Council to take another turn around skate park

Jennifer Kho

COSTA MESA -- The wheels just keep spinning, but tonight the City

Council will again debate plans for a skateboard park at Hamilton and

Charle streets.

Newly elected council members Karen Robinson and Chris Steel requested

the review, although both stressed they are not necessarily against the

park.

Robinson said last month she just wants to be sure all safety issues

have been explored, adding she was prompted to bring the skate park back

for discussion after learning a 32-year-old woman was hit Dec. 6 while

crossing the street near the park’s site.

Steel has said he would vote against the park if he doesn’t get more

reassuring information about the location and the need for a skateboard

park in the city.

City officials and residents have debated, at times angrily, the

location of the park for more than two years. The city has been

interested in building a park for 10 years and began looking at locations

in 1998, when state law was changed to protect cities from skateboard

liability.

Council members last year approved plans to build a skate park at

Lions Park, but changed their minds after neighbors pointed out potential

flooding and traffic problems, as well as diminishing green space at the

site.

“With the expanded downtown center and the parking going in, an

additional 10,000 square feet of skateboard park would have greatly

diminished green space at Lions Park,” Councilwoman Linda Dixon. “The

council realized that so much green space was going to be taken up that

it wasn’t an appropriate place to put more cement.”

In October, the City Council approved a new -- though still

controversial -- location at Hamilton and Charle streets. With designs in

the final stages, the city staff plans to bid for a contractor to build

the park within the next month.

But the City Council could decide to put those plans on hold today.

Councilman Gary Monahan -- who voted for the park in October although

he disagreed with the site -- said he still thinks the park belongs at

Lions Park, while Steel said he is dead set against the Lions Park

location.

Dixon, who also voted for the park in October, said the Hamilton and

Charle streets site is a good one, with fast food, public transportation

and telephones nearby.

Mayor Libby Cowan -- who was in favor of the park -- also supports the

Charle and Hamilton streets site.

“I think it’s the prerogative of any new council member to have a

review, but I think the council has done a very thorough job of choosing

the site and considering all the issues,” she said. “I think the Charle

and Hamilton site is a good place for a skate park, and we can make it

work. It would be the best for the kids.”

Michael Scheafer, the former parks commissioner who resigned over the

issue, is among several residents who are happy to have another chance to

convince the council to reverse its decision.

“I’m very pleased the council is going to review [the decision,” said

Scheafer, adding that he plans to speak at the meeting. “I hope they are

going to take a look and see that it’s wrong. This lady hit crossing the

street is just another example that amplifies what a lot of us have been

talking about -- safety wise it still just doesn’t make sense.”

A number of skateboarders are distressed by the review, however,

saying they fear it could once again delay the building of the park.

“The place we ended up with was not the most opportune place, but the

way the political wheels have been turning to derail this project has

been ridiculous,” said Costa Mesa resident Paul Schmitt.

“At the beginning, we would have 75 to 100 kids there, but now we have

only two or three because they have given up and some are in college

now,” he added. “I would rather have the park at a place like Lions Park

that is closer to the community, but the park has got to happen. Also,

the city wants to get the area cleaned up and this park could be a

positive start. The biggest thing is to get something done because this

way they’re doing nothing.”

The council will meet 6:30 p.m. tonight in City Hall, 77 Fair Drive.

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