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The university wants to relocate its softball and baseball facilities to 27 acres on the western end of Concordia Seminary along Big Bend Boulevard. The athletic fields would replace the seminary’s student housing, which Concordia plans to move east towards its chapel.

The city of Clayton will hold a hearing on .

But residents say Washington U. has not been transparent about its plans; it has instead proposed several different ideas for the site and asked the city in an October letter to build even more.

“It’s just getting huge,� said Anne Martin, whose house would border the new fields. “It’s really tough to fight them.�

The university declined an interview request, saying it’s too early in its planning process to discuss details of the project. In a statement, the university called it a collaborative process and said that it will work with the city and residents to deliver a project beneficial to the community.

“While we continue to explore possibilities for new auxiliary athletic spaces,� the university said in the statement, “we don’t have a specific plan ... nor will we have one anytime soon.�

Residents here are battle-worn. They’ve grown weary of Washington University’s expansion into their neighborhoods. The university has bought the former Christian Brothers College High School along Clayton Road, homes in University City and houses in the Skinker Heights neighborhood near its Danforth campus. It has also bought up more of the Delmar Loop entertainment district.

“Wash. U. is very aggressive in their expansion,� said Martin, the neighbor. “Any time they have a chance to buy, they do.�

Two months ago, Washington University bought the Fontbonne University campus, adjacent to Concordia.

University officials have said in public meetings that the Fontbonne campus was not part of the equation when it and Concordia first approached the city about the athletic fields.

They said Washington U. and Concordia signed an 80-year land-use agreement over a year ago that allows the university to remake part of the seminary’s campus to the benefit of both institutions. The seminary said it wants to build new student housing closer to its chapel as part of , if Clayton approves the field plans.

The two approached the city of Clayton around the same time with their “conceptual ideas� for the new athletic facilities, such as several fields and buildings.

Washington University hopes to consolidate several fields at the Concordia site: baseball and softball now at Forsyth Boulevard and Big Bend as well as intramural sports currently played at the old CBC high school on Clayton.

A to the project shows several different options of how the university would use the land.

But even members of Clayton’s Board of Aldermen have called out the university for its bare-bones proposals. Alderman Rick Hummell told the institution last month that it has provided “sketchy details at best� and worried that the city had not done enough to soothe residents’ worries.

“There are no details,� said Martin, the neighbor.

She has lived in her Tuscany Park neighborhood for more than 70 years and said traffic on Big Bend is a nightmare. She got into an accident while trying to leave her neighborhood and worries how much worse it would get with the athletic fields.

She also questions whether the land is the right place for the fields and worries about the project cutting down trees.

That’s a concern her neighbor Jonathan Katz also has. He’s not a bird watcher, but he does enjoy hearing the owls and seeing the occasional fox. He worries what could be lost if the university gets its way.

“It’s a nice piece of nature,� Katz said. “It shouldn’t be destroyed.�

Clayton officials are trying to assuage fears. They said they’ve already swatted down the university’s requests from the October letter — capping the number of people from 5,000 spectators to 900 — and will require an 80-foot buffer instead of the normal 15 feet and require the tree canopy that borders neighborhoods to stay.

“This is not a blank check to Wash. U.,� Clayton City Manager David Gibson said Monday.

The city’s plan for special zoning, called an overlay district, also would create further restrictions, he said. It’s a tool Clayton has used elsewhere, such as along Maryland Avenue and at the former CBC campus.

Previously, the city would issue a conditional-use permit for each of Washington University’s new buildings, creating a complicated patchwork of varying rules that made enforcement a nightmare, Gibson said.

The overlay district would make the regulations more uniform and would still require the university to submit plans and traffic, light and sound studies for each subsequent development.

Mayor Michelle Harris calls the overlay district “state-of-the-art requirements.�

She said she understands why residents are concerned. But there’s only so much the city can do to regulate private property, she said.

“This will happen whether we restrict it or not,� Harris said.

This, she said, is the city’s big opportunity to influence the project.

The site is currently zoned for single-family residential and university use. The city Board of Aldermen’s final vote on the overlay district is slated for Nov. 26.

Washington University will then have to submit specific site plans to the city.

Editor's Note: The story has been updated to correct Rick Hummell's name and the site's zoning.