Skating Around a Park Decision

After three years of debating where to build a skate park, Costa Mesa decided to put it three places.

A $6,000 portable structure for skateboarding will be shuffled among three parks, giving kids from across the city a chance to show their stuff.

City officials hope the temporary solution will buy them time as they continue to search for a permanent site while easing concerns of residents who fear a skate park will attract crime and noise.

“Hopefully, people will see it’s not a big, bad, scary park,” Mayor Libby Cowan said. “They’ll see it’s a place that can fit in.”

The portable structure contains eight pieces that are assembled together whenever the “skate park” moves. The park schedule is from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. at TeWinkle on Tuesdays, Tanager on Thursdays and Wakeham on Fridays. The structure will remain in storage the rest of the week.

Costa Mesa has been trying to find a permanent skate park since 1998, when state law was changed to protect cities from suits that might come with skateboarding injuries.

The City Council has given preliminary approval to two sites, only to reject both at the last minute because of safety concerns.

Having any public skating area, even if it’s set up in a parking lot, is a great relief for skateboarders and their parents, who either have to pay as much as $10 an hour at private parks, travel to neighboring cities or practice on the curb.

“It baffles me that Costa Mesa could mobilize so quickly for a temporary skate park but couldn’t get their act together for a real one,” said Paul Schmitt, who owns PS Stix Inc., a Costa Mesa company that makes skateboards. At a City Council meeting, Schmitt pledged $10,000 for a skate park when a final site is chosen.

Some city leaders remain unconvinced that a skate park is a necessity. “We don’t have to have a skate park; there are plenty of cities that don’t,” Councilwoman Karen Robinson said.