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The Pleasanton City Council voted unanimously last week to advance the final design concept for a new skate park at Ken Mercer Sports Park, but funding for the estimated $8.5 million construction project remains very much up in the air.
The idea to expand the popular skate park facilities on Parkside Drive has been on the city’s to-do list for years and took close to a decade to pass to this stage of the approval process.
“I will say I’m a little embarrassed that a 2014 Parks and Rec. Master Plan is just now working on a project eight years later, and we still certainly haven’t funded it,” Mayor Karla Brown said at the March 15 council meeting.
The new design, which would be accessible to everyone, brought out enthusiasm from the council. It stretches over an acre in area and includes creative skateable furnishings, a plaza style skating area and a paved public space for viewing, including shaded picnic gathering areas with furnishings, drinking fountains and restrooms.
“I’m also extremely pleased to hear that all wheels can use this park and that’s very special to me, because we are staging the all-ability playground as well,” Brown said. “If people of all physical abilities and all skill sets can use this new skate park, I think that’s wonderful.”
The conceptual design was chosen from two proposed design plans after a community-wide survey and consultation with the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission.
“So from all of that input, we created one preferred plan and the final plan is a total of three acres of park improvements with one full acre of skateable space in the middle,” said Gina Chavez, project manager. “We have two entries to the park, one at each parking lot, one here, and then one at the Hopyard Shopping Center.”
Funding for the project has been a challenge. City staff are researching possible grant and fundraising opportunities but they are confident that, at a minimum, partial additional funding could be secured, according to the council report.
The estimated cost to build the park has doubled since inception, causing concern among councilmembers who expressed their shock.
The proposed skate park is estimated to cost approximately $5.7 million in direct costs with another $2.8 million budgeted for construction and design contingencies including mobilization, bonding and insurance — for a total projected construction cost of approximately $8.5 million.
“I had sticker shock, looking at the staff report, because my recollection was when we undertook this as a priority, we were looking at around $5 million,” Councilmember Kathy Narum said at the meeting.
Residents from Pleasanton and elsewhere in the Bay Area joined in to plead before the council for the approval of the modernized skate park.
“Skateboard parks are an amazing place for kids to get out of the house and make friends, and it’s also a great community that enriches the community in a lot of ways,” said Peter Koff, a San Francisco resident. “I look forward to skating at the new skate park in Pleasanton; it’s a short drive for me so I will be there.”
Pleasanton resident JoEllen Lambert attended the virtual council meeting, as did son Andrew Lambert, to advocate for the skate park and said that youth in the area are enthusiastically looking forward to the skate park so much so that they would even help raise funds.
“These kids actually showed up to the city council meetings, to the Parks and Rec. meetings,” said JoEllen Lambert, whose late husband David Lambert was a city parks commissioner and supporter of a new skate park. “They actually put in the effort to work with the city officials on this.”
Andrew Lambert, a skater himself, pushed for the need of a new skate park at Pleasanton.
“You don’t need a group or a team to skate or ride a bicycle. You just need a new park,” Andrew Lambert told the council. “Skateboarding is now in the Olympics; council members, let’s push to have a future Pleasanton gold medalist.”
Council members approved the skate park design concept unanimously and agreed to look at potentially building the facility in phases to alleviate the financial burden. The cost for construction for the project depends on when the project is constructed, potential design changes and if any further changes are required during construction. Installation of a restroom for the skatepark will add another $450,000.
“I think conceptually, it’s beautiful, and I wouldn’t want to lose anything. But rather just look at the add-ons that we can do, depending on how much the bids come in, or have that as a phase two,” Narum said.
This is really preposterous: Pleasanton Mayor claims that the city does not have funds to build a set of pickelball courts, and the only solution is to take a few publicly available and heavily used tennis courts out of circulation. But here we are, talking about $9M skate park, $450K restroom – what a terrible waste!
Muirwood park already has some restrooms, just build a set of pickleball courts there, leave tennis courts alone.