EDITORIAL

The Costa Mesa City Council on Monday ended two years of debate on a

heated issue at least four months too late.

The council -- on a very divided 3 to 2 vote -- halted plans to build

a skate park at a site at Charle and Hamilton streets.

These same plans were approved by the previous council in October on a

tight, difficult vote. No one thought the location was the best possible.

But after two years of work, and some 10 years of discussion, council

members agreed it was the best site available.

That agreement is now lost, and much with it.

First off is all the planning, money and time wasted on the defunct

proposal. Designs for the park were in the final stages Monday, with the

city less than a month away from bidding for a contractor to build it.

Secondly, the vote essentially sends the whole debate back to the

beginning. No alternative was offered, other than a small attempt by

Mayor Libby Cowan to ask the city to come up with some skateboarding

activity this summer as a consolation. But that is nothing compared with

a park full of bowls, ramps and half-pipes.

Building a skate park is not an impossible mission. Huntington Beach

did it. Laguna Hills has a small park. Both are always crowded.

But this vote is about more than having a park. It is one of those

governmental decision that inevitably leaves people bitter and

disappointed.

After the vote, Costa Mesa resident Chuck Hults said: “I’m almost at

the point where I’ve given up. I don’t know what to do anymore.”

It’s a good bet he won’t look to his city for help again.

Given their change of direction, and given all that’s gone on and all

that’s been lost, council members owe it to Hults and others who have

been waiting patiently for years for a park, to tell them if, in fact,

they just don’t want the city to build a skate park at all.