Skate park plan irks nearby homeowners

The Sylvania Joint Recreation District has plans to build a skate park at Veterans Memorial Field in North Sylvania. THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH Enlarge | Photo Reprints

Veterans Memorial Field in Sylvania has more noise from baseball games than it would from skateboarding, recreation board member Katie Cappellini says. THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH Enlarge | Photo Reprints

The possibility that the Sylvania Area Joint Recreation District might build a skateboarding park at Veterans' Memorial Field in north Sylvania has neighbors protesting that the site would be inappropriate.

"It would be very close to homes, including my own," Rick Barricklow, who lives on Woodrow Drive, told City Council during a recent meeting. "The residents are very concerned."

Opposition, he said, is focused on the clacking and scraping noises associated with skateboarding and that the facility would be unsupervised and in "a semisecluded area, which would likely invite problems."

"I don't know of anyone who is opposed to a skate park being constructed" in principle, Mr. Barricklow said. "But if it's built right next door, no one will want to live in those homes, and neither do we."

"There's a day-care center 25 feet away, and they weren't consulted," said Chris Roby, who also lives on Woodrow. "This park would be open from sunrise to sunset."

Ken Katafias, the recreation district's executive director, said that while the hope is "to do something late this year or early next," no decision has been made about where to put the skate park.

Equipment would be paid for with funds from a capital levy district voters approved two years ago, but the district would rather not have to buy land for the park, he said.

"We're looking at every alternative we have, and revisiting a few," Mr. Katafias said. "We've never rammed anything down anybody's throat. … We've been working on this for the better part of a year and a half."

Katie Cappellini, who represents City Council on the joint recreation district board, said the Veterans' Memorial Field site became a leading candidate because of its proximity to downtown Sylvania.

Downtown merchants prefer a site near downtown, Mrs. Cappellini said, because they hope such a skate park would lure skateboarders away from their properties.

Building at Pacesetter Park might be too far away from skateboarders' homes to accomplish that, she said.

"It'll be less noise than a baseball game," Mrs. Cappellini said, adding that if the neighbors also fear vandalism, that's "already a problem, even without skaters."

But Christine Diver, who lives nearby on Phillips Drive, said baseball noise only lasts for the duration of ballgames, whereas a skate park could be active all day long.

"I think it [a skate park] would invite more people to come to that area, and not necessarily Sylvania residents," Ms. Diver said. "That would mean more traffic on small residential streets. We live in a walking-distance neighborhood, and I don't think big crowds are desired there."

Mr. Katafias agreed that Pacesetter would be the easiest place to put the skate park, but noted as well that most skateboarding currently occurs in the center of town.

"But the ramps and rails they like to use are there," he said. "We don't know if a park at Pacesetter would divert them."