We – collectively, the Harrisonburg skateboard community – would be remiss not to express our disappointment at the lack of community outreach over the refurbishment planning process of Westover Skatepark. The official city memorandum released on March 30th announcing the refurbishment project states in the final paragraph: “Following a community engagement process that gained feedback from many in Harrisonburg about how they would like to see ARPA funds used to improve the community, a number of Parks & Rec projects were selected for funding due to their ability to enhance community spaces where people across Harrisonburg can come together.” At the time that this memo was released, we can only infer that Harrisonburg Parks & Recreation had already entered into a contract with the developer American Ramp Company but had not invited any engagement whatsoever from the members of the Harrisonburg skate community who will be using the new facility on a daily basis.

As you may be aware, WMRA published an article fifteen days later on April 12, written by Randi Hagi, titled- The Great Skatepark Debate: Harrisonburg to Install Metal Obstacles. This article contains eight testimonials from past and present regular Westover Skatepark patrons who all agree that concrete skatepark construction is the modern industry standard and is superior to steel ramps in regard to material longevity and practical functionality for skateboarding. Michael Parks, Harrisonburg's director of communications, expressed in the article: “the [Harrisonburg] city employees know that concrete is the best skatepark material, but they just can't afford it.”1

A few of us had a chance encounter with Director Brian Mancini and Facilities and Projects Manager Scott Erickson last winter- we noticed them surveying the skatepark while we were skating and introduced ourselves. They mentioned the $475,000 budget for the project, that they were in discussions with the American Ramp Company as a developer, and that construction would likely begin in the Spring but that there were still several unknowns in the process. They also mentioned a few limitations: that the new park would have to remain the same square footage due to the sloping hills surrounding the foundation and that they could not do any below-ground excavation that would conflict with the park’s drainage system. They indulged in a few ideas for obstacles we proposed and said simply that they would “be in touch.”

Jesse Hammer, the owner of Wonder Skate Shop and de facto voice of advocacy for the skateboarding community in Harrisonburg, attempted reaching out to Brian several times over the course of the past few months and found it very difficult to establish contact. Before we were able to reasonably ascertain that the American Ramp Company had drawn a contract with Parks & Rec, Jesse tried several times to put them in touch with other developers who have made state-of-the-art concrete parks across the country and were willing to discuss building a park based on the budget and engineering constraints faced by the Westover skatepark project.

It is worth drawing your attention to the assumption that concrete parks are inherently more expensive than parks featuring wood or steel ramp construction. This assumption can certainly be true for concrete construction projects that incorporate below-ground excavation for pools and halfpipe-style ramps but is not necessarily true for above-ground street plaza style parks. 

Had we been able to engage in a meaningful community discussion concerning the development of the new park we would have made as clear as possible: the origins of skateboarding in the 1970-80’s largely imitated surf culture with early skateboarding pioneers riding emptied swimming pools and halfpipes that emulated waves on land. By the early 2000’s, however, the cultural mainstream had shifted to skating on common obstacles found in urban environments – stair sets, handrails, and benches. The pools and halfpipes that many people associate skateparks with (but have not followed the industry progression of for the past two decades) are the costliest to build and are no longer a mainstream discipline in modern skateboarding. The low-impact street style plaza is the current industry standard for skateparks. These parks pose the least risk of serious injury and allow skaters to practice and develop their skill sets on obstacles they would otherwise skate in schoolyards and city plazas only without the associated risks of trespassing and property destruction charges.

On the topic of materials construction- in the WMRA article, Hagi went on to express: “Through Google searches, I was able to find 17 major skatepark builders that work in multiple states across the country. Of those, only the American Ramp Company offers steel obstacles.” Simply by looking at the American Ramp Company’s social media page and YouTube reviews of parks they have designed we can say with confidence that they have implemented flawed functional designs into several skateparks they have been contracted to build in the recent past with outdated construction materials. The last thing that we want is for a developer to come in and build a park with no community input and leave us merely with a 20-year maintenance guarantee toward a poorly designed park.

As to Harrisonburg Parks & Recreations claims of “community engagement,” please consider a few regional examples of earnest engagement:

-        When the Lake Fairfax Skatepark in Reston was built in 2011 the park administrators and the county held several community meetings to solicit feedback from skaters2

-        When the Powhatan Springs Skatepark in Arlington was deemed to require renovation in 2015 county residents had the chance to vote for their favorite preliminary design of the skatepark during a showcase at the Arlington Mill Community Center. Those who could not attend the presentation were able to vote on the designs on the skatepark website3

-        When the Woodstock Skatepark in Virginia Beach was deemed to require renovation in 2019, skatepark developer Team Pain Skateparks held two design workshops with community input gathered online4

Bear in mind we are the members of the community who will be using this park on a daily basis. To this point nobody in the Harrisonburg skateboarding community has seen so much as a mock up of the skatepark plans designed by the American Ramp Company. Nobody in the local skate community has been given the opportunity to be heard & acknowledged in an open community forum, had the ability to provide community input in design workshops, or had the ability to vote on design features they would like to see incorporated into the new park. This is not what community engagement looks like. This is certainly not what transparency looks like. We are all thrilled to have an update to a 20 year-old facility, we just wish that we had been consulted even once for input in a meaningful way before a contract was signed. From where we are standing it seems like the decisions on the park refurbishment project in choosing a developer & the final park design were made unilaterally by a small group of people with no community engagement. We as a community have researched the parks developed by the American Ramp Company and strongly submit that we would not be excited for and do not want a park designed by this contractor as we would believe it would not be in our best interest. We hope you can understand our frustration and the fact that we are not ungrateful- we just want the opportunity to work with Parks & Rec to produce a skatepark that we know will excite skateboarders everywhere for years to come. Thank you.

 

Sources

1)     https://www.wmra.org/2023-04-12/the-great-skatepark-debate-harrisonburg-to-install-metal-obstacles

2)     https://patch.com/virginia/reston/now-open-lake-fairfax-skate-park

3)     https://www.arlnow.com/2015/09/21/arlington-county-seeks-input-on-new-skatepark-design/

4)     https://www.wtkr.com/news/woodstock-park-sees-high-skate-traffic-during-opening-week