Update / Follow-up on the news

With city leaders clearly determined to find a place for a skateboard park someplace in town, Recreation Committee members will now reconsider the options, adding the popular “Bark Park” to the list of prospective sites.

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to press forward with the search, agreeing to include the cost of a skateboard facility in the coming fiscal year budget and to plan to begin its construction by the end of this year.

It is doubtful, however, that committee members will find a location that suits everybody. With limited parcels to choose from, they have already crossed off about two dozen possibilities from their list, some of which they may now reconsider.

The goal is to find a place that is safe, highly visible, has easy access and is near amenities such as restrooms and telephones. Whenever the committee members have found a location that met those criteria--Heisler Park, for example--they have had resistance from neighbors who don’t want to live near a skateboard park.

The two new areas the committee will now consider--the dog park and a parcel known as the Act 5 parking lot--are both in Laguna Canyon. Should the Bark Park be selected, the skateboard park would use only a small section of the parcel, Recreation Director Pat Barry said, and would not interfere with pet owners’ use of the park.

The council also instructed the committee to consider “under-used” tennis courts that could be transformed into a skateboard facility. The committee is supposed to report back to the council with recommendations by September.