Skateboard enthusiasts will be among the first to benefit from a series of projects aimed at improving facilities in the West Chicago Park District.
The district plans to construct a $125,000 state-of-the-art skateboard park to replace the aging one in Reed-Keppler Park. The proposal is one of the first in a series of planned facilities upgrades, totaling more than $1.7 million.
“It (current skatepark) was great when it was put in but we’re at another level,” Park District Director Gary Major said.
Park District officials enlisted the help of 15 local skateboarders to design the new park, which has lost much of its appeal among local skaters such as Kyle Seidler, 16, of West Chicago.
“There are basically no options. There’s no skateboarders there anymore,” Kyle said. “A lot of the ramps are in really bad condition; the ground is rocks and gravel. I can’t go there and have fun anymore.”
Alex Hannenberg, 16, and his 13-year-old brother Tommy Knight, said skaters have been forced to use parking lots and other public areas to practice skating. Many parking lots in the city have “No Skateboarding” signs posted and the police regularly stop by to ask skaters to leave the area.
With few legal places to skate in the city, Alex said his group of friends have been forced to travel to other parks, like those in St. Charles and Wheaton.
“Theirs aren’t made out of metal like ours is,” he said. “They have so much more to offer than us.”
But traveling to neighboring cities isn’t always easy for the teens if they can’t find transportation. Many skaters said the new skatepark is necessary if the city and parking lot owners won’t allow them to practice elsewhere.
Shedding the image
Some local skaters were surprised to learn the Park District planned to build a new and improved skatepark, let alone include them in discussions about its design.
Stereotypes of skaters and the sport often mean municipalities overlook their facility needs in favor of other more traditional sports, Kyle said.
“People worry about tracks and fields more than they worry about skatepark,” he said. “They push the skateboarding society aside.”
Despite the negative image, Major said most park districts now include skateparks since the sport has gained popularity throughout the last 10 years.
“The sport as a whole has this image but it’s an inaccurate image. But the people that skate are the people that live next door,” he said. “While they take on a certain aura, it doesn’t really reflect who they are as a person.”
Park District officials put up notices near the current park asking for input from park users. When 15 teens showed up, officials presented them with various designs. The group ultimately picked one designed by California-based Spohn Ranch, a leading skatepark design company.
Major said the teens helped the district make several small changes to the design, including making some features more difficult and others less difficult.
“This is a specific example of a very niche-oriented activity,” he said. “Unless you’re doing it, you don’t really understand the nuances involved.”
The 10,000-square-foot all-concrete park will be built into the ground at the current park’s location. It will feature the popular streetscape design, a large half-pipe, stairs, rails, a water fountain and benches. Major said construction is scheduled to begin around late April and should be completed by early summer, just as the district is finishing up a $1.5 million renovation of the Prairie Oaks Family Aquatic Center.
Looking forward
The skatepark and aquatic center upgrades are the first of many improvements the Park District has planned for the next few years.
District officials are expected to release a new master plan, the first in 15 years, by the end of January, Major said. The plan, which will outline the district’s goals over the next five to eight years, will also include “major league improvements” at Manville Park, a splash pad, several playgrounds, creating a foundation board, and converting two tennis courts at Pioneer Park into a three-on-three soccer field.
“The (Park Board) really did challenge us to come up with a plan for the next eight years,” Major said. “There is a lot on our plate and we’re excited about that.”
The master plan comes as the city continues its process of revitalization of the downtown area.
“We’re really trying to parallel our plans with some of the visions the city has,” Major said. “There’s a lot in the hopper.”
