Foundation created to help get skate park built in Laguna

A candidate in last fall’s Laguna Beach City Council election is trying a new approach in the ongoing effort to land a skate park in Laguna Beach.

Michele Hall, a yoga instructor and Laguna Beach resident, is leading a city recreation subcommittee tasked with recommending a skate park location. Residents Allen Doby and Jim Howard complete the group. About two weeks ago, Mayor Pro Tem Steve Dicterow gave the trio a six-month deadline to identify a site, Hall said Friday.

So far, the group has two spots in mind, a grass area near Aliso Creek on the east side of South Coast Highway and Lang Park in South Laguna, said Hall, who advocated for a park during her council campaign.

Previous suggestions for park locations have been met with push-back from neighbors or other concerned residents. This time, Hall said, she hopes a new twist will lead to success. Hall

and Laguna resident Steve Shipp, who skated for the Hobie national team in the ‘70s, are forming a nonprofit foundation dedicated to supporting youth sports in Laguna Beach.

The foundation’s top priority will be developing a skate park in Laguna but other activities could include surf contests, Hall said.

The last big push for a park in Laguna came almost two years ago when the city proposed a venue at Moulton Meadows Park.

A majority of residents at a May 2013 meeting at the park opposed the project. They were concerned it would attract drug users and create noise and trash.

“It’s one of those things everyone wants, but no one wants it in their backyard,” Hall said. “We learned our lesson from [Moulton Meadows] that we can’t put it a neighborhood. It has to be accessible. Kids could take trolleys to get there.”

But for some residents, it doesn’t matter where in the city the park is placed.

“Laguna Beach is a small community and we don’t have the room like other communities to have all that we want,” resident Liza Stewart wrote in a recent letter to the Laguna Beach Independent newspaper. “We need to look outside the city limits to go to skate parks and the like.

“I was born and raised here in Laguna Beach and while being a teenager the nearest skate park was in Oceanside and we drove all that way just to skate, never thinking we needed one in Laguna Beach. Now there is a skate park in Laguna Hills and Costa Mesa, just in our backyard. Why do we need to be like these other communities?”

Dicterow said as long as it doesn’t attract skaters from outside the city, a skate park does belong in Laguna.

“The history of skateboarding goes through Laguna Beach,” the three-time Laguna mayor said. “It’s part of our heritage. “World champion [skateboarders] have come through here.”

Hall said the city is eager for a skate park which was demonstrated when the Laguna Beach Republicans held a meeting at the Boys & Girls Club last month that drew 75 people in support of a venue.

Hall and Shipp are still working on finding a name for the foundation and its website. At this point the city has $195,000 set aside for a skate park.