Favorable review for new skate park site

Susan McCormack

COSTA MESA -- A preliminary analysis of a proposed 10,000-square-foot

skate park at Charle and Hamilton streets show if residents are

receptive, the plan could work but would probably cost more than other

proposed parks, a city official said Wednesday.

Parks superintendent David Alkema said he surveyed the 22,000-square-foot

site this week and found that the desolate lot could solve the

long-standing problem of finding a location acceptable to both the city

and residents.

“It would probably be fairly easy to build one there. It’s just vacant

land,” Alkema said. “But it would be more expensive in that we don’t have

a restroom and parking facilities.”

Restrooms can cost several hundred thousand dollars, he said. As for

parking spaces, Alkema said the site is large enough to have a drop-off

lot. He added it should be suitable for skateboarders because they tend

not to drive to skate parks, but get rides from parents, take buses or

ride their boards.

Alkema said residents and local businesses will be notified of the City

Council’s recent vote to consider the site for a skate park and be given

an opportunity to provide input on the idea.

Alkema said the closest resident is about 50 feet away on Charle Street

and 75 feet on Hamilton Street.

At TeWinkle Park, which the council was poised to approve Monday as the

location for the park before Councilman Joe Erickson suggested the new

site, residents are more than 300 feet away.

“We would need to do a fair amount of landscaping between the residents

and the park so it’s not just a slab of concrete staring at you,” Alkema

said. “And having a bunch of kids out there, I don’t know how [residents]

would like that.”

On Wednesday afternoon, residents appeared pleasantly surprised to hear

the vacant corner lot was being considered for a skate park. Many said a

new park would get kids to stop skating in their streets and driveways

and that noise from cars traveling down busy Hamilton Street would

probably drown out any sounds a skate park would produce. Also, they said

it would be a good use for an eyesore that has been in the community for

“a very long time.”

Tisha Joy, who lives down Hamilton Street from the lot, said a park would

combine the interests of residents and children in the area.

“We’re on the verge of being a bad neighborhood,” Joy said. “We need to

give kids a place to go and get kids off the streets.”

Local skateboarder Patrick Coffman, 12, seemed most enthusiastic about

the idea. He said the lot would be a “perfect” spot for a skate park

because he would not have to travel to parks in other cities and skate on

local school grounds.

“It’s a good spot,” Coffman said, his eyes lighting up. “It’s nice and

big.”

Bill Turpit, a member of the Lions Park Assn., which recently submitted a

report to the City Council recommending sites, described the newest

location as “excellent.”

“It would be a win-win for the city because it provides an overall

increase in park area and recreational facilities ... [and would not have

the effect] of reducing open space areas.”The City Council is expected to

hear a staff report on the possibility of using the Charle and Hamilton

streets site at its next meeting Dec. 6.