Skate-park plan takes a tumble

Amid dog-owner protests, City Council refuses to buy bridge providing access to the proposed site, dashing the hopes of area skaters.After refusing to help the YMCA develop a skateboard park adjacent to the dog playground in Laguna Canyon, city officials threw a bone to the skate park’s backers on Tuesday.

The council declined to purchase a bridge from Verizon that would have allowed access at the northern end of the Bark Park for skateboarders. But a council subcommittee was created to explore the possibility of smaller skateboard areas in local parks.

The decision on the bridge doomed YMCA plans to build a skateboard facility.

“We envisioned a safe place for kids there,” said Larry Nokes, spokesman for the YMCA. “But it has become a turf war with the dog park in which we were unwilling participants.”

Opponents of a skateboard facility at the dog park packed the City Council chambers for the hearing and submitted petitions, gathering more than 1,250 signatures.

“You were going to get an earful, but now you won’t,” Mallory McCamat said.

On the other side, young skateboarder Caity Elizabeth was not happy with the council’s decision.

“This is really serious for me,” she said. “I skate at Encinitas [a YMCA facility], but that is not what I really want. It’s time the city did something for us.”

Laguna Beach resident Marshall Ininns’ son was nine when they first talked about a facility in Laguna. Now he is 16. “I am so disappointed,” Ininns said.

The YMCA approached the city about building, maintaining and supervising a skateboard park about six years ago. City officials proposed putting it in Act V in the canyon -- at that time used only for summer parking but now earmarked for city maintenance services.

When the council reneged on the Act V site, then-mayor Paul Freeman suggested that the YMCA take a look at the Bark Park. YMCA officials felt they had no choice but to go along, and a written agreement was completed.

But protests by dog owners prompted the council to suggest Big Bend as an alternate site, and new plans were drawn.

Big Bend fell by the wayside in 2004 when the city acquired property above it not conducive to the operation of a skate park.

Mayor Pro Tem Steven Dicterow recommended that YMCA go back to the Bark Park, the only site for which they had a written commitment from the city. “After soils, traffic, topographic and biological studies of the Big Bend site, the [YMCA] task force felt the Bark Park site was the better location,” YMCA official Dan Shapero said.

YMCA proceeded with plans for a 35,000-square-foot skateboard facility at the Bark Park,

The plan absorbed about one-third of the pup’s playground adjacent to the fenced-off Verizon property. It included a half-pipe, two quarter-pipes, a snake run, a shallow pool, a free-style area, a 1,200-square-foot facility where youngsters can gather, public parking for at least 14 vehicles and a bus stop.

Unlike some skateboard parks, the Laguna Park would have been a supervised facility, with age-specific times of operation.

Verizon offered to sell the bridge, the only way to access to the property, which YMCA could not afford. The city then formally declined to pick up the tab.

“We tried to do something for the kids and for the pet owners, but it was not a great idea to put the two together,” Mayor Pro Tem Steven Dicterow said.

Councilwoman Cheryl Kinsman said the notion rolled out Tuesday to construct skateboard areas in local parks probably will face as much opposition as the proposed facility at the Bark Park.

“Park neighbors won’t be happy,” she said.

Officials of South Coast YMCA said their goal was not just to build a skateboard park, which they have successfully constructed in several communities, but to increase the presence of the YMCA in Laguna with programs for young people.

“We have been working on this for a very long time,” said Nokes, a Laguna Beach attorney and YMCA spokesman for the park. “Demographics show the city has as many kids as people over 55.”

Funds that had been earmarked for YMCA studies associated with a skateboard park will be released to the city, Nokes said, to be used for neighborhood skateboard attractions, rather than a citywide attraction.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Does Laguna Beach need a skate park? Write us at P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, CA, 92652, e-mail us at [email protected] or fax us at 494-8979. Please give your name and tell us your home address and phone number for verification purposes only.