Skate park set for Worthy

The Huntington Beach City Council took several early steps toward building a new skate park to replace the one being torn down next to Huntington Beach High School. While a plan is still far away, council members and city staff said the votes were a move forward.

The Huntington Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to put a skate park into the master plan for Worthy Park, just across the street from the high school, where a closing racquetball facility will leave 10,000 square feet of unused space.

It was the same night the council approved a yearly budget that mentions a skate park and sets aside about $115,000 to plan and design it.

Local parents and youths have been organizing to demand a new skate park after the former one was slated for demolition as part of plans by Huntington Beach High School to build a multimillion-dollar stadium. District officials had said there were complaints of bad behavior at the old park, but Huntington Beach police said the park hadn’t been an area of unusual concern.

A recent public meeting on the future of the park featured 18 public speakers in favor of the skate park, and three in opposition to it, city staff said.

Councilwoman Cathy Green said she was surprised some of the skate park’s supporters weren’t asking for too large of a replacement park.

“I happen to have been at that meeting,” she said. “Also, a check was presented. Much to my surprise many of the speakers actually wanted a smaller park. The one at Huntington Beach High School is actually 6,000 square feet, and a couple of them were actually quite satisfied.”

Councilman Keith Bohr said he wanted the park to move forward as quickly as possible, so that some money offered by the Huntington Beach Union High School District would still be usable.

“I would like to, if at all possible, try to keep and take advantage of that $75,000 offered by the school district if we construct it within three years,” he said.

MICHAEL ALEXANDER may be reached at (714) 966-4618 or at michael.alexander@latimes.com.