 was to build its Community Recreation Center.
That 119,000-square-foot facility, which has been renovated twice, features a senior center, dance rooms, aerobics studio, fitness center, piano lab, gym and three indoor pools and water slides.
That’s just one of several recreation centers in the district, which has been honored for its facilities. But Director Jean Schlinkmann said the town of 75,000 still could use more recreation space.
Fox Valley Park District residents approved a referendum proposal – that didn’t increase taxes – to build Aurora’s Eola Community Center, which opened in 1993, said Tom Rowe, the facility manager at the time.
The 130,000-square-foot center, which contains a fitness club, track, dance studio, gym and a branch of the Aurora Public Library, attracts some Naperville residents who are unable to get into their own programs because of waits, Rowe said.
The district’s Vaughan Athletic Center, set to open in September on Aurora’s west side, will be even bigger – more than 220,000 square feet – and more expensive – $25 million.
That facility boasts a fitness center, aerobic and spinning rooms, three indoor pools, nine tennis courts, indoor track and multi-court field house.
The Centre of Elgin – a 185,000-square-foot recreation center owned by the city – features a field house, indoor courts, aquatics facility with two pools, a climbing tower and a banquet facility, among other things.
The $40 million center, built in 2002 and partly funded by casino taxes, was part of a downtown development project, Centre Manager Teena Mackey said.
Arlington Heights Park District features a satellite concept with five community centers.
It may be more costly than having one central building, but it’s what residents wanted, said Brian Huckstadt, parks and planning director.
“They wanted that small-town feel,” he said.
Uncertainties
Not everyone is convinced Naperville needs more recreation space.
Cassioppi said he’d hesitate to support anything more than an indoor aquatics facility.
“That’s where the demand in this community is,” he said. “To stretch it beyond that, you start running into additional costs and additional issues.”
An indoor facility with a fitness center, for example, could compete with the private sector, he said. That’s likely what soured support for the last proposal, he said.
Nicki Anderson, president of Reality Fitness and a former board member of the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce, says an indoor recreation center is unnecessary.
“I don’t believe there’s a need,” she said. “Bike paths, nature walks, those are things I find of value. We have plenty of health clubs in the area.”
An even grayer area than who-supports-what is how one or any new facilities would be funded.
Options include partnering with private groups, courting corporate sponsorships, borrowing money and asking voters to increase property taxes.
It’s too early to talk specifics, park leaders say. The recreation master plan – partly based on resident input – will determine their next steps.
But however they proceed, leaders say any plans will reflect residents’ desires.
“We want to provide what the community is asking for,” Swafford said.
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