Hermosa Beach City Council Panel to Study Plan for Skateboard Park

In a move to get skateboarders off the street and into their own park, the Hermosa Beach City Council has formed a subcommittee to evaluate plans for a skateboard park within city limits.

Although city officials are hoping plans to build a skate park in neighboring Redondo Beach pan out, they have opted to review possibilities in Hermosa Beach, said City Manager Steve Burrell. Concerned about liability and that the area would become a cruising zone for teenagers, Redondo Beach officials are moving ahead cautiously with their plans.

Hermosa Beach skate enthusiasts said they are excited by the prospect of a park in their city, but the old Triton Oil site in Redondo Beach is still a first choice because of its large size. Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach parks and recreation officials have proposed turning 10,000 square feet of the 50,000-square-foot site into a skateboard park.

“If they can find a place in Hermosa Beach that would be great,” said Mike Sliff, a 15-year-old skateboarder who spearheaded the skateboard park plan with pal Kelly Ress. “They could build something pretty decent at South Park and Valley Park.”

Sliff said he and Ress are passing out fliers and encouraging skaters to attend a Redondo Beach Harbor Commissioners meeting Tuesday in the hope of encouraging city officials to move forward with a skateboard park on the harbor property.

The two skating activists got more than 600 skaters to sign a petition supporting a park last year and helped draw hundreds of residents to a Hermosa Beach Parks and Recreation Commission meeting last month.

The skaters join hundreds of skating enthusiasts across Los Angeles County who are lobbying city parks and recreation boards to build skateboard parks because municipal codes prohibit skateboarding in most commercial districts. As a result, nearly a dozen skateboard parks are in the works.