REDLANDS >> The proposedRedlands skatepark has an approved conceptual design, 10 years after the City Council first agreed to build it.
The council on Tuesday, which happened to be Go Skateboarding Day, approved the design by California Skateparks for the 15,000-square-foot skatepark. City staff will now work to finalize the design, set criteria for a naming competition, complete the environmental review and identify funding sources to help construct the skatepark.
“I want to thank you all,” Susan Broderick, co-founder of Sk8 P.A.R.K., one of two groups raising funds to build the park, said to the council Tuesday. “It’s been 10 long years and we’re moving forward, so thank you very much and happy Go Skateboarding Day. This is the best one yet.”
The skatepark is proposed for a 23,000-square-foot spot inside Sylvan Park — where the Sylvan Plunge used to be.
The skatepark is meant to be all-wheel, accommodating skateboarders, skaters, bicyclists and scooter riders.
The design includes street and bowl-type skating. It would be constructed of structurally engineered, poured-in-plan concrete created to minimize cracking and facilitate precision finish surfaces. Edges and ledges will be finished in metal coping to protect the park from the wear of grinding maneuvers.
“Basically this is an all-wheel facility for all ages and abilities,” Craig Waltz, project manager with California Skateparks, said Tuesday. “It’s for the beginning skater or the advanced professional skater and has all types of terrain you can look for in a skatepark.”
• Photos: Boarders stoked for new Redlands skatepark
The skatepark can be built in two phases — two-thirds of the park constructed could be constructed in the first phase and the remaining one-third during the second phase.
A drain will be placed in the bottom of the bowl, which would allow water to flow into a biofiltration system, rather than the storm drain.
California Skateparks collected public feedback during three workshops and on a website created to help design the skatepark.
Waltz said the skatepark’s design is unique to Redlands and is a product of community input.
“It’s been fun watching the design process,” Mayor Pro Tem Jon Harrison said. “I complement the designer for really listening to the community and coming up with many imaginative solutions.”
The council approved the skatepark in December 2006. An earlier design was unveiled in 2007.
In September 2013, the council approved the use of $200,000 in matching funds from the Palmetto Grove sale proceeds to be used toward the skatepark project.