Skate Park Size Reduced in Tension-Filled Meeting

If six years spent discussing a possible skate park in Capitola hasn't been enough, two meetings in two nights totaling five hours of discussion certainly isn't either.

attracted a vast majority of neighbors of Monterey Park (where the proposed park would be located) who were adamently against the idea for a myriad of reasons. 

Thursday's meeting of the Capitola City Council saw the park's proponents in full force along with the familiar faces from 24 hours earlier. 

Mark Scott of Dreamland Skateparks opened the public hearing with a presentation of his commissioned mock-up of a 9,000 square foot park.

The city council has been clear for months that it desires a park for beginners, namely 8- to 12-year-olds. Neighbors opposing the park fear that any park is good enough for older, noisier, more intimading, experienced skaters. Scott essentially confirmed those fears.

"I'd say it mostly caters to smaller children up to 12-years-old," he said. "But on the other hand, I would enjoy skating in it as well. But it's not somewhere I would travel across the country to get to." 

If that didn't confirm any park's inability to repel older skaters, the presence of at least 20 teenage to adult skaters at the meeting surely did.

The council heard public comment on the issue for upwards of an hour. Plenty of skaters and parents of skaters expressed support for the park, while neighbors consistently opposed it. The select few Monterey Park neighbors in favor of the skate park at its currently-proposed location were the rarest breed of commenter.  

Among the chief complaints regarding the park's present iteration are potential noise, crime, safety and a threat to the Eucalyptus trees that currently stand along Monterey Avenue. 

"The kids have P.E. out there, often using Monterey Park. And you're going to have people out there during the day that you don't know, interacting with your 11-year-old daughter? The safety issue alone is unacceptable," one Monterey park neighbor and New Brighton mother said. "I would like to know how the New Brighton teachers feel about this."

Several skaters took issue with being labeled as "hoodlums," and with suggestions that their presence around young children would be somehow destructive. 

"Skate parks are ... a safe place for kids to be," said a teenage skater that approached the council who identified himself as Thomas. "It builds character in people and it helps the community stay strong and get away from all this gang violence. There are a lot of kids dying. You want to talk about kids dying on the west side and Derby Park? It's not because of the skate park. It's because of the community there and what's going on over there. It's not skating that's killing people. It's people that are killing people. Skateboarding is doing nothing but good."

With skateboarding illegal in much of Capitola, even the neighbors of Monterey Park could acknowledge that a place for skaters to go in town is a must. It's simply the proposed location that is causing the push-back. 

"I like the idea of the skate park for the kids," one neighbor said. "I'm even willing to pay tax money to pay for it. But I do not like the location. The fundamental reason ... other than it's noisy and it's fairly close to my house, is that it's a beautiful piece of land."

Harley Robertson, the assistant superintendent for business services with the Soquel Union School District, announced formally that the administration of the school district, with the park at it's currently-proposed 9,000 square feet, does not support the plan. He cited the potential distraction to the district offices, which are situated just yards from the location.

"The administration will be recommending to the school board to oppose the project for the primary reason that our surrounding neighbors oppose the project," Robertson told Patch Friday morning. "As a neighbor to our neighbors in our neighborhood, if they're not happy with this project, we can't support it."

Following the slew of public comments, Councilmember Kirby Nicol made a motion stipulating the following:

• That the skate park be redesigned at no larger than 6,000 square feet
• That the Monterey Park location be committed to
• That the Eucalyptus trees be spared
• That the features be softened to fit young skaters and limit noise

Mayor Mike Termini seconded the motion, leading to a 3-2 vote in its favor. Councilmembers Sam Storey and Stephanie Harlan cast the opposing votes, while Councilmember Dennis Norton joined Termini and Nicol, passing the motion. 

"Those kids that you heard speak tonight deserve to have a skateboard park," Norton said. "We've put it off enough at this point."

But with a newly-approved cap of 6,000 square feet, Termini expressed fear that those in favor of the park would no longer be satisfied, along with the disgruntled neighbors.

"Regardless of what we voted, because this is a privately-funded project, we could have just voted to kill it and that concerns me," Termini said.

The committee in support of the Capitola skate park will now confer with Public Works Director Steve Jesberg to discuss funding the design of a 6,000 square foot park. 

Six years in and back at the drawing board, this issue is far from its beginning, but still far from its end.

Do you support the park being built in Monterey Park? What are your thoughts on the situation? Vote in the poll below and tell us what you think in the comments!