Last-minute opposition from village residents could delay a Glen Ellyn project six years in the making.

Neighbors of Ackerman Park have recently begun writing letters and voicing concerns to trustees about two proposed soccer fields in the park that would clear more than 300 trees near a wetlands area.

Now the village is planning an informational meeting in April to assuage residents’ concerns and clear up confusion — just a month before construction is tentatively slated to begin.

The project is a cooperative effort between the Park District and village planners. In exchange for letting the village build a detention pond on its property, the Park District gets another soccer field — two fields whenever the pond is dry.

Proposed for the southwest corner of the park, the pond would serve as a destination for storm-water runoff in the area, and from there the water would pipe into the village’s sewer system.

“It will fill up during rain storms and then will dry out during drier weather,” said Public Works Director Joe Caracci.

Anticipating future development in the Five Corners neighborhood, the new detention pond would be larger than the area’s current pond, a plot of land north of the Walgreens at 840 N. Main St.

The first target of future development would be that parcel near Walgreens, which would be freed up when the Ackerman Park project is finished.

The village would earn close to $500,000 from the sale of the plot near Walgreens, which is about the same as the estimated cost of the Ackerman Park project.

“So from the village taxpayers’ perspective, it’s basically a wash,” Caracci said.

But that’s not to say the project isn’t going to cost the village, said Melissa Creech, who lives near the park on St. Charles Road.

Plans call for the removal of 335 trees with more than 6-inch diameters and many more smaller plants.

“There is a loss to the village, whether or not it’s financial,” Creech said. “Those trees are valuable.”

Village engineer Bob Minix said planners made an effort to leave as many trees undisturbed as possible.

Plans call for just a 10-foot buffer between the soccer fields and the woods, and measured from the center line of St. Charles Road, 250 feet of Ackerman Park forest would be left undisturbed.

“There’s a lot of trees that could act as a buffer,” Minix said.

But Creech is still concerned that the soccer fields would encroach too closely to wetlands northwest of the intersection of Riford and St. Charles roads.

She became the impetus of the plan’s opposition two weeks ago when she learned of the project.

She saw flags marking property in Ackerman Park, she said, and she contacted the Park District to get details.

With fliers and e-mails she rallied her neighbors, many of whom said they had not known about the project either, Creech said.

After Creech again aired her concerns at the Village Board meeting Monday, March 24, Trustee Michelle Thorsell suggested a meeting with residents, the date of which is not yet finalized.

Because the Ackerman project does not propose erecting a structure or building, the typical advanced notice public hearing was not required.

But village planners had intended to hold a hearing as soon as they secured a contractor for the project, likely in early to mid-April and just a few weeks before work was set to begin.

Now, depending on what comes out of the informational session, the commencement date could be pushed back, Caracci said.

Creech said she is happy that the village is making an effort to inform residents, but her ultimate goal still is the end of the project.

“There’s not that many wooded areas left like this in town,” she said. “There’s a lot the Park District could do to make it a nice naturalist area for people to enjoy.”