- November 18, 2024
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Options for proposed renovations of the Wadsworth Skate Park run the gamut: from $350,000 to about $1.5 million, from a modest facelift to an elaborate novation designed to make the park a regional skater destination.
The more expensive option might pay off in the long run, staff suggested at a July 7 County Commission workshop, by bringing in tourism money.
“This could be a premier destination, a must-stop right there off of (Interstate) 95,” General Services Director Heidi Petito said in a presentation on the park at the workshop.
Renovations for the park, built in 2000 on State Road 100, have been proposed in part as a way to deal with concerns about the park’s limited 24,000-square-foot space being shared between skateboarders, rollerbladers and BMX bikers of different ages and skill levels.
The park has never had any serious injuries — no broken bones, County Administrator Craig Coffey said at the meeting.
Still, some parents have complained to county staff that the presence of teens on BMX bikes, in particular, endangers younger children still wobbly on their first skateboard or pair of rollerblades.
So Petito did a Google search on skate parks within 90 miles of Flagler County to see what other area skate parks are doing.
Of the nine she investigated, just one — Treaty Park in St. Augustine — had a separate section for younger skaters. Another, Lake Butler Daytona Skate Park, didn’t allow children under the age of eight.
All of the parks except for Treaty Park and New Smyrna Skate Park allowed BMX bikes; a few had special hours for them.
“What we’ve noticed is that it’s very much self-policing,” Petito said. “And what you’ll notice at any good skate park is that it’s got something for all the different age groups. So it might be a street course with different elements that appear to be novice, and then you might have some that are more advanced, for your more seasoned skateboarders. And the same with the bowls you might have more shallow versus some that are deeper.”
To offer that variety, Petito said, the county could set aside some of the current park with prefabricated metal ramps for BMX use, then build an adjacent concrete park for skaters.
A fairly modest “community skate park” version would create a 10,000-13,000-square foot concrete space for skaters — in addition to the 10,000 square feet already set aside for BMX bikers — for about $350,000, she said, and incorporate a multilevel street course and one or two bowls or a snake run.
A step up from the community skate park would be a “district skate park,” a 18,000-26,000 square foot concrete space offering a street course with a snake run and two or three bowls, and capable of hosting larger events and drawing visitors passing through along Interstate 95. That plan would cost about $750,000.
The most elaborate option, a “regional skate park,” would include a 28,000-40,000 square foot concrete space that would be a “complete skate park experience” and “full of color, texture and granite elements” according to Petito’s presentation. It would have shade areas, viewing areas, art grills and landscaping, and a remake of the popular local ‘70s-era Tomoka Moon Forest Skate Park’s snake run through trees. It would be a world-class destination, and cost about $1.5 million to build.
But it might also draw in a lot of tourism money, said Flagler County Chamber of Commerce tourism chief Matt Dunn.
“Certainly with a facility like this, it’s certainly going to draw a pretty large number of action sports enthusiasts on an ongoing basis,” he said at the workshop. Even when people visiting the county for sports events don’t stay overnight, he said, “there’s still a tremendous amount of day spending that’s occurring based off those visitors.”
Of the nine parks Petito investigated, five charged fees, but none of the commissioners expressed any interest in adding fees to Wadsworth Skate Park, which is free.
The commission did not vote Monday on the potential plans — that will come later, after more research and during a regular commission meeting — but did direct staff to investigate options for funding the more costly of the two options.
Coffey said the county staff is investigating funding possibilities, including getting sponsors and using TDC money or local option sales tax money.
“We’ll try to be creative,” he said. “We do have, we think, some good ideas to start with.”
