Plan Commission Gives Nod to Expanded Stuart Sports Complex

The new, expanded moved one step closer to reality Thursday night, as ’s Plan Commission unanimously recommended the project to the Village Board.

Stuart Sports Complex is the Fox Valley Park District’s large central park, in the heart of the village. It currently features 25 full-size soccer fields and four baseball diamonds, but with the population explosion in and around Montgomery over the past decade, the demand for field space has increased.

The park district plans to build onto Stuart Sports Complex to the south, constructing 11 new soccer fields (many of which can be used for multiple purposes), four lighted baseball/softball diamonds, a dog park, a picnic area, bike paths, and three new parking lots totaling 630 spaces.

This is a scaled-down version of the original expansion plan, proposed in 2007. That would have seen 16 new soccer fields and eight baseball fields, but with the sinking economy, and the construction of several other fields close to Stuart, the park district revised that strategy earlier this year.

The new plan is more realistic, and still meets the existing demand for soccer and baseball fields, according to Jeff Palmquist, the park district’s director of planning, development and grants.

The Stuart proposal accounts for the future extension of Aucutt Road west of Orchard Road, and includes extensions of both Schmidt Drive and Civic Center Avenue. Senior Planner Michael Brown said he was happy to see Aucutt taken into consideration—the eventual buildout of that road has been in the village plans for some time

Palmquist said the new parking lots would provide more spaces per ball field than the complex currently has.

He said residents in the Foxmoor subdivision had expressed concern that people may park on their streets and walk over to the new Stuart Sports Complex, rather than park in the lots. But Palmquist said the western end of the complex would not extend far enough to make that worth it for people—the plan calls for about a quarter-mile of farm land between the homes and the ball fields.

“That would be quite a hike,” Palmquist said. “Why walk a quarter-mile when you can walk 400 feet?”

Plan Commission Chair Mildred McNeal-James did have one concern: while the proposal includes permanent restroom facilities by the baseball diamonds, it calls for portable toilets by the soccer fields. McNeal-James said that would likely not be adequate for the variety of age groups those fields would attract, and could drive people to the nearby police station’s restroom facilities.

Palmquist said it was a matter of cost. Adding permanent restrooms means adding expensive water and sewer lines, which could impact the rest of the project, he said.

“We don’t want to spend so much money on infrastructure that we have all this infrastructure and no fields, and still have demand,” he said.

The Village Board will get to see the concept plan for Stuart Sports Complex at its next committee of the whole meeting, on Sept. 20. Trustees will likely vote on it at the Sept. 26 board meeting.

The park district will need to apply for a special use permit for Stuart Sports Complex, and at that time, a public hearing on the project will be held.