GLENDALE : City Urged to Build Skateboarding Park

Jonathan Pekar wants to take the skateboarders of Glendale off the streets and give them a place to call home.

The 24-year-old actor and professional skateboarder envisions a utopia for boards and blades alike, with an empty pool for gravity-defying stunts, a street-level cement curve course and a playing field for roller hockey buffs, all surrounded by bleachers for spectators.

What’s more, he’s got the interest of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

“Glendale and the surrounding communities like Burbank, Eagle Rock and Atwater are just packed with skateboarders, and there’s just nowhere for them to go,” Pekar said. “But this would be a Disneyland for skateboarders, an E-ticket.”

Pekar, who travels the country as a member of the Vans tennis shoes skateboarding team, said he approached the city after seeing and performing in various “skate parks” across the nation.

He presented the idea to the Parks and Recreation board this month, and is scheduled to present a rough-draft proposal for the park Sept. 14, including preliminary sketches and information on the costs involved.

“There’s still a lot of formalities involved to get it going, but the cool thing is the city’s really into it,” he said. “They just needed someone to help them get it going.”

Nello Iacono, the city’s parks director, said city officials have “tossed around” the idea of a skate park for the past five years, but until now no proposals had been made. He said the city is especially interested in a facility that would include skateboarding, roller blading and roller hockey, but there are concerns about funding and the availability of space in the city’s park system.

“One possibility is that it could be a private facility, in which someone would put up the capital investment and operate it on a long-term lease basis on public land,” Iacono said.

“The benefit of that is that no city funds are used and the liability would be the responsibility of the operator. The down side is there would be a fee” to the skateboarders.

Iacono said the city is impressed with Pekar’s enthusiasm and knowledge, but said no plans have been made yet and “it remains to be seen whether this is something that could work in Glendale.” The skate park would require roughly the same area as four to five tennis courts, and city officials said no site is being eyed as a possible location yet.

But Pekar said he is convinced he can find a way to make it work.

“In Huntington Beach, they just opened a skate park that nobody skates in because it was poorly designed,” he said. “This will stand the test of time and be there always, somewhere we could have pro demonstrations and contests that would be major events for the community.”