Is Long Beach ready for an Olympic-sized skatepark? The skaters would like to think so.
In a six-week survey the city recently conducted, more than 87% of the 650 respondents — mostly skaters — said they believed there should be more skateparks in the city.
It’s the first round of feedback since the city took up the inquiry in May, at the direction of Councilmember Megan Kerr, who said she wanted Long Beach ready to build if and when funding becomes available.
With input from local skaters, designers narrowed a 27-location list to four potential sites: the Alamitos Beachfront, Heartwell Park, Los Cerritos Park and Recreation Park.
Locations were chosen with consideration to their available parking, public transit and overall safety, according to a report released Tuesday.
In its initial assessment, the Alamitos Beachfront was ranked as most feasible, given its available parking lot, proximity to Downtown amenities and the space to accommodate a 25,000 square-foot “world class Olympic skate facility” that officials figure could cost $5 million to construct.
It’s the most expensive of the options listed and would require approval by the California Coastal Commission. Other locations would be much smaller in scale. Their costs float around $500,000, which is steeper still than the $137,600 it cost to renovate the newly reopened Silverado Park.
In a statement Thursday, Kerr’s office said they have not outlined funding options yet.
Without a local allocation and Measure A sales tax dollars currently tied up with other Olympic projects, funding would need to come from state and county grants, or through the goodwill of private foundations like the Tony Hawk Foundation or Spohn Ranch.
“As a city, it is important that we are continuously exploring avenues to create successful projects that promote public health, wellbeing, and youth engagement equitably across our communities,” Kerr wrote.
While not against the idea of an X Games-worthy skatepark in her home district, Councilmember Cindy Allen said the city would have an uphill battle ahead of them convincing locals to get on board.
A park of this size would bring tourists and their money but at the cost of inconveniences that tourists bring with them: trash and noise.
Parking will be another concern, she added. Hundreds live in surrounding apartment towers, some tens of stories high, and already feud over limited parking.
“I think that the city is going to have a lot of work to do to convince those folks that live there that this is something that would be advantageous, and a place they would want to live right next to,” Allen said.
There is also the question of equal access. Long Beach has 10 skateparks within its limits, most of which are already near Downtown or run south of Pacific Coast Highway, while a few others dot North, East and West Long Beach.
In the survey, a majority of those polled said they needed a ride to access a skatepark and more than half asked for a location that is within walking distance.
But nothing is yet decided. City planners have asked to continue studying the four proposed locations, to better understand the costs to construct and the expected impact they would have on each respective neighborhood.
The next step would be spending $50,000 to hire a consultant for the analysis, something that “is currently not budgeted,” Brent Dennis, the parks and recreation director, wrote in Tuesday’s memo.