City Tries to Get a Fix on Skate Parks

VENTURA —  Half a dozen citizens turned out at Monday night’s City Council meeting to show support for a private, indoor skateboard park but were still bickering about where in Ventura they could possibly build a public skateboarding facility.

“I just think putting a skateboard park on the promenade is the worst thing you can do,” said Jim Barroca, who supports the private facility. “They’re going to be chipping away that promenade and they’re going to be skateboarding down California Street to get there.”

The council supported plans for a private park and asked staff to look at a new site for a public skateboarding park at the corner of Cemetery Park on Main Street.

This summer, the council banned skateboarding and in-line skating on downtown streets with the promise that the city would eventually build a public skateboard park.

But many worry that the city’s skateboarders have become disillusioned.

“When we banned skateboarding downtown, they said, ‘You know what’s going to happen? [They’ll pass] an ordinance, and we won’t [get] a park.’ They’re not here tonight because they’ve lost faith in the system,” said Tim O’Neil, who heads an association of downtown merchants.

The city has set aside $350,000 to build a park but has had trouble settling on an appropriate site.

“All the council members prefer the idea of a public park,” said Ron Calkins, director of public works. “Skateboarders seem to be supported by everybody until you pick a location.”

Skateboard park designers have recommended that any park built be at least 10,000 square feet, and preferably closer to 14,000 square feet. They say the shape of the site is important.

The Ventura site under the most serious consideration was the Promenade Park location. But at 7,500 square feet, the site is small and oddly shaped, making it less than ideal.

Furthermore, architect Ed Campbell has said he is planning to buy the adjacent Texaco land to build an aquarium and astronomy complex. He has told the city that a public skateboard park next door would be incompatible with his project.

Meanwhile, the backers of the private skateboard park, Roger Thompson and Tim Garretty, propose to build a state-of-the-art indoor park--called Skate Street Ventura--on Knoll Drive near Ivy Lawn Cemetery in east Ventura.