2 New Areas Deemed Off-Limits to Skaters

In another loss for skateboarders, the City Council has prohibited skateboarding, in-line skating and bicycling at two credit unions.

The Ventura council resolution, approved Monday, was in response to a request from credit union officials that skateboarding and in-line skating be prohibited in the parking lots and pedestrian walkways behind the Ventura County Federal Credit Union and nearby Point Mugu Credit Union on Telephone Road near the County Government Center.

The practices are hazardous to customers, they said.

“We don’t look down on skateboarders. We are sensitive to both sides,” said Angie Morowitz, vice president of operations. “But we also want to protect our members.”

The tiered parking lot, with landscaping, curbs and planters is ideal for performing skateboard stunts. It attracts skateboarders and in-line skaters from all over, Morowitz said.

On a drive-through about noon on a weekday there was not a skateboarder in sight. But parking lot curbs and planters are blackened from the small wheels. Morowitz said boarders come out during the summer, after school and on weekends, but there is some overlap with business hours. There have been complaints from members.

“Our customers are all ages--retired people, people who are in a hurry, and our parking lot is always full,” she said. A large blue-and-white sign forbidding in-line skating, skateboarding and bicycling already hangs at one end of the parking lot. But with the newly passed resolution, the credit unions will be able to call police to enforce the no skateboarding policy.