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1 This article has been updated (4:05 p.m. Friday, April 8, 2011)
By James Rincon
Pflag Reporter
Residents couldn’t wait for today’s public input meeting at the Pflugerville Recreation Center to begin weighing in on the city’s plans for a skate spot.
Today’s 7 p.m. meeting is the first of two opportunities for the community to add its opinions on whether it wants to build a place where skateboarders and BMX bikers can ride, where the facility should go, what it should include and what it should look like.
A myriad of opinions are beginning to surface even before the meetings, as City Council chambers and the city’s Facebook page have become popular forums for skate spot speculation.
“In the last 20 hours we’ve had 10 comments [about the skate spot],” said the city’s public information officer, Terri Waggoner. “People have been commenting quite a bit down the thread. I think it’s good. It lets people know the meeting’s happening and if they don’t come, I’ve already sent the feedback to [Parks Director] Amy [Atkins].”
In January city officials proposed the basketball court at Heritage Park as a possible location for the skate spot, citing that repurposing the concrete would save around $50,000 in the construction of the spot.
Bohls Neighborhood Association President Carl Wasmuth conducted an online survey of his neighborhood, which is adjacent to Heritage Park. He asked, “Do you think the basketball court in Heritage Park should be replaced with a skate spot?”
Eight residents marked “Yes,” 36 marked “No” and two were uncertain.
“The survey question was not about whether specifically a skate spot would be desirable, but rather about whether or not an existing sports facility should be replaced by another,” Wasmuth said to the City Council at its March 22 meeting. “It is apparent that many will be displeased if the basketball court is lost.”
Pflugerville resident Brent Hurta has been the skate spot’s most avid advocate, having beseeched City Council repeatedly for such a space for years. He said repurposing the basketball court is not the city’s only option.
“I understand the opposition. Again, that was just a proposal to put that at Heritage Park on the basketball court and it would save a quite a bit of money,” Hurta said. “Just because this one spot – there’s a community that does approve of it – that’s fine, there are other places it can go that could be beneficial.”
Parks and Recreation Director Amy Atkins echoed Hurta, saying at this point, the skate spot could go anywhere within the park system, or it could never be built at all.
“Right now all we’re doing is the design phase of the whole skate spot. There is currently no funding for the project, city funds or otherwise. The whole meeting is really to just get ideas from the public for the design of the skate spot and what they’d like to see if and when we ever built one,” Atkins said. “[The basketball court] was just the original idea because of its location and that it’s easy to get to, it’s on the trail system… There’s space there to pour an additional slab adjacent to that basketball court… so we could keep that basketball court and still potentially do this project if and when we do it.”
The Parks Department is working with Ideal Skateparks on the spot’s design. They will run today’s public meetings and the meeting on April 28.
The skatepark developer struck a $3,400 contract with the city to design the spot, which includes site visits, designs, public input meetings, electronic and 3D rendering of the design models.
Atkins said the city has not yet identified a timeline or budget for the project because it will rely heavily on public input.
“It’s going to depend on what kind of public input we get also, because if there’s not a large input then that tells us this isn’t a high priority project we should be considering right now,” Atkins said.
Some of the city’s younger residents have taken notice of the project and are making sure their input is heard as well.
Tyler Hindmarsh went in front of City Council, representing Troop 685 and earning his citizenship in the community merit badge.
“The reason I would like to see this plan go through… is that there are not very many places for us to ride our BMX bikes,” he said. “I’m not saying that it should take place on the basketball court, but I’d like to see one in this area for us to skate at.”
Hindmarsh said BMX bikes are not allowed at Clay Madsen Recreation Center in Round Rock and their use is often restricted at Capitol Skatepark because of overcrowding.
After Tyler Hindmarsh address the council, his sister Natasha spoke as well.
“I think Pflugerville needs these parks. I have a lot of friends who love to skateboard and ride BMX bikes and we need a place to ride,” she said. “I’d really like it if we had some place closer to us to enjoy.”
The Recreation center, located on Immanuel Rd. south of Pecan Street is not an effective substitute. The court in Heritage Park is in walking distance for me, and is open 24/7 365 days a year with no membership fees, renewal, and no need to think of transportation or time of day or night. In addition, because there’s no huge subdivision yet to the North, we still have beautiful distance views in the morning and the evening from the basketball court (makes for very nice sky views).. Much better atmosphere than the Rec. center, which appears to be in use all the time.
By the way, the Rec. Center could sure benefit from expansion… Why not put the skate park over there? I hate the idea of cutting trees, but there is an area of trees between the Rec. Center and the soccer fields… If the city owns that, I think you might have your location there.
The idea of destroying / replacing the basketball court is INSANE (in my humble opinion). The court as it is now can be considered a timeless and peaceful example of a recreational facility. A mom with a baby carriage can walk around it while her young kids skate or ride around. A grandfather can do the same while he throws the ball in from time to time. The adult can choose to do a full workout if s/he chooses alone or with a friend. You’re probably not going to see full 5 on 5 teams since there really isn’t an organized league of any kind; so, it doesn’t make sense to assess the court’s current effectiveness on whether you see 10 people out there frequently or not. It is truly a multifunction facility as it is right now, and changing it to a skatepark will just attract one portion of our population in order so they can engage in one activity. What bugs me the most about this proposition is the fact that everybody can skate on it right now just as it is – with no changes.
Consider what I said about the parking lot. It really is empty in the evenings and nights, and it really is lit up well. If you take your ramps and rails there, after a little set-up, you’ll be ready to do your jumps and tricks, hopefully with pads and helmets. That should be more than is currently possible in most parking lots considering the popularity of “NO SKATEBOARDING” signs everywhere from HEB to most churches.