HUNTINGTON BEACH : Bids to Be Taken on Skateboard Area

The city is a major step closer to its goal of building a public skateboard area.

The City Council last week authorized the staff to solicit bids for construction of the proposed skateboard facility in Murdy Park, near the intersection of Golden West Street and Norma Drive. Construction is scheduled for this summer.

When completed, the paved outdoor arena will be the only public skateboard facility in Orange County.

“We hope to have construction started in July and completion in mid to late September,” said Ron Hagan, the city’s director of community services. “This one at Murdy Park is the first of three the city plans to build.”

The other two skateboard areas are scheduled to be built near Huntington Beach High School and at Edison Park. Hagan said the one near Huntington High will be built in 1993, and the facility at Edison Park will be constructed in 1994.

The City Council last year authorized the building of skateboard areas after weeks of agonizing over how to handle the city’s “skateboard problem.” The city, in response to complaints from businesses and schools, banned skateboarders from those areas. But public recreation officials said the city needed to do something to give the skateboarders a legal place for their activity. In response, the City Council approved city construction of public skateboard areas.

“The skateboard facility at Murdy Park will be triangular-shaped, and it will look like a park plaza,” Hagan said. “There will be benches around the facility, and it will have curbs just like the ones the skateboarders like to use around schools or post offices or shopping centers.”

Hagan said super-hardened concrete will be used for the skating area so that it can withstand the wear of skateboards.

“We’re hoping other cities in the county will see what we’re doing and become interested in helping their skateboarders,” Hagan said. “It’s a very popular activity. Here in Huntington Beach, we have more young people who ride skateboards than who participate in Little League.”

City officials estimate that Huntington Beach has 8,000 skateboarders between the ages of 12 and 20, “and when you have a special-interest group that large, it’s important that you provide places for their activity,” Hagan said.