Sports Complex Planned Near Darien

DARIEN, IL — A sports complex, restaurant and bar are being proposed for South Frontage Road, just outside Darien's city limits and near Burr Ridge.

Neighbors of the proposed complex say the area, which is zoned residential, should stay that way. They also say it would make the intersection of South Frontage Road and Cass Avenue even more dangerous.

Covering 90,000 square feet, Sawmill Garden Sports Complex is planned for 17W411 S. Frontage Road and would include an indoor facility offering court sports, three soccer fields and an area for batting cages.

In another building will be a restaurant and bar, along with meeting rooms, squash courts and a noncompetition swimming pool, according to the developer's documents. Three outdoor athletic fields are planned.

The complex is being proposed by West Suburban Athletic Development Corp., which is made up of people from the Chicago area.

The DuPage County Zoning Board of Appeals has already conducted hearings on the proposal and is expected to hold more.

The property in question, which Sawmill Creek crosses, has been the site of a horse stable and houses since the 1990s, according to the corporation's documents. The corporation says the complex will be a destination use and would not rely on passing traffic.

The company needs to change the residential zoning to make the complex a reality. It says a diversity of uses already exists in the area, noting the 187,000-square-foot Sterling Bay trucking and distribution center is west of the property in question.

Many residents in the Timberlake subdivision, which is to the east, oppose the proposed complex.

In an interview Wednesday, one of the residents, Erv Schramm, said the project's supporters are from outside the neighborhood. He said the property should stay residential.

Schramm and others are already concerned about the safety at the intersection of South Frontage and Cass.

"All the traffic (for the complex) will be coming from the west, and it will dump all traffic to Cass and South Frontage," Schramm said.

Since May, two major motorcycle accidents have happened at Cass and South Frontage, one of them fatal.

Neighbors say they are concerned with semi-trucks exiting from Interstate 55 onto southbound Cass in Darien. These trucks, they say, must perform three immediate lane changes across Cass to turn left on South Frontage to access Sterling Bay.

In an interview, attorney Mark Daniel, who is representing the sports complex, said it would likely improve neighboring property values. Such a complex, he said, is not an opportunity that comes around often.

"The county would be egregious in denying the project," Daniel said. "The residents are having a difficulty in recognizing the length the developer has gone to work with them, whether it's lighting or operational issues, whether it's the color of the dome or the light poles, even the hours of operation. These folks seem to want to manage the business."

The company's documentation lists the people behind West Suburban Athletic Development Corp.:

• Aleks Mihailovic, the founder, president and head coach of the Chicago Blast Soccer Club.
• Djordje Mihailovic, a professional soccer player.
• Randall Johnson, chief financial officer for Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush.
• Steve Siomos, a match official at the highest collegiate and professional levels.
• Norm Gill, a former principal of a construction company who founded Soccer Blast America.