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Taylor Park was in line to be the site of a skate park for teens. That's when nearby residents applied pressure.
By MICHAEL SANDLER, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 15, 2002
LARGO -- Hoping to make the city more appealing to teenagers, Largo officials set out this year to build a skate park.
The concept seemed noble, so Pinellas County agreed to donate land in Taylor Park.
With a joint effort under way, the plan appeared locked up and headed for approval.
Then came the neighbors.
One by one, residents near Taylor Park groused about the potential noise and nuisance they anticipated from the teenage hangout. They wrote letters, sent e-mails and made phone calls to both governments.
"Our park is fine as it is," wrote Lisa Jenkins in a letter to the St. Petersburg Times. "A skateboard park will limit use to teenagers and those who can tolerate a once peaceful place destroyed. This is heartbreaking."
The pressure worked. Officials decided this week to look elsewhere.
Park officials for both municipalities met this week and made the decision based on the letters, as well as an August survey that went to 300 homes. The park is owned by the county but is in Largo.
Together, they received 155 responses from the survey, and more than 50 percent said they opposed the park and 71 percent said that no one in their house would benefit from it.
Liz Warren, Pinellas County director of parks, said the most "spirited response" came from people who opposed keeping the park open past dusk -- 71.5 percent.
"When you look at a skate park, we would consider some limited lighting," she said. "That was a real change for some folks. . . . They did not want it open after dark."
Warren said the skate park would be a first for the county, but the fourth public-run facility in Pinellas. Dunedin, Gulfport and Indian Rocks all have built skate parts, she said.
That does not please John Bell, 70, who has lived 300 yards from Taylor Park for nearly 40 years. He wrote letters opposing the skate park, but said his chief concern was the injuries he feared teens would suffer.
Bell was happy to learn the plans were called off for his neighborhood, but hopes they reconsider the project altogether.
"I'm against the city building a skateboard park, any place," he said. "I don't think the county government or the city government should get itself involved with something with so many injuries."
Finding the money for a skate park has not been a problem. The city has set aside $344,000 in local sales tax revenue for construction of a park, which would include a bowl-shaped, concrete concourse, restrooms, parking and drainage facilities.
The real challenge has been finding a place where skateboarders can have freedom on the concrete without disturbing the peace of a residential neighborhood.
Cathy Santa, the city's recreation, parks and art director, has said the city would need about 2 acres, and that would cost between $400,000 and $500,000 to purchase.
So when the county came forward and offered to help, Santa saw an opportunity.
"I think they realize there is a recreation need for a skate park," Santa said. "If there is a way we would be able to partner, they have some interest. We all know land is the crucial factor."
Santa and Warren said they continue to search for a new location and have a few sites in mind.
But Taylor Park is officially off the list.
"In a way, I'm kind of glad," Mayor Bob Jackson said. "We don't have to force something in a neighborhood where we did not have support for it. But it still puts us at square one trying to find a place to put our skate park."
-- Michael Sandler can be reached at 445-4174 or sandler@sptimes.com.